Quotessence
Home / Authors / Charles Babbage Biography
Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage Biography

Mathematician

Related Quotes

“[In response to Alfred Tennyson's poem "Vision of Sin," which included the line "Every moment dies a man, every moment one is born."] If this were true, the population of the world would be at a stand-still. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of death. I would suggest that the next edition of your poem should read: "Every moment dies a man, every moment 1 [and] 1/16 is born." Strictly speaking, the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 [and] 1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry.”

IfsMenWorldShouldBelieveLongStillsMomentsWould BeDiesNextI BelieveBornLinesSinVisionFiguresBirthResponseRatePopulationExcessAccurateTennyson
Author:Charles Babbage
Create image

“The successful construction of all machinery depends on the perfection of the tools employed; and whoever is a master in the arts of tool-making possesses the key to the construction of all machines... The contrivance and construction of tools must therefore ever stand at the head of the industrial arts.”

ArtSuccessfulMastersKeysDependsToolsPerfectionMachinesConstructionEmployedMachinery
Book:Charles Babbage on the Principles and Development of the Calculator: And Other Seminal Writings
Create image

“The Church has been reproached with endeavouring to appropriate to itself all those professorships in our Universities which are connected with science: it is however certain that the larger portion of these ill-remunerated offices have been filled by clergymen.”

Has BeensCertainChurchOfficeFilledUniversityIllConnectedAppropriatePortionsClergymenProfessorship
Book:The Exposition of 1851, Or, Views of the Industry, the Science, and the Government, of England
Create image

“The true value of the Christian religion rests, not upon speculative views of the Creator, which must necessarily be different in each individual, according to the extent of the knowledge of the finite being, who employs his own feeble powers in contemplating the infinite: but it rests upon those doctrines of kindness and benevolence which that religion claims and enforces, not merely in favour of man himself but of every creature susceptible of pain or of happiness.”

MenDifferentChristianPainValuesIndividualViewsKindnessCreaturesClaimsInfiniteCreatorDoctrineContemplatingFavourFiniteBenevolenceSusceptibleTrue Value
Author:Charles Babbage
Create image

“There is nothing in the nature of a miracle that should render it incredible:;: its credibility depends upon the nature of the evidence by which it is supported. An event of extreme probability will not necessarily command our belief unless upon a sufficiency of proof; and so an event which we may regard as highly improbable may command our belief if it is sustained by sufficient evidence. So that the credibility or incredibility of an event does not rest upon the nature of the event itself, but depends upon the nature and sufficiency of the proof which sustains it.”

IfsShouldMayDoeBeliefEventsDependsEvidenceMiracleRegardIncrediblesExtremesProofCommandSufficientProbabilityCredibilityImprobableSufficiency
Book:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
Create image

“In mathematical science, more than in all others, it happens that truths which are at one period the most abstract, and apparently the most remote from all useful application, become in the next age the bases of profound physical inquiries, and in the succeeding one, perhaps, by proper simplification and reduction to tables, furnish their ready and daily aid to the artist and the sailor.”

HappensAgeArtistNextReadyPeriodsSucceedBasesTablesProfoundAidsMathematicalAbstractApplicationInquirySailorReductionSimplification
Book:Reflections on the decline of science in England and on some of its causes: with a new appendix of correspondence by Charles Babbage & Peter M. Roget from the Philosophical magazine
Create image

“On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”

IfsKindHas BeensTwoIdeasAbleAnswersFiguresPrayingComputerProgramMachinesIntelligenceConfusionOccasionsMathematicalProgrammingProvokingAccuracyComputer ProgrammingComputer ScienceProgramming LanguagesComputingRight AnswersComputer Systems
Author:Charles Babbage
Create image

“A powerful attraction exists, therefore, to the promotion of a study and of duties of all others engrossing the time most completely, and which is less benefited than most others by any acquaintance with science.”

PowerfulStudyDutyAttractionPromotionAcquaintance
Book:Reflections on the Decline of Science in England: And on Some of Its Causes, by Charles Babbage (1830). To which is Added On the Alleged Decline of Science in England, by a Foreigner (Gerard Moll) with a Foreword by Michael Faraday (1831).
Create image

“In mathematics we have long since drawn the rein, and given over a hopeless race.”

LongGivenRaceMathematicsHopelessReins
Book:Reflections on the Decline of Science in England: And on Some of Its Causes, by Charles Babbage (1830). To which is Added On the Alleged Decline of Science in England, by a Foreigner (Gerard Moll) with a Foreword by Michael Faraday (1831).
Create image

“Surely, if knowledge is valuable, it can never be good policy in a country far wealthier than Tuscany, to allow a genius like Mr. Dalton's, to be employed in the drudgery of elementary instruction.”

IfsCountryPolicyGeniusValuableBe GoodInstructionEmployedDrudgeryTuscany
Book:Reflections on the decline of science in England and on some of its causes: with a new appendix of correspondence by Charles Babbage & Peter M. Roget from the Philosophical magazine
Create image

“An object is frequently not seen, from not knowing how to see it, rather than from any defect of the organ of vision.”

VisionKnowingObjectsOrgansNot KnowingDefects
Book:Reflections on the Decline of Science in England: And on Some of Its Causes, by Charles Babbage (1830). To which is Added On the Alleged Decline of Science in England, by a Foreigner (Gerard Moll) with a Foreword by Michael Faraday (1831).
Create image

“Science in England is not a profession: its cultivators are scarcely recognised even as a class. Our language itself contains no single term by which their occupation can be expressed. We borrow a foreign word [Savant] from another country whose high ambition it is to advance science, and whose deeper policy, in accord with more generous feelings, gives to the intellectual labourer reward and honour, in return for services which crown the nation with imperishable renown, and ultimately enrich the human race.”

GivingHumansCountryFeelingsScienceLanguageNationsTermRaceClassPolicyReturnAmbitionIntellectualEnglandRewardsDeeperProfessionHuman RaceGenerousOccupationHonourCrownsAccordRenownLabourersSavantsHigh Ambition
Book:The Exposition of 1851; or, Views of the industry, the science, and the government of England
Create image

“Forging differs from hoaxing, inasmuch as in the later the deceit is intended to last for a time, and then be discovered, to the ridicule of those who have credited it; whereas the forger is one who, wishing to acquire a reputation for science, records observations which he has never made.”

MadeLastsScienceWishRecordsReputationObservationAcquireDeceitManipulationRidiculeForging
Book:Reflections on the Decline of Science in England: And on Some of Its Causes, by Charles Babbage (1830). To which is Added On the Alleged Decline of Science in England, by a Foreigner (Gerard Moll) with a Foreword by Michael Faraday (1831).
Create image

“Of Cooking. This is an art of various forms, the object of which is to give ordinary observations the appearance and character of those of the highest degree of accuracy. One of its numerous processes is to make multitudes of observations, and out of these to select only those which agree, or very nearly agree. If a hundred observations are made, the cook must be very unhappy if he cannot pick out fifteen or twenty which will do for serving up.”

IfsGivingArtMadeCharacterFormScienceProcessObjectsDegreesHighestOrdinaryPicksHundredTwentiesAgreeCookingVariousAppearanceUnhappyObservationCooksServingFifteenMultitudesSelectAccuracy
Book:Science and Reform: Selected Works of Charles Babbage
Create image

“Remember that accumulated knowledge, like accumulated capital, increases at compound interest: but it differs from the accumulation of capital in this; that the increase of knowledge produces a more rapid rate of progress, whilst the accumulation of capital leads to a lower rate of interest. Capital thus checks it own accumulation: knowledge thus accelerates its own advance. Each generation, therefore, to deserve comparison with its predecessor, is bound to add much more largely to the common stock than that which it immediately succeeds.”

KnowsRememberScienceInterestCommonKnowledgeProgressGenerationsProduceSucceedDeserveIncreaseAddRateBoundsChecksComparisonRapidsAccumulationCompoundsPredecessorsAccelerateCompound Interest
Author:Charles Babbage
Create image

“That science has long been neglected and declining in England, is not an opinion originating with me, but is shared by many, and has been expressed by higher authority than mine.”

LongHas BeensScienceOpinionMinesHigherAuthorityEnglandNeglected
Book:Reflections on the Decline of Science in England: And on Some of Its Causes, by Charles Babbage (1830). To which is Added On the Alleged Decline of Science in England, by a Foreigner (Gerard Moll) with a Foreword by Michael Faraday (1831).
Create image

“It can happen to but few philosophers, and but at distant intervals, to snatch a science, like Dalton, from the chaos of indefinite combination, and binding it in the chains of number, to exalt it to rank amongst the exact. Triumphs like these are necessarily 'few and far between.'”

HappensScienceNumbersDiscoveryChaosPhilosopherChainsCombinationTriumphMeasurementIntervalsBinding
Book:Reflections on the Decline of Science in England: And on Some of Its Causes
Create image