Charles Babbage Quotes About Science

Quotes about: Science

• What is there in a name? It is merely an empty basket, until you put something into it.

  Charles Babbage

  Science, Names, Empty

  Charles Babbage (1864). “Passages from the Life of a Philosopher”, p.1, London : Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green

• The whole of the developments and operations of analysis are now capable of being executed by machinery ... As soon as an Analytical Engine exists, it will necessarily guide the future course of science.

  Charles Babbage

  Science, Analysis, Development

• 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.

  Charles Babbage

  Country, Ambition, Science

  Charles Babbage (1851). “The Exposition of 1851; or, Views of the industry, the science, and the government of England”, p.189

• I have no desire to write my own biography, as long as I have strength and means to do better work.

  Charles Babbage

  Writing, Ambition, Mean

  Charles Babbage (2013). “On the Principles and Development of the Calculator and Other Seminal Writings”, p.5, Courier Corporation

• 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.

  Charles Babbage

  Science, Wish, Deceit

  Charles Babbage (1830). “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).”, p.177

• 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.

  Charles Babbage

  Art, Character, Science

  Charles Babbage, Anthony Hyman (1989). “Science and Reform: Selected Works of Charles Babbage”, p.124, Cambridge University Press

• You will be able to appreciate the influence of such an Engine on the future progress of science. I live in a country which is incapable of estimating it.

  Charles Babbage

  Country, Appreciation, Science

  "Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer". Book by Anthony Hyman, 1982.

• Long intervals frequently elapse between the discovery of new principles in science and their practical application... Those intellectual qualifications, which give birth to new principles or to new methods, are of quite a different order from those which are necessary for their practical application.

  Charles Babbage

  Creativity, Science, Discovery

  Charles Babbage (1830). “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).”, p.17

• He will also find that the high and independent spirit, which usually dwells in the breast of those who are deeply versed in scientific pursuits, is ill adapted for administrative appointments; and that even if successful, he must hear many things he disapproves, and raise no voice against them.

  Charles Babbage

  Independent, Successful, Science

• The errors which arise from the absence of facts are far more numerous and more durable than those which result from unsound reasoning respecting true data.

  Charles Babbage

  Science, Errors, Data

  Charles Babbage (1832). “On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures ... Second edition enlarged”, p.156

• A young man passes from our public schools to the universities, ignorant almost of the elements of every branch of useful knowledge.

  Charles Babbage

  Education, School, Science

  Charles Babbage, Anthony Hyman (1989). “Science and Reform: Selected Works of Charles Babbage”, p.116, Cambridge University Press

• The tastes and pursuits of manhood will bear on them the traces of the earlier impressions of our education. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that some portion of the neglect of science in England, may be attributed to the system of education we pursue.

  Charles Babbage

  Education, Science, May

  Charles Babbage, Anthony Hyman (1989). “Science and Reform: Selected Works of Charles Babbage”, p.116, Cambridge University Press

• For one person who is blessed with the power of invention, many will always be found who have the capacity of applying principles.

  Charles Babbage

  Blessed, Science, Principles

  Charles Babbage (1830). “Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes”, p.18

• Precedents are treated by powerful minds as fetters with which to bind down the weak, as reasons with which to mistify the moderately informed, and as reeds which they themselves fearlessly break through whenever new combinations and difficult emergencies demand their highest efforts.

  Charles Babbage

  Powerful, Science, Break Through

  Charles Babbage, Anthony Hyman (1989). “Science and Reform: Selected Works of Charles Babbage”, p.202, Cambridge University Press

• The influence of electricity in producing decompositions, although of inestimable value as an instrument of discovery in chemical inquiries, can hardly be said to have been applied to the practical purposes of life, until the same powerful genius [Davy] which detected the principle, applied it, by a singular felicity of reasoning, to arrest the corrosion of the copper-sheathing of vessels. ... this was regarded as by Laplace as the greatest of Sir Humphry's discoveries.

  Charles Babbage

  Powerful, Science, Discovery

• That a country, [England], eminently distinguished for its mechanical and manufacturing ingenuity, should be indifferent to the progress of inquiries which form the highest departments of that knowledge on whose more elementary truths its wealth and rank depend, is a fact which is well deserving the attention of those who shall inquire into the causes that influence the progress of nations.

  Charles Babbage

  Education, Country, Science

  Charles Babbage (1830). “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).”, p.1

• Unless there exist peculiar institutions for the support of such inquirers, or unless the Government directly interfere, the contriver of a thaumatrope may derive profit from his ingenuity, whilst he who unravels the laws of light and vision, on which multitudes of phenomena depend, shall descend unrewarded to the tomb.

  Charles Babbage

  Science, Light, Government

  Charles Babbage (1830). “Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes”, p.19

• 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.

  Charles Babbage

  Knowledge, Science, Progress

  "The Exposition of 1851; or, Views of the industry, the science, and the government of England".

• 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.

  Charles Babbage

  Science, Long, England

  Charles Babbage (1830). “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).”, p.5

• 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.'

  Charles Babbage

  Science, Discovery, Numbers

  Charles Babbage (1970). “Reflections on the Decline of Science in England: And on Some of Its Causes”, Augustus m Kelley Pubs

• The first steps in the path of discovery, and the first approximate measures, are those which add most to the existing knowledge of mankind.

  Charles Babbage

  Science, Discovery, Add

  Charles Babbage, Anthony Hyman (1989). “Science and Reform: Selected Works of Charles Babbage”, p.119, Cambridge University Press

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