Quote

Miracles may be, for anything we know to the contrary, phenomena of a higher order of God's laws, superior to, and, under certain conditions, controlling the inferior order known to us as the ordinary laws of nature.

Charles Babbage

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Charles Babbage
Age: 79 †
Born: 1791
Born: December 26
Died: 1871
Died: October 18
Astronomer
Computer Scientist
Economist
Engineer
Inventor
Mathematician
Philosopher
University Teacher
London
England
Certain
Laws
Inferior
Anything
Ordinary
Inferiors
May
Conditions
Phenomena
Higher
Miracles
Law
Superior
Known
Superiors
Order
Contrary
Nature
Miracle
Controlling

More quotes by Charles Babbage

Image
There are few circumstances which so strongly distinguish the philosopher, as the calmness with which he can reply to criticisms he may think undeservedly severe.
Charles Babbage
Image
An object is frequently not seen, from not knowing how to see it, rather than from any defect of the organ of vision.
Charles Babbage
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.
Charles Babbage
Image
I have no desire to write my own biography, as long as I have strength and means to do better work.
Charles Babbage
Image
Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.
Charles Babbage
Image
The accumulation of skill and science which has been directed to diminish the difficulty of producing manufactured goods, has not been beneficial to that country alone in which it is concentrated distant kingdoms have participated in its advantages.
Charles Babbage
Image
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
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.'
Charles Babbage
Image
In turning from the smaller instruments in frequent use to the larger and more important machines, the economy arising from the increase of velocity becomes more striking.
Charles Babbage
Image
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
Image
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
Image
At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new tool, human labour becomes abridged.
Charles Babbage
Image
The Council of the Royal Society is a collection of men who elect each other to office and then dine together at the expense of this society to praise each other over wine and give each other medals.
Charles Babbage
Image
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
Image
I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam.
Charles Babbage
Image
Another mode of accumulating power arises from lifting a weight and then allowing it to fall.
Charles Babbage
Image
Mechanical Notation ... I look upon it as one of the most important additions I have made to human knowledge. It has placed the construction of machinery in the rank of a demonstrative science. The day will arrive when no school of mechanical drawing will be thought complete without teaching it.
Charles Babbage
Image
Some kinds of nails, such as those used for defending the soles of coarse shoes, called hobnails, require a particular form of the head, which is made by the stroke of a die.
Charles Babbage
Image
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
Image
A tool is usually more simple than a machine it is generally used with the hand, whilst a machine is frequently moved by animal or steam power.
Charles Babbage