Charles Babbage Quotations

Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English mathematician, analytical philosopher and the first computer scientist who originated the idea of a programmable computer.

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• 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. A young man passes from our public schools to the universities, ignorant of almost every branch of useful knowledge; and at these latter establishments … classical and mathematical pursuits are nearly the sole objects proposed to the student's ambition.
  • Charles Babbage (1830). Reflections on the decline of science in England, and on some of its causes. B. Fellowes, London. p. 3.

• If we look at the fact, we shall find that the great inventions of the age are not, with us at least, always produced in universities.
  • Charles Babbage (1830). Reflections on the decline of science in England, and on some of its causes. B. Fellowes, London. p. 21.

• Mr. Herschel … brought with him the calculations of the computers, and we commenced the tedious process of verification. After a time many discrepancies occurred, and at one point these discordances were so numerous that I exclaimed, "I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam," to which Herschel replied, "It is quite possible."
  • Babbage (November 1839) recalling events in 1821; quoted in Harry Wilmot Buxton and Anthony Hyman (1988), Memoir of the Life and Labours of the Late Charles Babbage. "Computers" here refers to people calculating by hand.

• On two occasions I have been asked,—"Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
  • Babbage (1864), Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, ch. 5 "Difference Engine No. 1"

• The whole of arithmetic now appeared within the grasp of mechanism.
  • Babbage (1864) Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, ch. 8 "Of the Analytical Engine"

• As soon as an Analytical Engine exists, it will necessarily guide the future course of the science. Whenever any result is sought by its aid, the question will then arise — by what course of calculation can these results be arrived at by the machine in the shortest time?
  • Babbage (1864) Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, ch. 8 "Of the Analytical Engine"

Attributed

• Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.
  • Quoted in William Kenneth Richmond (1969), The Education Industry

• Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple. Impart the same principle or show the same machine to an American or to one of our Colonists, and you will observe that the whole effort of his mind is to find some new application of the principle, some new use for the instrument.
  • Quoted in Richard H. Babbage (1948), "The Work of Charles Babbage", Annals of the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University, vol. 16

• Every moment dies a man, Every moment 1 ¹/₁₆ is born.
  • Parody of Alfred Tennyson, Vision of Sin
  • New Scientist, 4 December 1958, p.1428.

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