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 BabbageThe quantity of meaning compressed into small space by algebraic signs, is another circumstance that facilitates the reasonings we are accustomed to carry on by their aid.
Charles BabbageWhat is there in a name? It is merely an empty basket, until you put something into it.
Charles BabbageThe 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 BabbageWhenever a man can get hold of numbers, they are invaluable: if correct, they assist in informing his own mind, but they are still more useful in deluding the minds of others. Numbers are the masters of the weak, but the slaves of the strong.
Charles Babbage