At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new tool, human labour becomes abridged.

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

Scientific knowledge scarcely exists amongst the higher classes of society. The discussion in the Houses of Lords or of Commons, which arise on the occurrence of any subjects connected with science, sufficiently prove this fact.

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.

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.

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

Whenever the work is itself light, it becomes necessary, in order to economize time, to increase the velocity.