In mathematical science, more ...

In mathematical science, more than in all others, it happens that truths which are at one period the most abstract, and apparently the most remote from all useful application, become in the next age the bases of profound physical inquiries, and in the succeeding one, perhaps, by proper simplification and reduction to tables, furnish their ready and daily aid to the artist and the sailor.
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 Charles Babbage

Quotes from the same author

In England, the profession of the law is that which seems to hold out the strongest attraction to talent, from the circumstance, that in it ability, coupled with exertion, even though unaided by patronage, cannot fail of obtaining reward.
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 Charles Babbage
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.
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 Charles Babbage
On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
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 Charles Babbage
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.
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 Charles Babbage
It is difficult to estimate the misery inflicted upon thousands of persons, and the absolute pecuniary penalty imposed upon multitudes of intellectual workers by the loss of their time, destroyed by organ-grinders and other similar nuisances.
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 Charles Babbage