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Attributed quotes — Charles Babbage

1791–1871 England

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2 quotes

Propose to any 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.

Attributed Richard H. Babbage (1948)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Babbage (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.