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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.

— Charles Babbage Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)

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The whole of arithmetic now appeared within the grasp of mechanism.

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)

I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)

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?

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)

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.

The triumph of the industrial arts will advance the cause of civilization more rapidly than its warmest advocates could have hoped, and contribute to the permanent prosperity and strength of the country far more than the most splendid victories of successful war.

p. xii-xiii; Cited in: Samuel Smiles Industrial biography; iron-workers and tool-makers (1864)

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