Difference Engine Quotes

This one fact implies everything; and it is scarcely necessary to point out, for instance, that while the Difference Engine can merely tabulate, and is incapable of developing, the Analytical Engine can either tabulate or develope. ~ Ada Lovelace

The Difference Engine stands - for a replica works today, in the Science Museum in London - as a milestone of what could be achieved in precision engineering. In the composition of its alloys, the exactness of its dimensions, the interchangeability of its parts, nothing surpassed this segment of an unfinished machine. Still, it was a curio. And it was as far as Babbage could go. ~ James Gleick

Babbage's Three Laws of Difference Engines
First Law: A difference engine must have at least six cogs.
Second Law: A difference engine must be able to operate a loom.
Third law: A difference engine must be able to kill a man, should the mood so take it. ~ Gideon Defoe

Faith is about trust in something deeper. Maybe I have given you the wrong impression when I pray to the Saints, but it always allows peace of mind for me. I know they intercede before God, but I also know that God is listening, and just knowing this makes all the difference. ~ Olga Soaje

The difference between Pound and Whitman is not between the democrat who in deep distress could look hopefully toward the future and the fascist madly in love with the past. It is that between the woodsman and the woodcarver. It is that between the mystic harking back to his vision and the artist whose first allegiance is to his craft, and so to the reality it presents. ~ Babette Deutsch

The difference between egoistic hedonism and altruistic hedonism is but an adjective. ~ John Stack IV

I can't tell the difference between the best and the worst 'cause I realize not everybody wants to have sex in the middle of a demolition derby race in the car. ~ John Waters

National Permaculture Day is a chance to share thoughts, visions and lots of common sense ways that we can all make a positive difference to the world we live in. Its all about combining age old truths and skills with new and innovative thinking and technologies ... .people, plants and landscapes growing together, designing and nurturing a healthy community along the way. ~ Costa Georgiadis

i know i can't do much, but i can do a little and i'm going to do as much of that as i can.

but if we all do that--
we can make a big difference. ~ AVA.

For anyone inclined to caricature environmental history as 'environmental determinism,' the contrasting histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti provide a useful antidote. Yes, environmental problems do constrain human societies, but the societies' responses also make a difference. ~ Jared Diamond

What if the Cairo Conference of 1921 went ahead as planned, with Churchill and T.E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell dividing up the Middle East for the British? What if they chose a Hashemite king to rule Iraq, and would that have led to a revolution in the nineteen fifties? Or, what if the French war in Indochina somehow led to American involvement in Vietnam? Or if the British held on to their colonies in Africa after the Second World War? You see – " he was in full steam now, his eyes shining like the headlamps of a speeding engine – "the Vigilante series is full of this sort of thing. A series of simple decisions made in hotel rooms and offices that led to a completely different world. ~ Lavie Tidhar

One part of my brain, soaring on adrenaline, insisted I could take Cain, whatever the size difference. Another part wondered where the hell Nick and Clay were. The loudest part just shouted: Run, you idiot, run! ~ Kelley Armstrong

The difference between a hero and an also-ran is the guy who hangs on for one last gasp. ~ Paul Dietzel

If you consider that we cannot save them all, and what difference does one make, you ought to know the joy of the one who is saved. ~ Jim Willis

One thing that creates difference between pilgrims of life as they journey along the various paths of life is their head. It makes some fall, others rest and some pursue to the farther.
The reason for the difference is not the size, shape, hair color or the style of their head but what is within their head, what fills their mind, what enters their ears; what their eyes look and see, what their ears hear and listen to; make some champions of life and others wanders of life. ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

I was on some TV shows with Lady Gaga the other week, and you could see the difference in reaction between her fans and my fans outside. She comes out, and she looks like a star, and the reaction is just tears, crying, people going, 'Oh my God, Oh my God.' My fans are like: 'Alright, Ed.' ~ Ed Sheeran

Some paths, some doorways, some people were not to be yours, though the slightest difference in the rippling of time might have made it so. ~ Guy Gavriel Kay

Marriage and prostitution were two sides of one shield, the predatory man's exploitation of the sex-pleasure. The difference between them was a difference of class. If a woman had money she might dictate her own terms: equality, a life contract, and the legitimacy - that is, the property-rights - of her children. If she had no money, she was a proletarian, and sold herself for an existence. And ~ Upton Sinclair

He said the difference between the male and female modes of thought were easily illustrated by the thoughts of a boy and girl, sitting on a park bench, looking at the full moon. The boy thinks of the universe, its immensity and mystery; the girl thinks, "I must wash my hair." When I read this I was frantically upset; I had to put the magazine down. It was clear to me at once that I was not thinking as a girl thought; the full moon would never as long as I lived remind me to wash my hair. I knew if I showed it to my mother she would say, "Oh it is just that maddening male nonsense, women have no brains." That would not convince me; surely a New York psychiatrist must know. And women like my mother were in the minority, I could see that. Moreover I did not want to be like my mother, with her virginal brusqueness, her innocence. I wanted men to love me, and I wanted to think of the universe when I looked at the moon. I felt trapped, stranded; it seemed there had to be a choice where there couldn't be a choice. ~ Alice Munro

I'm getting tired of Nancy Drew," I told my mother. "The books are all the same." Once I'd become attuned to the pattern of each plot, it became glaringly obvious how alike they were.

Mom nodded sagely. "You've discovered the difference between good literature and trash. ~ Nancy McCabe

You are making a difference, whether you know it or not. So have no doubt about that. You did it again yesterday. The way you touched someone's life just yesterday made a difference. And you are always doing that, do you know that? Yes, yes…your smile, your encouraging word, your willingness to just be "present" with another, has touched people in more ways than you realize. I only tell you this today so that you never lose faith. Faith in how life is moving through you - and how you are moving through life. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

Does it really matter what you feel when you do something? Does it somehow make a difference if you're sorry when you go blasting your way over someone's life like a locomotive over a papier-mâché doll ~ Steven Brust

We cannot truly understand a person's pain or their suffering from an illness if we ourselves have not experienced it. We cannot know how they feel or what they are going through so we cannot base our happiness on the fact that we are healthy and someone else is sick, because we are not in a position to understand the specific burdens of the two opposite states of being. We can only recognize the difference between them and become aware that one state is more desirable than the other, but then we remain at the level of an ill-informed person groping in the dark without knowing how to turn on the light. ~ Stanka Gjurić

The difference between going where you are needed and going where you are called is purely based upon diligent prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit. ~ M.J. Stoddard

Then a sound came. It was like the grinding of gears on a colossal ship engine. The sound was like mountains of iron scraping and rubbing against each other, forced together by some godlike impulse. Uselessly, I covered my ears. It went on and on, and I felt as though I would never again know peace. My senses were consumed by the light and heat and sound, their power interrupted only by the tactile sensation of my heart pounding against my chest. It will be very difficult for you to really grasp what happened next. I warn you that my description will inevitably fall far from conveying the astonishing sight I witnessed. Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to convey some sense of what happened. ~ Alec Merta

Friendship admits of difference of character, as love does that of sex. ~ Philibert Joseph Roux

The difference is too nice - Where ends the virtue or begins the vice. ~ Alexander Pope

Think of it this way. The word "I" is the key that starts the engine of creation. The words "I am" are extremely powerful. They are statements to the universe. Commands. Now, whatever follows the word "I" (which calls forth the Great I Am) tends to manifest in physical reality. Therefore "I" + "want success" produces you wanting success. "I" + "want money" must produce you wanting money. It can produce no other thing, because thoughts, words are creative. Actions are, too. And if you act in a way which says that you want success and money, then your thoughts, words, and actions are in accord, and you are sure to have the experience of this wantingness. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

When we embark on the writing journey, it is an inevitable truth that we draw upon personal experiences in creating our characters. Our experiences shape us and shape how we see the world around us. From a creative perspective, personal experiences are a gold mine. How deep we are willing to go into our personal experience can mean the difference between a bland, cookie cutter archetype and a compelling character – either protagonist or antagonist. ~ Dean Mayes

It is hard to explain to a privileged child the difference between freedom and captivity. For him, the world functions differently, all rains bear fruits and all men are free. He catches a golden bird and puts it inside a gold cage. He watches it grow, captivated, unaware that with its beautiful body comes a pair of wings that can set it free. ~ Kanza Javed

The difference between a person who appreciates books, even loves them, and a collector is not only degrees of affection, I realized. For the former, the bookshelf is a kind of memoir; there are my childhood books, my college books, my favorite novels, my inexplicable choices. Many matchmaking and social networking websites offer a place for members to list what they're reading for just this reason: books can reveal a lot about a person. This is particularly true of the collector, for whom the bookshelf is a reflection not just of what he has read but profoundly of who he is: 'Ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects. Not that they can come alive in him; it is he who comes alive in them,' wrote cultural critic Walter Benjamin. ~ Allison Hoover Bartlett

A real woman understands that man was created to be the initiator, and she operates on that premise. This is primarily a matter of attitude. I am convinced that the woman who understands and accepts with gladness the difference between masculine and feminine will be, without pretense or self-consciousness, womanly. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Neil should let it go, but he needed to understand. "Why not?" "Because you're too stupid to tell me no," Andrew said. "And you don't want me to tell you yes?" "This isn't yes. This is a nervous breakdown. I know the difference even if you don't." Andrew dug his thumb into his lower lip like he could erase the weight of Neil's mouth and fixed his stare on the horizon. "I won't be like them. I won't let you let me be." Neil opened his mouth, closed it, and tried again. "The next time one of them says you're soulless I might have to fight them." "Ninety-two percent," Andrew said, "going on ninety-three." It ~ Nora Sakavic

There's a monumental difference in believing in God and believing God. ~ Andy Stanley

Thales said there was no difference between life and death. Why, then, said some one to him, do not you die? Because, said he, it does make no difference. ~ Diogenes Laertius

Academic writing you have to get right. Fiction you have to get plausible. And there's a world of difference. ~ Elliott Colla

When we can no longer see the different gradations among sins and sinners and sinful nations, we have not succeeded in respecting our own badness; we've cheapened God's goodness. If our own legal system does not treat all infractions in the same way, surely God knows that some sins are more heinous than others. If we can spot the difference, we'll be especially eager to put to death those sins which are most offensive to God. ~ Kevin DeYoung

Any man with money to make the purchase may become a dog's owner. But no man
spend he ever so much coin and food and tact in the effort
may become a dog's Master without consent of the dog. Do you get the difference? And he whom a dog once unreservedly accepts as Master is forever that dog's God. ~ Albert Payson Terhune

If you look at the scientists who really make a difference, they think boldly. They're not afraid to question what they see. ~ Taylor Wilson

The difference between homicide and suicide is mostly a matter of where you perceive the door top to the cage to be. ~ David Foster Wallace

For many people, I was a phase, a part of the period of growing up. People ask me why I connected. It was presumptuous of me to say, but I'm Everyman. The difference is I put my thoughts into words. ~ Rod McKuen

What's the difference between male and female passion? If love is a drug, what are its side effects? Rhye makes chill-out music, but it never quite lets your mind switch off. ~ Will Hermes

I actually think that the most efficacious way of making a difference is to lead by example, and doing random acts of kindness is setting a very good example of how to behave in the world. ~ Misha Collins

Another difference between amateur and professional writers, almost by definition, is that the latter more successfully engage their audience. It is partly a question of skill, but more often a matter of goals. Amateur writers tend to write primarily for self-expression, whereas writers able to become professional can hide or transform their own agendas enough so that they are of interest to others. Is this position the same as Freud's famous dictum that artists take unacceptable drives and present them in an acceptable way? ~ Alice W. Flaherty