I find no flaw in your reasoning about the Analytical Engine; I admire it; but you are aware that it rests entirely on the hypothesis that I care for… - Allan G Bromley

Our attraction to that quality which we have come to call 'beauty', and which we associate with the detection of innate unity and harmony in the face of superficial diversity, has led us to expect that the unity of the Universe should be expressed in certain particular ways. If we are physicists we might often hear talk of the 'beauty' or 'elegance' of particular ideas or theories to such an extent that, like Dirac, *we make aesthetic quality a guide or even a prerequisite for the formulation of correct mathematical theories of nature.

One of the most singular characteristics of the art of deciphering is the strong conviction possessed by every person, even moderately acquainted with it, that he is able to construct a cipher which nobody else can decipher. I have also observed that the cleverer the person, the more intimate is his conviction.

On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.