This is not a direct answer to the question, but more context, and thus it may be useful for others.
To me, Deleuze is either a genius or a madman. His works seem as some form of nonsensical free-verse poetry littered with alliteration and assonance, yet there may be something meaningful within that is encrypted therein, requiring more than intelligence to open but also a keen eye for puzzle solving and lots of patience.
Here is the full quote in context. I added footnotes for the principles he mentions.
Chapter V
Asymmetric Synthesis of the Sensible
Difference is not diversity. Diversity is given, but difference is
that by which the given is given, that by which the given is given as
diverse. Difference is not phenomenon but the noumenon closest to the
phenomenon. It is therefore true that God makes the world by
calculating, but his calculations never work out exactly [juste], and
this inexactitude or injustice in the result, this irreducible
inequality, forms the condition of the world. The world 'happens'
while God calculates; if the calculation were exact, there would be no
world. The world can be regarded as a 'remainder', and the real in the
world understood in terms of fractional or even incommensurable
numbers. Every phenomenon refers to an inequality by which it is
conditioned. Every diversity and every change refers to a difference
which is its sufficient reason. Everything which happens and
everything which appears is correlated with orders of differences:
differences of level, temperature, pressure, tension, potential,
difference of intensity. Carnot's principle[1] says this in
one fashion, Curie's principle[2] in another. There are
locks everywhere. Every phenomenon flashes in a signal-sign system. In
so far as a system is constituted or bounded by at least two
heterogeneous series, two disparate orders capable of entering into
communication, we call it a signal. The phenomenon that flashes across
this system, bringing about the communication between disparate
series, is a sign. "The emerald hides in its facets a bright-eyed
water-sprite . . .": every phenomenon is of the "bright-eyed
water-sprite" type, made possible by an emerald. Every phenomenon is
composite because not only are the two series which bound it
heterogeneous but each is itself composed of heterogeneous terms,
subtended by heterogeneous series which form so many sub-phenomena.
The expression ‘difference of intensity’ is a tautology. Intensity is
the form of difference in so far as this is the reason of the
[object]. Every intensity is differential, by itself a difference.
Every intensity is E – E’, where E itself refers to an e – e’, and e
to ε – ε’ etc.: each intensity is already a coupling (in which each
element of the couple refers in turn to couples of elements of another
order), thereby revealing the properly qualitative content of
quantity. We call this state of infinitely doubled difference which
resonates to infinity disparity. Disparity—in other words, difference
or intensity (difference of intensity)—is the sufficient reason of all
phenomena, the condition of that which appears.
[1] Carnot's theorem, developed in 1824 by Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, also called Carnot's rule, is a principle that specifies limits on the maximum efficiency any heat engine can obtain, which thus solely depends on the difference between the hot and cold temperature reservoirs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot%27s_theorem_%28thermodynamics%29
[2] The Curie symmetry principle (Curie, 1894) is the causality relation between the symmetry of the cause and that of the effect. The principle is composed of three parts:
- If certain causes yield the known effects, the symmetry elements of the causes should be contained in the generated effects.
- If the known effects manifest certain dissymmetry (absence of symmetry elements), this latter should be contained in the causes which have generated those effects.
- The converse to these two previous propositions is not true, at least in practical: i.e., the effects may have higher symmetry than the causes which generate these effects.
Curie's principle expressed in other words: a crystal under an external influence will exhibit only those symmetry elements that are common to the crystal without the influence and the influence without the crystal.
http://www.mi.sanu.ac.rs/vismath/visbook/sydchiba/
http://www.mx.iucr.org/iucr-top/comm/cteach/pamphlets/18/node8.html