Abraham Flexner > Quotes

“Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.”
― Abraham Flexner

“The new naval treaty permits the United States to spend a billion dollars on warships—a sum greater than has been accumulated by all our endowed institutions of learning in their entire history. Unintelligence could go no further! ... [In Great Britain, the situation is similar.] ... Until the figures are reversed, ... nations deceive themselves as to what they care about most.”
― Abraham Flexner, Universities

“[...] throughout the whole history of science most of the really great discoveries which had ultimately proved to be beneficial to mankind had been made by men and women who were driven not by the desire to be useful but merely teh desire to satisfy their curiosity”
― Abraham Flexner, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

“Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.”
― Abraham Flexner

“Así, es obvio que uno debe ser cauto al atribuir la totalidad de un descubrimiento científico a una sola persona. Casi todos los descubrimientos tienen detrás una larga y azarosa historia. Alguien encuentra una pieza aquí, otro una pieza allá. Más adelante sigue un tercer paso y así sucesivamente hasta que un genio reúne todas las piezas y realiza la contribución decisiva. La ciencia, como el río Misisipi, es al principio un minúsculo riachuelo en un bosque lejano. Otras corrientes engrosan gradualmente su caudal. El río estruendoso que revienta los diques se forma a partir de innumerables fuentes.”
― Abraham Flexner, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

“However, our current research climate, governed by imperfect “metrics” and policies, obstructs this prudent approach. Driven by an ever-deepening lack of funding, against a background of economic uncertainty, global political turmoil, and ever-shortening time cycles, research criteria are becoming dangerously skewed toward conservative short-term goals that may address more immediate problems but miss out on the huge advances that human imagination can bring in the long term.”
― Abraham Flexner, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
― Abraham Flexner, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

“The real enemy of the human race is not the fearless and irresponsability thinker, be the right or wrong. The real enemy is the man who tries to mold the human spirit so that it will not dare to spread its wings.”
― Abraham Flexner, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

“Curiosity, which may or may not eventuate in something useful, is probably the outstanding characteristic of modern thinking, It is not new. It goes back to Galileo, Bacon and Sir Isaac Newton, and it must be absolutely unhampered,”
― Abraham Flexner, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

“De vez en cuando un individuo irreflexivo en alguna de las pocas democracias que restan en el mundo pretende incluso cuestionar la importancia fundamental de que la libertad académica se mantenga absolutamente irrestricta. El enemigo real del género humano no es el pensador audaz e irresponsable, tenga razón o no. El enemigo real es quien trata de moldear el espíritu humano de manera que no se atreva a desplegar sus alas como estas se desplegaron en otro tiempo”
― Abraham Flexner, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

“Las consideraciones a las que he aludido hacen hincapié-si ello era necesario-en la abrumadora importancia de la libertad espiritual e intelectual. He hablado de ciencia experimental; he hablado de matemáticas; pero lo que afirmo es igualmente cierto con respecto a la música, el arte y cualquier otra expresión del ilimitado espíritu humano. Ninguna de estas actividades necesita otra justificación que el simple hecho de que sean satisfactorias para el alma individual que persigue una vida más pura y elevada. Y al justificarlas sin referencia alguna, implícita o explícita, a la utilidad justificamos las escuelas, las universidades y los institutos de investigación.”
― Abraham Flexner, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

“We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent or self-satisfied; they are, if sound, the spearhead of progress. If they are fundamentally wrong, free discussion will in time put an end to them.”
― Abraham Flexner