Any suspicion of utility would have restricted his restless curiosity. In the end, utility resulted, but it was never a criterion to which his ceaseless experimentation could be subjected.
ABRAHAM FLEXNERWe feel strongly that the spirit characteristic of America at its noblest, above all the pursuit of higher learning, cannot admit of any conditions .
More Abraham Flexner Quotes
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No nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.
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As far as he cared, the question of utility was never raised.
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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
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Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education.
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He was absorbed in disentangling the riddles of the universe, at first chemical riddles, in later periods, physical riddles.
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Curiosity, which may or may not eventuate in something useful, is probably the most outstanding characteristic of modern thinking .
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A patient had a 50-50 chance of benefiting from visiting a physician as of 1910. Medicine was more like voodoo than science until the 20th Century.
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We feel strongly that the spirit characteristic of America at its noblest, above all the pursuit of higher learning, cannot admit of any conditions .
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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.
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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.
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Institutions of learning should be devoted to the cultivation of curiosity, and the less they are deflected by the consideration of immediacy of application
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The spearhead of progress. If they are fundamentally wrong, free discussion will in time put an end to them.
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Science, in the very act of solving problems, creates more of them.
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There are men who teach best by not teaching at all.
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We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER






