Institutions of learning should be devoted to the cultivation of curiosity, and the less they are deflected by the consideration of immediacy of application
ABRAHAM FLEXNERThere are men who teach best by not teaching at all.
More Abraham Flexner Quotes
-
-
He was absorbed in disentangling the riddles of the universe, at first chemical riddles, in later periods, physical riddles.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
Which may indeed be said to have become the ruling passion of intellectual life in modern times.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
As far as he cared, the question of utility was never raised.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
No nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
Mathematicians, like cows in the dark, all look alike to me.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
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 FLEXNER -
At no period of [Michael Faraday’s] unmatched career was he interested in utility.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
The student is to collect and evaluate facts. The facts are locked up in the patient.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
The spearhead of progress. If they are fundamentally wrong, free discussion will in time put an end to them.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
Curiosity, which may or may not eventuate in something useful, is probably the most outstanding characteristic of modern thinking .
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
The world in which we live is the only world about which our senses can testify.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER -
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 -
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.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER