Quote

The common idea that scientists reject a theory as soon as it leads to a contradiction is just not so. When they get something that works at all they plunge ahead with it and ignore its weak spots... scientists are just as bad as the rest of the public in following fads and being influenced by mass enthusiasm.

Vannevar Bush

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Vannevar Bush
Age: 84 †
Born: 1890
Born: March 11
Died: 1974
Died: June 28
Computer Scientist
Electrical Engineer
Engineer
Inventor
Politician
University Teacher
Everett
Massachusetts
Vanevar Bush
Something
Works
Enthusiasm
Plunge
Theory
Leads
Reject
Rest
Ahead
Influenced
Public
Scientist
Rejects
Common
Following
Contradiction
Idea
Soon
Ignore
Science
Weak
Scientists
Ideas
Mass
Spots
Fads

More quotes by Vannevar Bush

Image
Science can be effective in the national welfare only as a member of a team, whether the conditions be peace or war. But without scientific progress no amount of achievement in other directions can insure our health, prosperity, and security as a nation in the modern world.
Vannevar Bush
Image
Publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record.
Vannevar Bush
Image
Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects, working on subjects of their own choice, in the manner dictated by their curiosity for exploration of the unknown.
Vannevar Bush
Image
The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability, and something is bound to come of it.
Vannevar Bush
Image
I say, technically, I don't think anyone in the world knows how to do such a thing. and I feel confident it will not be done for a very long period to come. I think we can leave that out of our thinking. I wish the American public would leave that out of their thinking.
Vannevar Bush
Image
It was through the Second World War that most of us suddenlyappreciated for the first time the power of man's concentrated efforts to understand and control the forces of nature.We were appalled by what we saw.
Vannevar Bush
Image
Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility... It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission.
Vannevar Bush
Image
A belief may be larger than a fact. A faith that is overdefined is the very faith most likely to prove inadequate to the great moments of life.
Vannevar Bush
Image
To pursue science is not to disparage the things of the spirit. In fact, to pursue science rightly is to furnish the framework on which the spirit may rise.
Vannevar Bush
Image
The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships.
Vannevar Bush
Image
On the wisdom with which we bring science to bear in the war against disease, in the creation of new industries, and in the strengthening of our Armed Forces depends in large measure our future as a nation.
Vannevar Bush
Image
As long as scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems.
Vannevar Bush
Image
To pursue science is not to disparage things of the spirit.
Vannevar Bush
Image
Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.
Vannevar Bush
Image
Give these people money, let them play, and they'll come up with something.
Vannevar Bush
Image
A belief may be larger than a fact.
Vannevar Bush
Image
There will always be plenty of things to compute in the detailed affairs of millions of people doing complicated things.
Vannevar Bush
Image
Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems.
Vannevar Bush
Image
There has been a great deal said about a 3,00-mile high-angle rocket. The people who have been writing these things that annoy me, have been talking about a 3,000-mile high-angle rocket shot from one continent to another, carrying an atomic bomb and so directed as to be a precise weapon which would land exactly on a certain target, such as a city.
Vannevar Bush
Image
The scene changes but the aspirations of men of good will persist.
Vannevar Bush