Vannevar Bush famous quotes

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

#Men #Simple #Privilege

Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Courage #Fear #Panic

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

#May #Facts #Spirit

Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility. Nearly all men of science, all men of learning for that matter, and men of simple ways too, have it in some form and in some degree. It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission. If we abandon that mission under stress we shall abandon it forever, for stress will not cease. Knowledge for the sake of understanding, not merely to prevail, that is the essence of our being. None can define its limits, or set its ultimate boundaries.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Stress #Knowledge #Simple

Putting a man in space is a stunt: the man can do no more than an instrument, in fact can do less. There are far more serious things to do than indulge in stunts. . . . I do not discard completely the value of demonstrating to the world our skills. Nor do I undervalue the effect on morale of the spectacular. But the present hullabaloo on the propaganda aspects of the program leaves me entirely cool.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Moon #Men #Skills

Science can give mankind a better standard of living, better health and a better mental life, if mankind in turn gives science the sympathy and support so essential to its progress.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Science #Giving #Support

Associative indexing, the basic idea of which is a provision whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another. This is the essential feature of the Memex. The process of tying two items together is the important thing.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Ideas #Two #Together

If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world
-- Vannevar Bush

#Understanding #World #Logical

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

#War #Disease #Bears

The camera hound of the future wears on his forehead a lump a little larger than a walnut.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Littles #Cameras #Walnuts

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

#Running #Made #Trails

The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, [but] 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

#Mean #Squares #Important

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

#Power #Past #Men

To pursue science is not to disparage things of the spirit.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Spirit #Pursue

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

#War #Men #Effort

Knowledge for the sake of understanding, not merely to prevail, that isthe essence of ourbeing.None candefine its limits, or set its ultimate boundaries.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Essence #Understanding #Sake

The scene changes but the aspirations of men of good will persist.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Men #Scene #Aspiration

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

#War #Team #Achievement

The responsibility for the creation of new scientific knowledge - and for most of its application - rests on that small body of men and women who understand the fundamental laws of nature and are skilled in the techniques of scientific research. We shall have rapid or slow advance on any scientific frontier depending on the number of highly qualified and trained scientists exploring it.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Responsibility #Men #Law

The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability, and something is bound to come of it.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Age #World #Reliability

Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, 'memex' will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Memories #Book #Communication

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

#May #Facts #Belief

A belief may be larger than a fact.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Facts #May #Belief

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

#Long #May #Flow

A record, if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Records

There will always be plenty of things to compute in the detailed affairs of millions of people doing complicated things.
-- Vannevar Bush

#People #Complicated #Affair

Thus science may implement the ways in which man produces, stores, and consults the record of the race.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Men #Race #Interesting

Basic scientific research is scientific capital.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Science #Research #Scientific Research

Publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Real #Science #Use

Give these people money, let them play, and they'll come up with something.
-- Vannevar Bush

#Play #People #Giving

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

#Play #Choices #Curiosity

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

#Science #Ideas #Fads