A fallacy entertained by many … is that any problem can be solved by gathering enough scientists and giving them enough money. To solve the problem of the common cold assemble a great institution, fill it with scientists and money, and soon we will have no more colds! It is folly to thus proceed. The great scientific steps forward originate in the minds of gifted scientists, not in the minds of promoters. The best way to proceed is to be sure that really inspired scientists have what they need to work with, and leave them alone

A nation which depends upon others for its new basic scientific knowledge will be slow in its industrial progress and weak in its competitive position in world trade, regardless of its mechanical skill.

Basic scientific research is scientific capital.

I had a plan for the NDRC in four short paragraphs in the middle of a sheet of paper. The whole audience lasted less than ten minutes… I came out with my 'OK - FDR' and all the wheels began to turn.

If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability.

In any broad program of research the key word in regard to any one aspect of the program is relevance. … Probably “conducive to progress toward the main object of a program” is as good a definition as any,

It makes sense to ask a young researcher in basic research what he is trying to find out, what sort of knowledge he hopes to have at the end of his program which does not now exist. … But it makes no sense to ask him just how he is going to do it, what it will cost, or how long it will take. If he knew the answers it would not be basic research.

Just finding out something new is not by itself sufficient justification for research. It needs to mean something when we find it.

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

Sam Rosenman and I drafted the order establishing the O.S.R.D. - mostly Rosenman with me hanging hard on the outskirts. The order assigned the N.D.R.C. as one component of the new office, and that assignment brought the only change in the civilian membership of the N.D.R.C. to occur during its lifetime.

Science can be interpreted effectively only for those who have more than the usual intelligence and innate curiosity. These will work hard if given the chance and if they find they acquire something by so doing.

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.

There were those who protested that the action of setting up NDRC was an end run, a grab by which a small company of scientists and engineers, acting outside established channels, got hold of the authority and money for the program of developing new weapons. That, in fact, is exactly what it was.

We were agreed that the war was bound to break out into an intense struggle, that America was sure to get into it in one way or another sooner or later, that it would be a highly technical struggle, that we were by no means prepared in this regard, and … that the military system as it existed … would never fully produce the new instrumentalities which we would certainly need.

When scientific programs are judged by popular acclaim we inevitably have overemphasis on the spectacular. … The deeply important scientific advances moving today are not easy to understand. If they were they would have been accomplished long ago.

Vannevar Bush has said that there is no more thrilling experience for a man than to be able to state that he has learned something no other person in the world has ever known before him. … I have been lucky enough to be included in such an event.