In every section of the entire area where the word science may properly be applied, the limiting factor is a human one. We shall have rapid or slow advance in this direction or in that depending on the number of really first-class men who are engaged in the work in question. ... So in the last analysis, the future of science in this country will be determined by our basic educational policy.
James Bryant ConantEach honest calling, each walk of life, has its own elite, its own aristocracy based on excellence.
James Bryant ConantScience advances, not by the accumulation of new facts, but by the continuous development of new concepts.
James Bryant ConantSome of mankind's most terrible misdeeds have been committed under the spell of certain magic words or phrases.
James Bryant ConantThe stumbling way in which even the ablest of the scientists in every generation have had to fight through thickets of erroneous observations, misleading generalizations, inadequate formulation, and unconscious prejudice is rarely appreciated by those who obtain their scientific knowledge from textbooks.
James Bryant Conant