Abraham Flexner
13 November 1866 – 21 September 1959
Birthplace: Louisville, Kentucky
American education leader
“No nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization.”
~Alexander Flexner, American education & non-profit leader
Universities American English German (1930) Part III: English Universities, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 302; online via Internet Archive, www.archive.org
Extended excerpt [Non-fiction]:
“One thing, however, seems clear. Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both. 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. Unintelligence could go no further! In Great Britain, the national budget devotes a huge sum to war – present, past, or future – as against an inconsiderable sum to education. Until the figures are reversed, the two nations deceive themselves as to what they care about most.” (p. 302)
Source & Context Note: Flexner’s preface indicates that his book “is an extension of three lectures on Universities given at Oxford in May 1928 on the invitation of the Rhodes Trust.”
Source link: Universities (1930) online via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/universitiesamer008115mbp#page/n317/mode/2up/search/%22war+and+civilization%22
“Science, in the very act of solving problems, creates more of them.”
~Alexander Flexner, American education & non-profit leader
Universities American English German (1930) Part I: “The Idea of a Modern University”, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 19; online via Internet Archive, www.archive.org
Extended excerpt [Non-fiction]:
“War is no longer a solution – it merely creates additional problems. Thus science, in the very act of solving problems, creates more of them. Such are the consequences of progress in a portion of the physical and biological sciences in a small corner of the western world.” (p. 19)
Source & Context Note: Flexner’s preface indicates that his book “is an extension of three lectures on Universities given at Oxford in May 1928 on the invitation of the Rhodes Trust.”
Source link: Universities (1930) online via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/universitiesamer008115mbp#page/n33/mode/2up/search/%22solving+problems%22
Learn more about Abraham Flexner | Here are a few good places to start –
