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We cannot meet it [the threat of dictatorship] if we turn this country into a wishy-washy imitation of totalitarianism, where every man's hand is out for pabulum and virile creativeness has given place to the patronizing favor of swollen bureaucracy.

— Vannevar Bush

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Government

More quotes by Vannevar Bush

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.

The human mind, merely in its chemical and physical aspects, takes on new inspiring attributes.

Science is Not Enough (1967)

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

As We May Think (1945)

We puzzle as to whether the universe is bounded or extends forever; whether, indeed, it may only be one universe among many.

Science is Not Enough (1967)

It is the duty to carry on, under stress, the search for understanding.

Science is Not Enough (1967)

All Vannevar Bush quotes →

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Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1589)

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison

Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed (1936)

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Vannevar Bush (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.