Necessity is not the mother of invention. Knowledge and experiment are its parents. It sometimes happens that successful search is made for unknown materials to fill well-recognized and predetermined requirements. It more often happens that the acquirement of knowledge of… — Willis R. Whitney Copy Share Image
“Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do something, when all they need is one reason why they can.” — Willis R. Whitney Copy Share Image
Somebody is always reflectively monkeying with some of the parts of an infinite universe - monkeying as distinct from aping. — Willis R. Whitney Copy Share Image
In the advance of civilization, it is new knowledge which paves the way, and the pavement is eternal. — Willis R. Whitney Copy Share Image
The regularity with which we conclude that further advances in a particular field are impossible seems equaled only by the regularity with which events… — Willis R. Whitney Copy Share Image
Necessity is not the mother of invention. Knowledge and experiment are its parents. It sometimes happens that successful search is made for unknown materials… — Willis R. Whitney Copy Share Image
Our immediate interests are after all of but small moment. It is what we do for the future, what we add to the sum… — Willis R. Whitney Copy Share Image
I happen to be a kind of monkey. I have a monkeylike curiosity that makes me want to feel, smell, and taste things which… — Willis R. Whitney Copy Share Image
The valuable attributes of research men are conscious ignorance and active curiosity. — Willis R. Whitney Copy Share Image
A persistent and age-old instinct makes us want to wander Into regions yet untrod And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of… — Willis R. Whitney Copy Share Image
