Accounts Quote by Charles Sanders Peirce
“True science is distinctively the study of useless things. For the useful things will get studied without the aid of scientific men. To employ these rare minds on such work is like running a steam engine by burning diamonds.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: "The Fixation of Belief", 1877
Scientific inquiry thrives on curiosity about seemingly irrelevant phenomena, which later become foundational for practical advances.
In simple terms: Science studies useless things that later become useful.
Key Takeaway
Value curiosity and explore the unknown.
Themes
curiosity
science
progress
Mood
thoughtful
inquisitive
Type
philosophical
inspirational
When to use this quote
- research projects
- basic science funding
- philosophical debates
- educational curricula
Key Concepts
epistemology
serendipity
foundations of knowledge
Questions to Reflect On
- How can we justify funding pure research?
- What unseen benefits might arise from studying the "useless"?
A Different Perspective
Practical applications may lag behind theoretical work, causing funding challenges.
![“Science only means knowledge; and for [Greek] ancients it did only mean knowledge. Thus the favorite science of the Greeks was Astronomy, because it was as abstract as Algebra. ... We may say that the great Greek ideal was to have no use for useful things. The Slave was he who learned useful…” quote by Gilbert K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/afb/gilbert-k-chesterton-223_abstract_science-only-means-knowledge-and-for-gre_734948.jpg)
![“[For] men to whom nothing seems great but reason ... nature ... is a cosmos, so admirable, that to penetrate to its ways seems to them the only thing that makes life worth living. These are the men whom we see possessed by a passion to learn ... Those are the natural scientific men; and they are…” quote by Charles Sanders Peirce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/6b9/charles-sanders-peirce-5105_admirable_for-men-to-whom-nothing-seems-great-but_2407623.jpg)
![“Buffett found it 'extraordinary' that academics studied such things. They studied what was measurable, rather than what was meaningful. 'As a friend [Charlie Munger] said, to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” quote by Roger Lowenstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a50/roger-lowenstein-34951_academic_buffett-found-it-extraordinary-that-acad_2270654.jpg)
