Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Abraham Flexner

American Educator

"Probably no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and education"

"Science, in the very act of solving problems, creates more of them."

"Being a parent used to be on of the most simple, natural, inevitable developments in the world. But nowadays, one has no business being married unless, waking and sleeping, one is conscious of the responsibility."

"Education... should concern itself primarily... with the liberation, organization, and direction of power and intelligence, with the development of taste, with culture."

"Getting education is like getting measles; you have to go where the measles is."

"Nations... 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."