Whoever, in the pursuit of science, seeks after immediate practical utility, may generally rest assured that he will seek in vain.
Interpretation
Pursuing science for immediate practical benefits often leads to disappointment.
Hermann Von Helmholtz implies that a genuine pursuit of scientific knowledge is not primarily motivated by immediate practical applications. Instead, true scientific inquiry may take time to yield tangible benefits, highlighting the importance of curiosity and a long-term perspective in the field of science.
In practice
This quote could be used in a science class to emphasize the intrinsic value of scientific inquiry beyond practical results.
The total quantity of all the forces capable of work in the whole universe remains eternal and unchanged throughout all their changes. All change in nature amounts to this, that force can change its form and locality, without its quantity being changed. The universe possesses, once for all, a store of force which is not altered by any change of phenomena, can neither be increased nor diminished, and which maintains any change which takes place on it.
Isolated facts and experiments have in themselves no value, however great their number may be. They only become valuable in a theoretical or practical point of view when they make us acquainted with the law of a series of uniformly recurring phenomena, or, it may be, only give a negative result showing an incompleteness in our knowledge of such a law, till then held to be perfect.
Black is real sensation, even if it is produced by entire absence of light. The sensation of black is distinctly different from the lack of all sensations.
The Europeans and the Americans are not throwing $10 billion down this gigantic tube for nothing. We're exploring the very forefront of physics and cosmology with the Large Hadron Collider because we want to have a window on creation, we want to recreate a tiny piece of Genesis to unlock some of the greatest secrets of the universe.
People make their own fates, and if enough of us make our fate to be space explorers, perhaps we can actually get some space exploration done.
A scientist is as weak and human as any man, but the pursuit of science may ennoble him even against his will.
There are many who would much prefer that the word 'climate' never be mentioned and that the issue be eliminated from our national conversation.
Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for apprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge.
It doesn't matter what country or what political system you are from. Space brings you together.
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