"The primary aim of science is to find... new truth. The search is the more successful the more it is directed towards... truth for its own sake, regardless of... possible use or application. ...If everything given to us by research were to be taken away, civilization would collapse and we would stand naked, searching for caves again."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Szent-Gy%C3%B6rgyi