Editing Institute for Advanced Study (section)

==Mission==
[[File:Fuld Hall, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ.jpg|thumb|Fuld Hall, built 1939]]
In a 1939 essay Flexner emphasized how [[James Clerk Maxwell]], driven only by a desire to know, did abstruse calculations in the field of magnetism and electricity and that these investigations led in a direct line to the entire electrical development of modern times.<ref name="Jogalekar"/> Citing Maxwell and other theoretical scientists such as [[Carl Friedrich Gauss]], [[Michael Faraday]], [[Paul Ehrlich]] and Einstein, Flexner said, "Throughout the whole history of science most of the really great discoveries which have ultimately proved to be beneficial to mankind have been made by men and women who were driven not by the desire to be useful but merely the desire to satisfy their curiosity."<ref>Flexner (1939).</ref>

The ''IAS Bluebook'' says:{{Full citation needed|date=November 2020}}

{{blockquote|text=The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the few institutions in the world where the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake is the ultimate raison d'être. Speculative research, the kind that is fundamental to the advancement of human understanding of the world of nature and of humanity, is not a product that can be made to order. Rather, like artistic creativity, it benefits from a special environment.}}

This was the belief to which Flexner clung passionately, and which continues to inspire the institute today.