If any student comes to me and says he wants to be useful to mankind and go into research to alleviate human suffering, I advise him to go into charity instead. Research wants real egotists who seek their own pleasure and satisfaction, but find it in solving the puzzles of nature. Albert Szent-Györgyi
True charity is the desire to be useful to others with no thought of recompense. Emanuel Swedenborg
Each individual fact, taken by itself, can indeed arouse our curiosity or our astonishment, or be useful to us in its practical applications. Hermann von Helmholtz
A record, if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted. Vannevar Bush
Ask for a science that would be useful to you, would keep you from harm and shame, then elevate you. Arabic Proverb
Do not spit into a well-it may be useful to drink water. Russian Proverb