Quote Origin: If We Knew What We Were Doing, It Would Not Be Called Research

Posted byquoteresearch

Albert Einstein? Charles F. Kettering? Wernher von Braun? Luis de Florez? Charles Erwin Wilson? David C. Hazen?

Laboratory picture from CDC at Unsplash

Question for Quote Investigator: There are no guaranteed outcomes when research is conducted. The results might be valuable or worthless. The following saying reflects this uncertainty. Here are two versions:

(1) If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research, would it?

(2) If we knew what it was we would learn, it just wouldn’t be research, would it?

This saying has been attributed to the famous physicist Albert Einstein, but I am skeptical because there are so many fake Einstein quotations. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive evidence that Albert Einstein wrote or spoke this statement. It is not listed in the comprehensive reference “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” from Princeton University Press.1

This notion can be expressed in many ways; hence, it is difficult to trace. Here is an evolutionary overview with dates and attributions:

1923: Research wouldn’t be research if we didn’t try everything but the right thing. The only time it’s disgraceful to fail on a research is the last time. (Charles F. Kettering, President of the General Motors Research Corporation)

1946: If I knew in advance what the results will be, the work wouldn’t be research. (Luis de Florez, Rear Admiral in the United States Navy)

1954: If you knew for sure you were going to get the answer you wanted to get it would not be research. You would have passed that stage. It would be in the engineering application stage. (Charles Erwin Wilson, U.S. Secretary of Defense)

1958: If everything you started was bound to be successful, it wouldn’t be research and it wouldn’t be development. It would be just straight engineering. (Charles Erwin Wilson, Former U.S. Secretary of Defense)

1959: We don’t know really for sure what is going to come out of these programs—they wouldn’t be research programs, of course if we knew ahead of time what we were going to do. (Harold W. Ritchey, Vice President, Rocket Divisions, Thiokol Chemical Corp.)

1965: If research and development didn’t have its failures as well as its successes, it wouldn’t be called research and development. (Remark in anonymous editorial in “Army” magazine)

1967: If we knew what it was we would learn, it just wouldn’t be research, would it? (Attributed to David C. Hazen, Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University)

1986: If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research. (Anonymous epigraph in PhD thesis by John Stewart Denker)

1989: If we knew how it worked, it wouldn’t be called research. (No attribution given in a message posted to Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.mac)

1991: If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research. (Attributed to Argonne ATLAS in a message posted to Usenet newsgroup comp.os.vms)

1992: If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research. (Attributed to Wernher von Braun in a message posted to Usenet newsgroup rec.music.makers)

1994: If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? (Attributed to Albert Einstein in a message posted to Usenet newsgroup alt.usage.english)

Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.

In 1923 the journal “Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering” printed an article discussing a speech about research which was delivered at a meeting of electrochemists:2

Charles F. Kettering, president of the General Motors Research Corporation, knows industrial research and he knows technical men. What he had to say on the subject of research at the Dayton meeting of the electrochemists is of interest to every man in the chemical engineering industries. Here are a few characteristic sentences from his sparkling address: …

Research wouldn’t be research if we didn’t try everything but the right thing. The only time it’s disgraceful to fail on a research is the last time.

In 1946 “Business Week” magazine published an article about research conducted by the U.S. Navy. The article quoted a prominent naval aviator discussing research:3

The contract defines the subject of the investigation in rather general terms. Periodic reports of progress are required, but the contract calls for no specific results. Rear Admiral Luis de Florez, spark plug of the Navy’s research program, told Congress: “If I knew in advance what the results will be, the work wouldn’t be research. In research, by definition, you can’t know what the results will be.” If research wanders off in unexpected but fruitful directions, the Navy’s contract can be adjusted to fit.

In 1954 the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings during which the U.S. Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson testified about the cost-effectiveness of research:4

I will admit to you, sir, that it is a very difficult area in which to weigh whether you are getting your money’s worth or not. If you knew for sure you were going to get the answer you wanted to get it would not be research. You would have passed that stage. It would be in the engineering application stage.

In 1958 “U.S. News & World Report” printed an interview with former Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson during which he discussed research on guided missiles:5

Of course, people don’t understand the research and development thing very well. If everything you started was bound to be successful, it wouldn’t be research and it wouldn’t be development. It would be just straight engineering.

In 1959 the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings about space propulsion during which Harold W. Ritchey testified about research. Ritchey was the Vice President of the Rocket Division at Thiokol Chemical Corporation:6

We don’t know really for sure what is going to come out of these programs—they wouldn’t be research programs, of course if we knew ahead of time what we were going to do.

In 1965 “Army” magazine of Washington D.C. printed an editorial containing the following statement:7

If research and development didn’t have its failures as well as its successes, it wouldn’t be called research and development.

In January 1967 several periodicals such as “The New York Times”8 and “The New Yorker”9 printed advertisements for the “1st International Paper Airplane Competition” sponsored by “Scientific American” magazine. The advertisements highlighted the following quotation from an aerospace engineer:

“IF WE KNEW WHAT IT WAS WE WOULD LEARN, IT JUST WOULDN’T BE RESEARCH, WOULD IT?”
Professor DAVID C. HAZEN, Princeton University

Later in 1967 the competition inspired “The Great International Paper Airplane Book” which reprinted the quotation ascribed to Hazen.10

In 1986 John Stewart Denker published the PhD thesis “Studies of Spin Polarized Hydrogen” at Cornell University. The first chapter began with the following epigraph. No attribution was specified; thus, the creator remains anonymous:11

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research.

In 1989 a message posted to the Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.mac by James Mace contained the following in the signature file:12

“If we knew how it worked, it wouldn’t be called research”

In 1991 a message posted to the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.vms by Patrick McDonald linked the saying to the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois:13

“If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research.”
– Argonne ATLAS

In 1992 a message posted to the Usenet newsgroup rec.music.makers by Tom Keays attributed the saying to the famous rocket scientist Wernher von Braun although the first name was misspelled:14

“If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research.”
attributed to Werner von Braun

In 1994 a message posted to the Usenet newsgroup alt.usage.english by Stuart Savory attributed the saying to Albert Einstein:15

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”. A. Einstein

In 1998 “Newsday” newspaper published an article about the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York which indicated that the saying was visible on a sign above a computer workstation:16

There is a quotation from Albert Einstein tacked over the work station to offer inspiration: “If we knew what we were doing it wouldn’t be called research, would it?”

In conclusion, this idea can be phrased in many ways, and this article presents a series of germane expressions tracing the evolution. There is no convincing evidence that Albert Einstein wrote or spoke this saying.

Image Notes: Laboratory picture from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Gene Lee whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.

  1. 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice, (Note: The quotation is absent), Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
  2. 1923 October 8, Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering, Volume 29, Number 15, American Electrochemical Society Establishes New Records of Technical Achievement by Editorial Staff, (Forty-Fourth meeting in Dayton), What Do You Know About Research? Quote Page 660, Column 1, McGraw-Hill Company, New York. (Verified with scans) link ↩︎
  3. 1946 September 14, Business Week, Science Dons a Uniform, Navy Takes the Helm, Start Page 19, Quote Page 21, Column 3, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  4. 1954, Hearings Before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Eighty-Third Congress, Second Session, Department of Defense and Related Independent Agencies Appropriations for 1955, Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson, Quote Page 75, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  5. 1958 January 10, U.S. News & World Report, Interview with Charles E Wilson (Former Secretary of Defense), Inside Story on Missiles, Defense Cuts, U.S. Satellite, Start Page 66, Quote Page 67, Unites States News Publishing Corporation, Washington D.C. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  6. 1959, Hearings Before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Eighty-Sixth Congress, First Session, March 16 to 23, 1959, Space Propulsion, Statement of Dr. Harold W. Ritchey, Vice President and Technical Director, Rocket Divisions, Thiokol Chemical Corp.,  Quote Page 114, Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. (Verified with scans) link ↩︎
  7. 1965 September, Army, Volume 15, Number 14, Editorials: It’s Called R & D, Quote Page 20, Column 2, Association of the United States Army, Washington D.C. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  8. 1967 January 10, The New York Times, (Advertisement for Scientific American 1st International Paper Airplane Competition), Quote Page 21, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  9. 1967 January 14, The New Yorker, (Advertisement for Scientific American 1st International Paper Airplane Competition), Quote Page 46, The New Yorker Magazine Inc., New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  10. 1967, The Great International Paper Airplane Book by Jerry Mander, George Dippel, and Howard Gossage, (Reprint of advertisement for Scientific American 1st International Paper Airplane Competition), Quote Page 21, Simon and Schuster, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  11. 1986, PhD Thesis Title: Studies of Spin Polarized Hydrogen, Author: John Stewart Denker, Chapter 1: Introduction (Chapter epigraph), Quote Page 1, Institution: Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. (ProQuest Dissertations & Theses) ↩︎
  12. Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: Aug 11, 1989, 9:02:10 AM, Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac, From: James Eduard Mace, Subject: Apple Color Monitor. (Google Groups Search; Accessed April 9, 2026) link ↩︎
  13. Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: Oct 24, 1991, 11:04:45 AM, Newsgroup: comp.os.vms, From: Patrick McDonald, Subject: CallBack. (Google Groups Search; Accessed April 9, 2026) link ↩︎
  14. Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: Apr 4, 1992, 10:00:36 AM, Newsgroup: rec.music.makers, From: Tom Keays, Subject: (Irish) Concert flutes. (Google Groups Search; Accessed April 9, 2026) link ↩︎
  15. Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: Apr 22, 1994, 6:51:36 AM, Newsgroup: alt.usage.english, From: Stuart Savory, Subject: UUNET’s 7th anniversary party. (Google Groups Search; Accessed April 9, 2026) link ↩︎
  16. 1998 May 31, Newsday (Nassau Edition), Science in the Balance: Inside Brookhaven Lab: A Year of Turmoil in Lives and Work, Start A4, Quote Page A41, Column 1, Hempstead, New York. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎