Simon Cameron, Prognosticator

"I am tired of all this sort of thing called science here... We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped."

--Simon Cameron, U.S. Senator, discussing funding for the Smithsonian Institution, 1861

It's good to know that someone was taking the long view back in those days. Not so different from these days, I can't resist adding.

(As a side note, I haven't been able to find an actual citation for this quote, so who knows if Cameron really said it. About half of the references I saw place it in 1901, but since he had been dead for about 12 years at that point, 1861 seems more likely.)