PhDs

I ask you solemnly whether by the given oath you undertake to promise and confirm most conscientiously that you will defend in a manly way true science, extend and embellish it, not for gain’s sake or for attaining a vain shine of glory, but in order that the light of God’s truth shine bright and expand.

— Oath administered to David Hilbert upon the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1885, quoted in Constance Reid, Hilbert (1996)