Nobel Quotes

“Is there no context for our lives? No song, no literature, no poem full of vitamins, no history connected to experience that you can pass along to help us start strong? You are an adult. The old one, the wise one. Stop thinking about saving your face. Think of our lives and tell us your particularized world. Make up a story. Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created. We will not blame you if your reach exceeds your grasp; if love so ignites your words they go down in flames and nothing is left but their scald. Or if, with the reticence of a surgeon's hands, your words suture only the places where blood might flow. We know you can never do it properly - once and for all. Passion is never enough; neither is skill. But try. For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief s wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul. You, old woman, blessed with blindness, can speak the language that tells us what only language can: how to see without pictures. Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation.”
― Toni Morrison, The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993

“I am one of those who think, like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries.”
― Marie Curie

“Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”
― Tom Lehrer

“And of these few charitable billionaires, how many are motivated by greed for a Nobel peace prize, I don’t know. Yes, call me a cynic, but I am absolutely sure that hadn’t there been such a thing as the Nobel peace prize or similar versions of national, or state-level, or independent accolades, many of these millionaires and billionaires would have given up on their charitable endeavours. After having everything, a rich man seeks applause and reverence, for there is guilt in his mind. The guilt of having everything in this world.”
― Abhaidev, The Influencer: Speed Must Have a Limit

“Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it and it has not changed except to become more needed. The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, and their responsibilities have been decreed by our species... the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit - for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.”
― John Steinbeck

“How strange men are.' she said, because she could not think of anything else to say. 'They spend their lives fighting against priests and then give prayer books as gifts.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

“Alfred Nobel stipulated that no distinction of race or colour will determine who received of his generosity.”
― Abdus Salam

“Be nobel. Be the light as if you are the source of life.”
― Debasish Mridha

“I was in full digression! far from the subject!...my colonel was losing track...rapidly, of my story! my story!...my own story!...the gifts that I had personally received from Heaven!...yet I had insisted, every time! truly extraordinary gifts!...I'd made him repeat them a hundred times!...enough so he'd remember! that I was the only true genius! the century's only writer! the proof: that no one ever spoke of me!...everyone was jealous! Nobel! no Nobel! they had all joined forces to have me executed!...they could just go fuck off!...drop dead! since it was a question of death between me and them! I'll send their readers packing! all their readers! I'll make the public grow sick of their books! cabal! no cabal! since there was no room for two styles!...it was mine or theirs!...crawl or breastroke!...you understand!...the only inventor of the century! is me! me! me right here! the only genius, you might say! damned or not!...”
― Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Conversations with Professor Y

“Lei è sempre stata più sicura di me, pensava, e in quel momento vide distintamente le cause della sua sconfitta, la figuraccia che faceva spettinato e con la barba lunga, le pantofole scalcagnate, le pieghe dei pantaloni del pigiama che sembravano frange avvizzite, la vestaglia mezza su mezza giù, ci sono decisioni nella vita che, per prenderle, è consigliabile esser vestiti come per uscire, con la cravatta e le scarpe lucide, questo significa essere un signore, esclamare in tono offeso, Se la mia presenza la disturba, signora, non ho bisogno che me lo dica, e all’istante si imbocca la porta, senza guardarsi indietro, guardarsi indietro è un rischio tremendo, ci si può anche trasformare in una statua di sale e restare lì alla mercé della prima pioggia.”
― José Saramago, The Double

“Meravigliosa fu in realtà la mia vita, pensava, meravigliose vie ha seguito. Ragazzo, non ho avuto a che fare se non con dei e sacrifici. Giovane, non ho avuto a che fare se non con ascesi, meditazione e contemplazione, sempre in cerca di Brahma, sempre intento a venerare l'eterno nello Atman. Ma quando fui giovanotto mi riunii ai penitenti, vissi nella foresta, soffersi il caldo e il gelo, appresi a sopportare la fame, appresi a far morire il mio corpo. Meravigliosa mi giunse allora la rivelazione attraverso la dottrina del grande Buddha, e sentii la conoscenza dell'unità del mondo circolare in me come il mio stesso sangue. Ma anche da Buddha e dalla grande conoscenza mi dovetti staccare. Me n'andai, e appresi da Kamala la gioia d'amore, appresi da Kamaswami il commercio, accumulai denaro, dissipai denaro, appresi ad amare il mio stomaco, a lusingare i miei sensi. Molti anni dovetti impiegare per perdere lo spirito, disapprendere il pensiero, dimenticare l'unità. Non è forse come se lentamente e per grandi traviamenti io mi fossi rifatto, d'uomo, bambino, di saggio che ero, un uomo puerile? Eppure è stata buona questa via, e l'usignolo non è ancor morto nel mio petto. Ma che via fu questa! Son dovuto passare attraverso tanta sciocchezza, tanta bruttura, tanto errore, tanto disgusto e delusione e dolore, solo per ridiventare bambino e poter ricominciare da capo. Ma è stato giusto, il mio cuore lo approva, gli occhi miei ne ridono. Ho dovuto provare la disperazione, ho dovuto abbassarmi fino al più stolto di tutti i pensieri, al pensiero del suicidio, per poter rivivere la grazia, per riapprendere l'Om, per poter di nuovo dormire tranquillo e risvegliarmi sereno. Ho dovuto essere un pazzo, per sentire di nuovo l'Atman. Ho dovuto peccare per poter rivivere. Dove può ancora condurmi il mio cammino? Stolto è questo cammino, va strisciando obliquamente, forse va in cerchio. Ma vada come vuole, io son contento di seguirlo.”
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“If you are a writer, don't give your critics importance, more than what they deserve. Remember, no Nobel has yet been given to a critic.”
― Nitya Prakash

“...siamo proprio come le canne al vento, donna Ester mia. Ecco perché! Siamo canne, e la sorte è il vento.”
― Grazia Deledda, Canne al vento

“No Nobel Prize for me this year. Maybe next year?”
― Steven Magee

“Every year I am so disappointed not to get a Nobel Prize!”
― Steven Magee

“Maybe next year for my Nobel Prize?”
― Steven Magee

“Based on past awards of the Nobel Prize, my work on ‘Altitude Hypersensitivity’ appears to be worthy.”
― Steven Magee

“Vivimos en la época de la premeditación y del crimen perfecto. Nuestros criminales ya no son aquellos jovenzuelos desarmados que invocaban la excusa del amor. Por el contrario, son adultos y su coartada es irrefutable: es la filosofía, que puede servir para todo, hasta para transformar a los criminales en jueces.”
― Albert Camus, The Rebel

“Nobel kazananlardan bazıları araştırmayı bırakır ve vaktini dünyayı dolaşıp değişik toplantılara katılarak geçirir. Bazen de, Bilim, İnsanlık, Değerler, İnsan Çabası veya buna benzer soyut sözcüklerden oluşan) konularda konferans verir. Bu saygın kişilerin egoları, kendilerine imza için sunulan bir sürü manifesto ile daha da kabarır; çünkü, imzaları bu manifestoların lehine büyük ağırlık koyacaktır. Bir örnek: "Dünya ulusları bundan böyle dostluk ve uyum içinde yaşamalı ve politik anlaşmazlıkları çözmek için savaş araçları kullanmaktan vazgeçmelidir.”
― Peter Medawar, Advice To A Young Scientist

“I expect to be awarded the Nobel prize for researching what professional astronomers did not want researched.”
― Steven Magee

“I was the assistant to Andrea Ghez, the fourth woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.”
― Steven Magee

“De mí se dirá posiblemente que soy un escritor cómico, a lo sumo. Y será cierto. No me interesa demasiado la definición que se haga de mí. No aspiro al Nobel de Literatura. Yo me doy por muy bien pagado cuando alguien se me acerca y me dice: me cagué de risa con tu libro.”
― Roberto Fontanarrosa

“Ambition: Aspiring to be the first person in history to win all Nobel Prize categories.”
― Steven Magee

“The Nobel prizes are the Oscars of science.”
― Steven Magee

“I expect I will win one Nobel prize and I may end up eventually winning all categories.”
― Steven Magee

“No Nobel Prize for me this year!”
― Steven Magee

“You have more chance of winning the lottery than a Nobel Prize.”
― Steven Magee

“pero si te vas, luego no valen quejas. Mientras sigas intentándolo, hay una posibilidad. Pero ¿si te rindes? Ahí es cuando muere el sueño.”
― Grazia Deledda, Cosima

“One of the joys of being an Observing Assistant at the W. M. Keck Observatory was watching the scientists I had worked with going on to win the Nobel Prize.”
― Steven Magee

“If you want to win a Nobel Prize, it pays to be associated with those that have won a Nobel Prize.”
― Steven Magee