List of Rita Levi-Montalcini Quotes

The Process For Awarding Nobel Prizes Is So Complex That It Cannot Be Corrupted.

The Instruments, Glassware, And Chemical Reagents Necessary For My Project Were The Same As My 19th-century Predecessors Had.

I Say To The Young, Be Happy That You Were Born In Italy Because Of The Beauty Of The Human Capital, Both Masculine And Feminine, Of This Country... No Other Country Has Such Human Capital.

I Told Mother Of My Decision To Study Medicine. She Encouraged Me To Speak To Father... I Began In A Roundabout Way... He Listened, Looking At Me With That Serious And Penetrating Gaze Of His That Caused Me Such Trepidation, And Asked Whether I Knew What I Wanted To Do.

Babies Did Not Attract Me, And I Was Altogether Without The Maternal Sense So Highly Developed In Small And Adolescent Girls.

As For The Presence Of Large Ngf [nerve Growth Factor] Sources In Snake Venom And Male Genital Organs, They May Be Conceived As Instances Of Bizarre Evolutionary Gene Expression.

A Child From The Age Of 2 Or 3 Absorbs What Is In The Environment And What Generates Hatred For Anyone Perceived To Be Different.

After A Short Period Spent In Brussels As A Guest Of A Neurological Institute, I Returned To Turin On The Verge Of The Invasion Of Belgium By The German Army, Spring 1940, To Join My Family. The Two Alternatives Left Then To Us Were Either To Emigrate To The United States, Or To Pursue Some Activity That Needed Neither Support Nor Connection With The Outside Aryan World Where We Lived. My Family Chose This Second Alternative. I Then Decided To Build A Small Research Unit At Home And Installed It In My Bedroom.

At 20, I Realized That I Could Not Possibly Adjust To A Feminine Role As Conceived By My Father And Asked Him Permission To Engage In A Professional Career. In Eight Months I Filled My Gaps In Latin, Greek And Mathematics, Graduated From High School, And Entered Medical School In Turin.

My Life Has Been Enriched By Excellent Human Relations, Work And Interests. I Have Never Felt Lonely.

You've Been Thinking About Something Without Willing To For A Long Time...then, All Of A Sudden, The Problem Is Opened To You In A Flash And You Suddenly See The Answer.

If I Had Not Been Discriminated Against Or Had Not Suffered Persecution, I Would Never Have Received The Nobel Prize.