Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Quotes About Science

Quotes about: Science

• Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Science, Thinking, Discovery

  Chairman Habil Khorakiwala's speech of Wockhardt Ltd., economictimes.indiatimes.com. March 2013.

• Life is water, dancing to the tune of solids.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Life, Science, Dancing

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (2012). “The Living State: With Observations on Cancer”, p.9, Elsevier

• If any student comes to me and says he wants to be useful to mankind and go into research to alleviate human suffering, I advise him to go into charity instead. Research wants real egotists who seek their own pleasure and satisfaction, but find it in solving the puzzles of nature.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Nature, Real, Science

  Attributed to Szent-Györgyi in "The Development of Spatial Cognition" by Robert Cohen, 1985.

• Through the ages, man's main concern was life after death. Today, for the first time, we find we must ask questions about whether there will be life before death.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Life, Death, Science

• When I received the Nobel Prize, the only big lump sum of money I have ever seen, I had to do something with it. The easiest way to drop this hot potato was to invest it, to buy shares. I knew that World War II was coming and I was afraid that if I had shares which rise in case of war, I would wish for war. So I asked my agent to buy shares which go down in the event of war. This he did. I lost my money and saved my soul.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Money, Fear, War

  "The Crazy Ape: Written by a Biologist for the Young". Book by Albert Szent-Györgyi, 2014.

• To regulate something always requires two opposing factors. You cannot regulate by a single factor. To give an example, the traffic in the streets could not be controlled by a green light or a red light alone. It needs a green light and a red light as well. The ratio between retine and promine determines whether there is any motion, any growth, or not. Two different inclinations have to be there in readiness to make the cells proliferate.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Science, Light, Cells

• Research is four things: brains with which to think, eyes with which to see, machines with which to measure and, fourth, money.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Eye, Science, Thinking

• A discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge. During my lifetime, I made two. Both were rejected offhand by the popes of the field. Had I predicted these discoveries in my applications, and had those authorities been my judges, it is evident what their decisions would have been.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Knowledge, Science, Discovery

• I always tried to live up to Leo Szilard's commandment, "don't lie if you don't have to." I had to. I filled up pages with words and plans I knew I would not follow. When I go home from my laboratory in the late afternoon, I often do not know what I am going to do the next day. I expect to think that up during the night. How could I tell them what I would do a year hence?

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Lying, Home, Science

• Science has helped us to understand and master ourselves, creating an elevated new form of human life, the wealth and beauty of which cannot be pictured today by the keenest imagination.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Science, Creating, Imagination

• If I go out into nature, into the unknown, to the fringes of knowledge, everything seems mixed up and contradictory, illogical, and incoherent. This is what research does; it smooths out contradictions and makes things simple, logical, and coherent.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Knowledge, Science, Simple

• All living organisms are but leaves on the same tree of life. The various functions of plants and animals and their specialized organs are manifestations of the same living matter. This adapts itself to different jobs and circumstances, but operates on the same basic principles. Muscle contraction is only one of these adaptations. In principle it would not matter whether we studied nerve, kidney or muscle to understand the basic principles of life. In practice, however, it matters a great deal.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Life, Jobs, Science

• I called it ignose, not knowing which carbohydrate it was. This name was turned down by my editor. 'God-nose' was not more successful, so in the end 'hexuronic acid' was agreed upon. To-day the substance is called 'ascorbic acid' and I will use this name.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Success, Knowledge, Science

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