Rita Levi-Montalcini Quotes

• Above all, don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Inspirational, Encouraging, Uplifting

  125 Copy quote

• I tell young people: Do not think of yourself, think of others. Think of the future that awaits you, think about what you can do and do not fear anything.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Fear, Thinking, People

  71 Copy quote

• The body does whatever it wants. I am not my body; I am my mind.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Mind, Doe, Body

  63 Copy quote

• Find first peace within yourself. Don't eat too much. Keep your brain active. Love.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Brain, Too Much, Firsts

  63 Copy quote

• It's not enough what I did in the past - there is also the future.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Past, Enough

  42 Copy quote

• Progress depends on our brain. The most important part of our brain, that which is neocortical, must be used to help others and not just to make discoveries.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Helping Others, Discovery, Brain

  48 Copy quote

• It is imperfection - not perfection - that is the end result of the program written into that formidably complex engine that is the human brain, and of the influences exerted upon us by the environment and whoever takes care of us during the long years of our physical, psychological and intellectual development.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Years, Long, Perfection

  "Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini, Nobel Winner, Dies at 103" by Benedict Carey, www.nytimes.com. December 30, 2012.

  39 Copy quote

• If I had not been discriminated against or had not suffered persecution, I would never have received the Nobel Prize.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Nobel, Persecution, Prize

  31 Copy quote

• If I die tomorrow or in a year, it is the same — it is the message you leave behind you that counts.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Years, Messages, Behind You

  39 Copy quote

• My experience in childhood and adolescence of the subordinate role played by the female in a society run entirely by men had convinced me that I was not cut out to be a wife.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Running, Cutting, Men

  Rita Levi-Montalcini (1988). “In praise of imperfection: my life and work”, Basic Books (AZ)

  46 Copy quote

• I should thank Mussolini for having declared me to be of an inferior race. This led me to the joy of working, not any more unfortunately, in university institutes but in a bedroom.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Race, Joy, Bedroom

  "Nobel-Winning Biologist Rita Levi-Montalcini Dies in Rome at 103" by Kathy Ceceri, www.wired.com. December 31, 2012.

  57 Copy quote

• At 100, I have a mind that is superior - thanks to experience - than when I was 20.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Mind, Thanks, Superiors

  "Nobel-winning biologist Rita Levi-Montalcini dies at 103" by Frances D'Emilio, www.nbcnews.com. December 30, 2012.

  45 Copy quote

• 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.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Thinking, Long, Answers

  31 Copy quote

• My life has been enriched by excellent human relations, work and interests. I have never felt lonely.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Lonely, Excellent, Relation

  "Nobel-winning biologist Rita Levi-Montalcini dies at 103" by Frances D'Emilio, www.nbcnews.com. December 30, 2012.

  36 Copy quote

• 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.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Father, Latin, School

  42 Copy quote

• 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.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Spring, Home, Army

  42 Copy quote

• 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.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Children, Hatred, Age

  32 Copy quote

• 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.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Science, Expression, Snakes

  "The Saga of the Nerve Growth Factor: Preliminary Studies, Discovery, Further Development".

  24 Copy quote

• Babies did not attract me, and I was altogether without the maternal sense so highly developed in small and adolescent girls.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Girl, Baby

  Rita Levi-Montalcini (1988). “In praise of imperfection: my life and work”, Basic Books (AZ)

  22 Copy quote

• 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.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Mother, Father, Medicine

  Rita Levi-Montalcini (1988). “In praise of imperfection: my life and work”, Basic Books (AZ)

  26 Copy quote

• 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.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Country, Masculine And Feminine, Born

  29 Copy quote

• The process for awarding Nobel prizes is so complex that it cannot be corrupted.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Process, Nobel, Complexes

  "Rita Levi-Montalcini obituary" by Anthony Tucker, www.theguardian.com. December 30, 2012.

  9 Copy quote

• The instruments, glassware, and chemical reagents necessary for my project were the same as my 19th-century predecessors had.

  Rita Levi-Montalcini

  Chemicals, Century, Projects

  16 Copy quote

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