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For the Thinking Executive: 916 Quotations from Nobel Laureates
For the Thinking Executive: 916 Quotations from Nobel Laureates
For the Thinking Executive: 916 Quotations from Nobel Laureates
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For the Thinking Executive: 916 Quotations from Nobel Laureates

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David Pratt scoured books, articles and speeches by 826 Nobel prize winners for distilled wisdom from the world’s acknowledged geniuses. Here, he has winnowed 916 quotations by 498 recipients from his collection of more than 7500 quotes, for business executives to use in their own presentations. His sources range from scientists to literary giants: Einstein, Curie, Hemingway, Kissinger, Martin Luther King and more. The quotations are accompanied by brief biographies. David Pratt's criteria for selecting a quotation is simple: it must be a perceptive observation or recollection and it must provide special insight or inspiration.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherBev Editions
Release dateJun 12, 2012
ISBN9780987814678
For the Thinking Executive: 916 Quotations from Nobel Laureates
Author

David Pratt

David Pratt is author of the Lambda-winning Bob the Book, Wallaçonia, Todd Sweeney, the Fiend of Fleet High, Looking After Joey, and a story collection, My Movie. His stories have appeared in several periodicals and anthologies. He has performed work for the theater at venues in New York City and Michigan and has published Two Plays: The Snow Queen and November Door. In 2020-2021 he published The Book of Humiliation, an "anti-novel" in 16 zines, designed by Michigan artist Nicholas Williams.

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    For the Thinking Executive - David Pratt

    For the Thinking Executive:

    916 Quotations from Nobel Laureates

    Compiled by David Pratt

    Published by Bev Editions at Smashwords

    ISBN: 978-0-9878146-7-8

    Copyright 2012 David Pratt

    Smashwords Edition, License Notes

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each other person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    For the Thinking Executive: 916 Quotations from Nobel Laureates

    Contents

    Introduction

    Begin

    About David Pratt

    ****

    Introduction

    I have been collecting quotations since I was teenager, affixing pithy observations to my bedroom wall. As my affection for these expressions of distilled thought blossomed into an addiction, I realized that many of my favorite quotations were by Nobel Prize winners. I began to seek out their speeches, articles and books, eventually reading close to 2000 volumes. I have now amassed a collection of about 7500 quotations from the 826 prize winners from 1901 to 2011. With a new crop of laureates every year, my collection continues to grow.

    For this compilation, I have culled 916 quotations from 498 Nobel laureates that business executives might find useful for their own presentations, speeches, and reports, or for their own enjoyment. The quotations are also accompanied by brief biographies. My criteria for selecting a quotation were simple: Was it a perceptive observation or recollection? Did it provide special insight or inspiration?

    I pass these along as an introduction to extraordinary men and women with a small taste of their thoughts and life experience. Enjoy!

    ****

    George A. Akerlof. USA. Born 1940. Economics, 2001.

    Son of a Yale professor who had immigrated from Sweden, George Akerlof won the Nobel Prize for his research on markets where sellers have more information than buyers.

    In second grade they asked me what I wanted from Santa Claus for Christmas, and I said, ‘A steel mill.

    California Monthly, December 2001

    Kurt Alder. Germany. 1902-1958. Chemistry, 1950.

    Starting work at I. G. Farben, Alder moved to Cologne University in 1940. He and his former supervisor at Kiel University, Otto Diels, shared the Nobel Prize for their work on carbon compounds.

    Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right.

    Attributed

    Vincente Aleixandre. Spain. 1898-1984. Literature, 1977.

    A law graduate of the University of Madrid, Aleixandre devoted his life to poetry. The Nobel Academy cited his creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society.

    Tradition and revolution—here are two words which are identical.

    Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1977

    Zhores I. Alferov. Russia. Born 1930. Physics, 2000.

    Zhores Alferov, a leading Russian researcher in semiconductors, became a member of the Russian Parliament in 1995, and was appointed Vice-President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1990.

    When people talk about the high prices of solar energy as opposed to atomic, they usually forget just how much the nuclear weapons production programs are costing us, and nuclear energy is nothing but a waste product of nuclear weapons.

    Answer to questions posed by Innovations Magazine, at a Meeting of Nobel Prize Winners in St. Petersburg, June 2003

    Hannes Alfvén. Sweden. 1908-1995. Physics, 1970

    Both of Alfvéen’s parents were physicians. Much ahead of his time in the development of plasma physics, antimatter, and the evolution of the solar system, Alfvéen’s discoveries usually took years to be accepted.

    Galileo was just a victim of peer review.

    Quoted in George Smoot and Keay Davidson, Wrinkles in Time, 1993

    Maurice Allais. France. 1911-2010. Economics, 1988.

    Allais’s father died in German captivity in World War I. Allais had a successful career as an economist, and won the prize for contributions to the theory of markets and the efficient utilization of resources.

    Any state of equilibrium of a market economy is a state of maximum efficiency, and, vice versa, any state of maximum efficiency is a state of equilibrium of a market economy.

    Nobel Lecture, December 9, 1988

    Sidney Altman. Canada, USA. Born 1939. Chemistry, 1989.

    Altman worked as a screenwriter and poetry editor before attending MIT and Cambridge. He did research in physics and biology and won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his studies of RNA.

    All the people who do well work very hard. Nobody who has a record of achievement has been lazy about it.

    Interview at meeting of Nobel Prize Winners in Lindau, Germany, 2000

    Don’t worry if things change. Just do what you do best.

    Science.ca

    Louis Alvarez. USA. 1911-1988. Physics, 1968

    Louis Alvarez flew as an observer of the Hiroshima bombing. He worked on optics, cosmic rays, radar, and the extinction of the dinosaurs. He won the Prize for studies in elementary particle physics.

    There is no democracy in physics. We can’t say that some second-rate guy has as much right to opinion as Fermi.

    D. S. Greenberg, The Politics of Pure Science, 1969

    I’m convinced that a controlled disrespect for authority is essential to a scientist.

    Adventures of a Physicist, 1987

    Someone who believes everything he is told simply can’t be a scientist, but someone who believes nothing will wind up in jail or prematurely buried.

    Adventures of a Physicist, 1987

    Philip Anderson. USA. Born 1923. Physics, 1977.

    Philip Anderson studied at Harvard and served in the Navy in World War II and thereafter spent his career at Bell Laboratories. He was honored for his investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems.

    You never understand everything. When one understands everything, one has gone crazy.

    John Horgan, The End of Science, 1996

    Ivo Andrić. Yugoslavia. 1982-1975. Literature, 1961.

    Born in Bosnia, Andrićc was imprisoned in World War I for anti-Austrian activities. He entered the Yugoslav Diplomatic Service in Belgrade. His poetry, short stories, and novels draw heavily on the history of his native Bosnia.

    Good friends are not good critics.

    Letter to Zdenka Marković, February 20, 1921, Letters, 1984, Ed. Želimir B. Juričić

    A working day is always a celebration for me.

    Celia Hawkesworth, Ivo Andrić: Bridge between East and West, 1984

    Christian Anfinsen. USA. 1916-1995. Chemistry, 1972.

    A pioneer in the study of enzymes and the genetic basis of protein organization, Anfinsen was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on ribonuclease. He spent his career at the National Institutes of Health.

    Surprisingly little effort or money are spent on using the new biotechnology in areas of food production and population control. We tend to forget that the number of sick people in the world is really rather small when compared with the number of relatively healthy people who go to bed hungry every night.

    Address at Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, October 19, 1983

    Norman Angell. Britain. 1872-1967. Peace, 1933.

    Born in England, Angell spent some years time as a cowboy in California before becoming a journalist, focusing on issues of war and peace. His anti-war book, The Great Illusion, sold two million copies.

    It is precisely the stupidest people who are most sincere in their mistaken beliefs.

    Letter to Maxwell Garnett, November 28, 1931. Louis Bisceglia, Norman Angell and Liberal Internationalism in Britain, 1931-1935, 1982

    Perhaps you cannot change human nature—I don’t indeed know what the phrase means. But you can certainly change human behavior, which is what matters.

    Nobel Lecture June 12, 1935

    It is impossible to defend ourselves unless on occasion we are prepared to defend others.

    The Steep Places, 1947

    We are confronted, therefore, not with morally bad intention but with morally good intention which miscarried. The world has suffered certainly as much from the errors of the good as from the crimes of the wicked.

    After All, 1951

    Kofi Annan. Ghana. Born 1938. Peace, 2001.

    Annan was the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations. He spent his career in the UN. As Secretary-General, he worked to defuse conflicts by negotiation.

    The Lord had the wonderful advantage of being able to work alone.

    1997, on being asked why reforms had not been implemented in the UN in 6 months, when God created the earth in 7 days.

    Edward Appleton. Britain. 1892-1965. Physics, 1947.

    Son of a Yorkshire mill worker, Appleton became an atmospheric physicist and proved the existence of the ionosphere. In World War II he was administrative head of the British atom bomb project.

    If you want something done, choose a busy man: the other kind has no time.

    Ronald Clark, Sir Edward Appleton, 1971

    The older I grow the more I assess the importance of the simple uncomplicated qualities of loyalty and devotion to a cause or to an enterprise.

    Ronald Clark, Sir Edward Appleton, 1971

    Yasir Arafat. Palestine. 1929-2004. Peace, 1994.

    Yasir Arafat headed the PLO. In 1988 he renounced terrorism and recognized Israel’s right to exist. He shared the Nobel Prize with Yitshak Rabin and Shimon Peres for their work toward the 1993 Oslo Accords.

    Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you.

    Attributed

    Oscar Arias Sanchez. Costa Rica. Born 1941. Peace, 1987.

    Oscar Arias Sanchez was President of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990, and from 2006 to 2010. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating peace among five Central American states in 1987.

    By fighting for the impossible, one begins to make it possible.

    Interview with PeaceJam, 1995

    In an age of cynicism and greed, all just ideas are considered impractical.

    Helena Cobban, Ed., The Moral Architecture of World Peace, 2000

    Dialogue produces miracles. You need to look in the face and the eyes of the other party and for that, you need to sit around a negotiating table. And if the other party doesn't want to take part in dialogue, be humble, invite it to dialogue, and if it refuses, invite it again.

    Taipei Times, August 15, 2001

    Klas Pontuas Arnoldson. Sweden. 1844-1916. Peace, 1908.

    Klas Pontus Arnoldson left school at 16 and worked on the railroad. He became a member of Parliament, where he worked for arms reduction. He was honoured for his role in the peaceful separation of Norway and Sweden.

    Without confidence in a cause, there is no action. Ignorance may be enlightened, superstition wiped out; intolerance may become tolerant, and hate be changed into love; ideas may be quickened, intelligence widened, and men’s hearts may be ennobled; but from pessimism which can see nothing but gloomy visions nothing is to be expected.

    Pax Mundi, 1890

    Svante Arrhenius. Sweden. 1859-1927. Chemistry, 1903.

    Svante Arrhenius was one of the first chemists to note the increasing amount of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere. He won the Nobel Prize for his electrolytic theory of dissociation.

    By the influence of the increasing percentage of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, we may hope to enjoy ages with more equable and better climates, especially as regards the colder regions of the earth, ages when the earth will bring forth much more abundant crops than at present, for the benefit of rapidly propagating mankind.

    Worlds in the Making, 1908

    Kenneth J. Arrow. USA. Born 1921. Economics, 1972.

    One of several Nobel laureates to receive a university education thanks to the free tuition at City College, New York, Kenneth Arrow shared the Nobel Prize with John R. Hicks for their work on equilibrium theory and welfare theory.

    You never get away from the fact that everyday economic transactions have ethical components to them.

    Interview, Financial Engineering News, September/October 2003

    Francis W. Aston. Britain. 1877-1945. Chemistry, 1922.

    From modest beginnings, Aston rose to membership in the Royal Society and affiliation with the Cavendish Laboratory. He was a gifted athlete and musician. He was honoured for his invention and use of the mass spectrometer.

    Make more, more, and yet more measurements.

    Personal motto. Tyler Wasson, Ed., Nobel Prize Winners, 1987

    Robert J. Aumann. Israel, USA. Born 1930. Economics, 2005.

    Robert Aumann was born in Germany, and moved with his family to the USA in 1938. In 1956 he moved to Israel. A conservative economist, he won the Prize for contributions to game theory.

    What I would say to any young person is, do what you like to do, what it is that catches your attention and that you get involved in, and that you get interested in, that’s what you should do. If you like to do it, go ahead and do it, that’s it.

    Interview with Rupini Bergström, Stockholm, December 6, 2005

    Assumptions don’t have to be correct; conclusions have to be correct.

    Interview, Macroeconomic Dynamics, 9, 2005

    Aung San Suu Kyi. Burma (Myanmar). Born 1945. Peace, 1991.

    Daughter of a hero of Burmese independence, Suu Kyi has since 1988 headed the National League for Democracy, enduring years of house arrest and separation from her family, but sustained by her deep Buddhist faith.

    A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as commonsense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant, or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve self-respect and inherent human dignity.

    Freedom from Fear and Other Writings, 1991

    To live the full life, one must have the courage to bear the responsibility of the needs of others.

    Quoted by her son in his Nobel Banquet Speech on her behalf, 1991

    In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth, women are not merely tolerated but valued.

    Videotape speech at NGO Forum on Women, China, September 1995

    I also know that you have to make choices in life and give up some things. It’s only the immature who think that they can have everything they want in life.

    On being unable to live with her two sons. The Voice of Hope: Conversations with Alan Clements, 1997

    If you’re interested in people and respect their point of view, you want to know more about them, which means that you listen to them, observe them, and learn from them. I think that is how friendship begins.

    The Voice of Hope: Conversations with Alan Clements, 1997

    You have to start by being sincere with yourself, before you can be sincere with others.

    The Voice of Hope: Conversations with Alan Clements, 1997

    Richard Axel. USA. Born 1946. Medicine, 2004.

    Born in Brooklyn to Polish immigrant parents, Richard Axel came to the field of biology via a job washing glassware in a laboratory at Columbia. He won the Nobel Prize for his work on the olfactory system.

    My clinical competence was immediately recognized by the faculty and deans. I could rarely, if ever, hear a heart murmur, never saw the retina, my glasses fell into an abdominal incision and finally, I sewed a surgeon’s finger to a patient upon suturing an incision.… I was allowed to graduate medical school early with an M.D. if I promised never to practice medicine on live patients. I returned to Columbia as an intern in Pathology where I kept this promise by performing autopsies. After a year in Pathology, I was asked by Don King, the Chairman of Pathology, never to practice on dead patients.

    Nobel autobiography, 2004

    Julius Axelrod. USA. 1912-2004. Medicine, 1970.

    The son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, Julius Axelrod sought to become a doctor, but was rejected by

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