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Wikipedia Summary for Alfred Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( noh-BEL, Swedish: [ˈǎlfrɛd nʊˈbɛlː] (listen); 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist. He is best known for having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize, though he also made several important contributions to science, holding 355 patents in his lifetime. Nobel's most famous invention was dynamite, a safer and easier means of harnessing the explosive power of nitroglycerin; it was patented in 1867 and was soon used worldwide for mining and infrastructure development.
Nobel displayed an early aptitude for science and learning, particularly in chemistry and languages; he became fluent in six languages and filed his first patent at age 24. He embarked on many business ventures with his family, most notably owning Bofors, an iron and steel producer that he developed into a major manufacturer of cannons and other armaments.
After reading an erroneous obituary condemning him as a war profiteer, Nobel was inspired to bequeath his fortune to the Nobel Prize institution, which would annually recognize those who "conferred the greatest benefit to humankind". The synthetic element nobelium was named after him, and his name and legacy also survives in companies such as Dynamit Nobel and AkzoNobel, which descend from mergers with companies he founded.
Nobel was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which, pursuant to his will, would be responsible for choosing the Nobel laureates in physics and in chemistry.
Self-respect without the respect of others is like a jewel which will not stand the daylight.
For my part, I wish all guns with their belongings and everything could be sent to hell, which is the proper place for their exhibition and use.
My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant, whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace.
I am a misanthrope yet utterly benevolent.
The savants will write excellent volumes. There will be laureates. But wars will continue just the same until the forces of the circumstances render them impossible.
I would not leave anything to a man of action as he would be tempted to give up work; on the other hand, I would like to help dreamers as they find it difficult to get on in life.
Nature is man's teacher. She unfolds her treasures to his search, unseals his eye, illumes his mind, and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence.
It is not sufficient to be worthy of respect in order to be respected.
Worry is the stomach's worst poison.
The truthful man is usually a liar.
I have not the slightest pretension to call my verses poetry; I write now and then for no other purpose than to relieve depression or to improve my English.
For me writing biographies is impossible, unless they are brief and concise, and these are, I feel, the most eloquent.
Home is where I work, and I work everywhere.
A recluse without books and ink is already in life a dead man.
It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.
If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.
I am a misanthrope and yet utterly benevolent, have more than one screw loose yet am a super-idealist who digests philosophy more efficiently than food.
Lying is the greatest of all sins.
Kant's style is so heavy that after his pure reason, the reader longs for unreasonableness.
On the day when two army corps may mutually annihilate each other in a second, probably all civilized nations will recoil with horror and disband their troops.
Lawyers have to make a living, and can only do so by inducing people to believe that a straight line is crooked.
Contentment is the only real wealth.
I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am skeptical as to its results.
Hope is nature's veil for hiding truth's nakedness.
A heart can no more be forced to love than a stomach can be forced to digest food by persuasion.
Second to agriculture, humbug is the biggest industry of our age.
Good wishes alone will not ensure peace.
The first time I saw nitroglycerine was in the beginning of the Crimean War. Professor Zinin in St. Petersburg exhibited some to my father and me, and struck some on an anvil to show that only the part touched by the hammer exploded without spreading.
One can state, without exaggeration, that the observation of and the search for similarities and differences are the basis of all human knowledge.
Justice is to be found only in imagination.