Rita Levi-Montalcini Quotes

#1. 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

#2. 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

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

Rita Levi-Montalcini

#4. 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

#5. 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

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

Rita Levi-Montalcini

#7. 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

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

Rita Levi-Montalcini

#9. 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

#10. 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

#11. Above all, don't fear difficult moments. The best comes from them

Rita Levi-Montalcini

#12. 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

#13. After centuries of dormancy, young women ... can now look toward a future moulded by their own hands.

Rita Levi-Montalcini

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

Rita Levi-Montalcini

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

Rita Levi-Montalcini

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

Rita Levi-Montalcini

#17. 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

#18. 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

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

Rita Levi-Montalcini

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

Rita Levi-Montalcini

#21. 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

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

Rita Levi-Montalcini