PEACE, 1906
360. To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Bertrand Russell LITERATURE, 1950
361. The 17th century was the century of mathematics, the 18th that of the physical sciences, and the 19th that of biology. Our 20th century is the century of fear.
Albert Camus LITERATURE, 1957
Human Relations
The popular myth that brilliant people are socially retarded is refuted by the lives of Nobel laureates. A remarkable proportion of them, particularly the scientists, married once and stayed married. Saul Bellow was married five times, and Ernest Hemingway and Bertrand Russell four times, but these are exceptions. Erwin Schrodinger, after fleeing Nazi Germany, achieved the feat of sharing his house in a staid Dublin suburb with his wife and his mistress, while carrying on affairs with his university students and fathering children with two other Irish women. One laureate, Abdus Salam, a Muslim, had two wives, which presented unusual problems of protocol at the Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm, where by tradition the wife of the Physics laureate goes in to dinner on the arm of the king of Sweden.
In their autobiographies, laureates frequently pay tribute to their families. Although a number of laureates emerged from very modest backgrounds, the great majority were children of professional or academic parents. The physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer, for example, was the seventh straight generation of university professors. Eight laureates had a parent who also won the Nobel Prize. Fortunately for the world, most laureates pass on their genes. Theodor Mommsen holds the record with sixteen children. Pearl S. Buck adopted nine children and founded Welcome
House, which arranged for the adoption of thousands of children fathered by American servicemen in Asia. Robert Aumann has eighteen grandchildren.
Nobel Prize winners are rarely solitary geniuses. Although the lone scientist was not unusual when the Nobel Prize was instituted in 1901, science no longer advances by means of the reclusive researcher working in a cramped laboratory. Theorists may work alone, but given the scale and complexity of experimental science today, it almost invariably requires collaboration. Many science laureates credit their success primarily to their collaboration with a brilliant senior scientist in the early years of their career. In the last twenty years, the science prizes have usually been awarded to pairs or trios of researchers. Unshared prizes, however, are still the norm for literature; few works of literature are the product ofjoint authorship.
Four married couples have won Nobel prizes. Marie and Pierre Curie, who shared the Physics Prize in 1903, epitomized married collaboration, which ended only when Pierre was tragically run over by a wagon on a Paris street. Many women have played significant roles in scientific discoveries, but women are underrepresented in the Nobel awards. Up to 2006, the Nobel Prize has been won by 735 men and 33 women. Two women have won the prize for Physics, three for Chemistry, seven for Medicine, ten for Literature, and twelve for Peace.
LOVE AND AFFECTION
362. Love is an illness, but it is not mortal.
Selma Lagerlöf LITERATURE, 1909
363. Love that stammers, that stutters, is apt to be the love that loves best.
Gabriela Mistral LITERATURE, 1945
364. Like all the great creations of humanity, love is twofold: it is the supreme happiness and supreme misfortune.
Octavio Paz LITERATURE, 1990
365. Love is not a desire for beauty; it is a yearning for completion.
Octavio Paz LITERATURE, 1990
366. One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved.
Romain Rolland LITERATURE, 1915
367. Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
Bertrand Russell LITERATURE, 1950
368. We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
Mother Teresa PEACE, 1979
369. The spectacle of the Christians
360. To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Bertrand Russell LITERATURE, 1950
361. The 17th century was the century of mathematics, the 18th that of the physical sciences, and the 19th that of biology. Our 20th century is the century of fear.
Albert Camus LITERATURE, 1957
Human Relations
The popular myth that brilliant people are socially retarded is refuted by the lives of Nobel laureates. A remarkable proportion of them, particularly the scientists, married once and stayed married. Saul Bellow was married five times, and Ernest Hemingway and Bertrand Russell four times, but these are exceptions. Erwin Schrodinger, after fleeing Nazi Germany, achieved the feat of sharing his house in a staid Dublin suburb with his wife and his mistress, while carrying on affairs with his university students and fathering children with two other Irish women. One laureate, Abdus Salam, a Muslim, had two wives, which presented unusual problems of protocol at the Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm, where by tradition the wife of the Physics laureate goes in to dinner on the arm of the king of Sweden.
In their autobiographies, laureates frequently pay tribute to their families. Although a number of laureates emerged from very modest backgrounds, the great majority were children of professional or academic parents. The physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer, for example, was the seventh straight generation of university professors. Eight laureates had a parent who also won the Nobel Prize. Fortunately for the world, most laureates pass on their genes. Theodor Mommsen holds the record with sixteen children. Pearl S. Buck adopted nine children and founded Welcome
House, which arranged for the adoption of thousands of children fathered by American servicemen in Asia. Robert Aumann has eighteen grandchildren.
Nobel Prize winners are rarely solitary geniuses. Although the lone scientist was not unusual when the Nobel Prize was instituted in 1901, science no longer advances by means of the reclusive researcher working in a cramped laboratory. Theorists may work alone, but given the scale and complexity of experimental science today, it almost invariably requires collaboration. Many science laureates credit their success primarily to their collaboration with a brilliant senior scientist in the early years of their career. In the last twenty years, the science prizes have usually been awarded to pairs or trios of researchers. Unshared prizes, however, are still the norm for literature; few works of literature are the product ofjoint authorship.
Four married couples have won Nobel prizes. Marie and Pierre Curie, who shared the Physics Prize in 1903, epitomized married collaboration, which ended only when Pierre was tragically run over by a wagon on a Paris street. Many women have played significant roles in scientific discoveries, but women are underrepresented in the Nobel awards. Up to 2006, the Nobel Prize has been won by 735 men and 33 women. Two women have won the prize for Physics, three for Chemistry, seven for Medicine, ten for Literature, and twelve for Peace.
LOVE AND AFFECTION
362. Love is an illness, but it is not mortal.
Selma Lagerlöf LITERATURE, 1909
363. Love that stammers, that stutters, is apt to be the love that loves best.
Gabriela Mistral LITERATURE, 1945
364. Like all the great creations of humanity, love is twofold: it is the supreme happiness and supreme misfortune.
Octavio Paz LITERATURE, 1990
365. Love is not a desire for beauty; it is a yearning for completion.
Octavio Paz LITERATURE, 1990
366. One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved.
Romain Rolland LITERATURE, 1915
367. Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
Bertrand Russell LITERATURE, 1950
368. We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
Mother Teresa PEACE, 1979
369. The spectacle of the Christians
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