Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Albert Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápoltwas a Hungarian American physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He is credited with discovering vitamin C and the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle. He was also active in the Hungarian Resistance during World War II and entered Hungarian politics after the war...
NationalityHungarian
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth16 September 1893
men perfect wish
Why does man behave like perfect idiot? This is the problem I wish to deal with.
hydrogen principles stage
This oxidation of hydrogen in stages seems to be one of the basic principles of biological oxidation.
simplicity paper written
This paper of yours is so lightly written that you must have sweated terribly.
thank-you teaching heart
"This celebration here tells me that this work is not hopeless. I thank you for this teaching with all my heart and lift my glass to human solidarity, to the ultimate victory of knowledge, peace, good-will and understanding."
life jobs animal
All living organisms are but leaves on the same tree of life. The various functions of plants and animals and their specialized organs are manifestations of the same living matter. This adapts itself to different jobs and circumstances, but operates on the same basic principles. Muscle contraction is only one of these adaptations. In principle it would not matter whether we studied nerve, kidney or muscle to understand the basic principles of life. In practice, however, it matters a great deal.
knowledge simple research
If I go out into nature, into the unknown, to the fringes of knowledge, everything seems mixed up and contradictory, illogical, and incoherent. This is what research does; it smooths out contradictions and makes things simple, logical, and coherent.
knowledge successful editors
I called it ignose, not knowing which carbohydrate it was. This name was turned down by my editor. 'God-nose' was not more successful, so in the end 'hexuronic acid' was agreed upon. To-day the substance is called 'ascorbic acid' and I will use this name.
discovery two judging
A discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge. During my lifetime, I made two. Both were rejected offhand by the popes of the field. Had I predicted these discoveries in my applications, and had those authorities been my judges, it is evident what their decisions would have been.
lying home night
I always tried to live up to Leo Szilard's commandment, "don't lie if you don't have to." I had to. I filled up pages with words and plans I knew I would not follow. When I go home from my laboratory in the late afternoon, I often do not know what I am going to do the next day. I expect to think that up during the night. How could I tell them what I would do a year hence?
eye science thinking
Research is four things: brains with which to think, eyes with which to see, machines with which to measure and, fourth, money.
work real bears
The real scientist is ready to bear privation and, if need be, starvation rather than let anyone dictate to him which direction his work must take.
keys empty key-to-happiness
The key to happiness is not to get more, but to enjoy what we have and to fill the empty frame of our lives instead of enlarging it.
occupation systematic research
Research is not a systematic occupation but an intuitive artistic vocation.
science creating imagination
Science has helped us to understand and master ourselves, creating an elevated new form of human life, the wealth and beauty of which cannot be pictured today by the keenest imagination.