Alfred Nobel

If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.

Alfred Nobel (21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite. In his last will, he used his enormous fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes.

Quotes

• 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.
  • As quoted in Nobel, Dynamite and Peace (1929) by Ragnar Sohlman and Henrik Schück, as translated by Brian Lunn and Beatrix Lunn, p. 249; also quoted by Lester B. Pearson in his address on accepting the Nobel Peace Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway (10 December 1957).

• If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.
  • As quoted in The 12 best Questions To Ask Customers (2001), by Jim Meisenheimer, p. 26.

• 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.
  • As quoted in The Military Quotation Book (2002) by James Charlton, p. 114.

• 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.
• Contentment is the only real wealth
• We build upon the sand, and the older we become, the more unstable this foundation becomes.
• The truthful man is usually a liar.
• Justice is to be found only in the imagination.
• It is not sufficient to be worthy of respect in order to be respected.
• Worry is the stomach's worst poison.
• The best excuse for the fallen ones is that Madame Justice herself is one of them.
• Self-respect without the respect of others is like a jewel which will not stand the daylight.
• Hope is nature's veil for hiding truth's nakedness.
• Lying is the greatest of all sins.
• Home is where I work and I work everywhere.

• Alfred Nobel, "Aphorisms by Alfred Nobel". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. ^{[citation needed]}