Alfred Nobel

Alfred Bernhard Nobel (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.

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

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]}