Rita Levi-Montalcini Quotes (1909-2012)

“I never had any hesitation or regrets in this sense. My life has been enriched by excellent human relations, work and interests. I have never felt lonely.”

“I'm an atheist: I don't know what it means to believe in God.Interview with Piergiorgio Odifreddi in Incontri con menti straordinarie (TEA, Milano, 2007), ISBN 978-88-502-1523-2.”

“The young need to know how lucky they are to have been born in this splendid country, Italy.Dall'intervista al TG1 Rai, in occasione del conferimento di una laurea honoris causa presso l'Università di Milano-Bicocca, 22 gennaio 2008.”

“The women who changed the world never needed to show anything other than their own intelligence.Cited in Addio a Rita Levi Montalcini, scienziata e donna straordinaria, Panorama.it, 30 dicembre 2012.”

“It is imperfection — not perfection — that is the end result of the program written into that formidably complex engine that is the human brain, and of the influences exerted upon us by the environment and whoever takes care of us during the long years of our physical, psychological and intellectual development.”

“I consider imperfection a Darwinian spring of natural selection. For example, present day insects are identical to those of six million years ago: they were already perfect, and there was no reason for them to change. Man was instead imperfect, and this was the proxy for his own development and evolution.”

“Man is ruined by servility, conformism, obsequiousness, rather than aggressiveness, which is much more common in the environment than within ourselves.From the presentation Elogio dell'imperfezione (Garzanti, 1987), Liceo classico Massimo d'Azeglio, Torino; cited in Giovanni Berlinguer, Il leopardo in salotto, Editori Riuniti, 1990.”

“In life one should never give in, surrender oneself to mediocrity, but rather move out of that grey area where everything is habit and passive resignation. One has to grow the courage to rebel.https://www.frasicelebri.it/frasi-di/rita-levi-montalcini/.”

“Those who are lucky enough to have faith are granted with a great support in all stages of life. If instead of an anthropomorphous God, who rewards the good, one replaces the imperative chiselled in our genetic program that good deeds have a price in themselves, and that evil has its own punishment, both the non-believer and the believer will find the same answer.From an interview to a university journal Uniroma Network, anno 4, n. 7-8, pag. 3.”

“I have lost a bit of my sight, much of my hearing. At conferences, I can't see the presentations and can't hear well. But I think more now than when I when I was twenty. The body can do whatever it likes. I am not the body: I am the mind.In an interview with Paolo Giordano, 100 anni di futuro, Wired, n. 1, marzo 2009.Cited by Elisabetta Intini, Addio alla signora della scienza, le sue frasi più belle, Focus.it, 31 dicembre 2012.Cited in Addio Rita Levi Montalcini, le frasi più belle di un genio gentile, VanityFair.it, 30 dicembre 2012.”