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

The first time I saw nitroglycerine was in the beginning of the Crimean War. Professor Zinin in St. Petersburg exhibited some to my father and me, and struck some on an anvil to show that only the part touched by the hammer exploded without spreading.

I have not the slightest pretension to call my verses poetry; I write now and then for no other purpose than to relieve depression or to improve my English.

One can state, without exaggeration, that the observation of and the search for similarities and differences are the basis of all human knowledge.

Justice is to be found only in imagination.