The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.

My scientific work is motivated by an irresistible longing to understand the secrets of nature not by other feelings.

I never commit to memory anything that can easily be looked up in a book

It is humankind's duty to respect all life, not only animals have feelings but even also trees and plants.

I am not a positivist. Positivism states that what cannot be observed does not exist. This conception is scientifically indefensible, for it is impossible to make valid affirmations of what people 'can' or 'cannot' observe. One would have to say 'only what we observe exists,' which is obviously false.

I have survived two wars, two wives and Hitler.

Our schoolbooks glorify war and conceal its horrors. They indoctrinate children with hatred. I would teach peace rather than war, love rather than hate.