A scientist's life, the author says, is indeed conflictual, formed by battles, defeats, and victories: but the adversary is always and only the unknown, the problem to be solved, the mystery to be clarified. It is never a matter of civil war; even though of different opinions, or of different political leanings, scientists dispute each other, they compete, but they do not battle: they are bound together by a strong alliance, by the common faith "in the validity of Maxwell's or Boltzmann's equations," and by the common acceptance of Darwinism and the molecular structure of DNA.

I too entered the Lager as a nonbeliever, and as a nonbeliever I was liberated and have lived to this day.

If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him to eat today?

If it is true that there is no greater sorrow than to remember a happy time in a state of misery, it is just as true that calling up a moment of anguish in a tranquil mood, seated quietly at one's desk, is a source of profound satisfaction.

The aims of life are the best defense against death.

It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that this is a war without end.

A man who would mutilate himself is well damned, isn't he?