Alfred Nobel

My only desire is to leave the world a little better than I found it.

My factories can well be compared to a spider's web, where the spider catches flies, and the flies are the people who are caught by the spider's web.

A good intention, like a good invention, must be useful.

Hope is nature's veil for the unreality of the future.

It is not wealth that makes a man, but the use he makes of it.

For my part, I wish all guns with their belongings and everything that can be used for war to be sent to hell, which is the only place they can be used and where they will be most welcome.

My wish is that the prizes should be awarded to those who, in the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.

The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.

The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention in the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

I do not see that I have deserved any fame, and I have no taste for it.

I am not a man of letters, but a man of facts.

The inventor is a man who looks at the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve them, and he is not satisfied with the status quo.

I would rather have a thousand enemies than one false friend.

My desire is to create a fund for the benefit of mankind.

I am a misanthrope, but a very kind one.

The human brain is a wonderful thing. It starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.

I intend to leave a fund for the promotion of peace.

I am not interested in money for its own sake, but only in what it can do.

The day will come when the only war will be a war against ignorance.

I have no taste for fame, and I have no taste for money.