Quotes from Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize

Ahmed H. Zewail ·  304 pages

Rating: (254 votes)


“When I was a child, I thought of my Delta town as the center of the

universe, but now I realize how little I know about the universe. As a

child, I thought I was immortal, but now I recognize how limited a time

we all have. As a child, success meant scoring A on every exam, but

now I take it to mean good health, close family and friends, achieve-

ments in my work, and helping others.”
― Ahmed H. Zewail, quote from Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize


“I don't know all the reasons for these achievements, but I know that I love what I do and I have never wanted to rest on my laurels.”
― Ahmed H. Zewail, quote from Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize


“Perhaps the most valuable thing he taught me (his father) was

that there is no contradiction between devotion to work and enjoyment

of life and people”
― Ahmed H. Zewail, quote from Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize


“Interestingly, this was the only incident of blatant prejudice that I can

remember. But I am aware that such opinions exist in human beings, and

it's not a question of being Egyptian or being an Arab or being a Muslim.

One could be a Christian against a Jew or a Jew against a Christian, or a

white against a black, or a man against a woman. My philosophy is not

to let such attitudes stop me from what I want to do. I don't take it very

seriously, although as you can see, I remember the incident very well.

The point was I had to get on with my work and had to behave properly,

and in the process perhaps even change the opinion of these people. But

on the other hand, if I did nothing but complain and feel sorry for myself,

then I wouldn't get anywhere.”
― Ahmed H. Zewail, quote from Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize


“in my first American

class—a freshman chemistry class during the 1969-70 academic year—

they looked at me as though I was supposed to be their nurse because

they were paying a stiff tuition. That's another concept I had to learn—

in American private schools we worked for them because they paid the

tuition, but in Egypt we were educating them.”
― Ahmed H. Zewail, quote from Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize



“Egypt is the gift of the Nile, as the Greek historian Herodotus said many centuries ago, in about 450 BC.”
― Ahmed H. Zewail, quote from Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize


“The prefix milli comes from Latin (and French for “thousandth”), micro and nano from Greek (for “small” and “dwarf respectively), and pico from Spanish (for “small”). Femto is Scandinavian, the root of the word for “fifteen” (femten)—nuclear physicists call a femtometer, the unit for the dimensions of atomic nuclei, a fermi. Attosecond, the next smaller unit, 10-18 second, uses a prefix also derived from Scandinavian, from the word for “eighteen.”
― Ahmed H. Zewail, quote from Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize


About the author

Ahmed H. Zewail
Born place: in Egypt
Born date February 26, 1946
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“There is something about walking into a room full of boys that makes you feel exposed, inadequate, like you come up short in every way that matters. It didn't used to be like this, and I don't know when it changed, but now it feels like it was always this way.”
― Jenny Han, quote from Shug


“Li chiamiamo 'mostri' perché li sentiamo lontani da noi, perché li vogliamo diversi. Invece ci assomigliano in tutto e per tutto, ma noi preferiamo rimuovere l'idea che un mostro simile sia capace di tanto. E questo per assolvere la nostra natura.
Gli antropologi la definiscono 'spersonalizzazione del reo' e costituisce spesso il maggior ostacolo all'identificazione di un serial killer.
Perché un uomo ha dei punti deboli e può essere catturato.
Un mostro no.”
― Donato Carrisi, quote from The Whisperer


“And sometimes the show can't go on.”
― Josh Kilmer-Purcell, quote from I Am Not Myself These Days


“She stroked his shoulder, up as far as his neck and back again. Over his chest. And he thought she must be able to feel his heart beating and that she was like the Pioneer TV they had stopped producing because it was too good, and you could see it was good because the black part of the picture was so black.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“Electrical shivers shoot up my leg.
And my knee is such a slut!
She likes it! She's that friend you have. The one who you tell you're on a diet and the next day shows up with cupcakes and says, Aww, just one won't hurt.”
― Jillian Dodd, quote from Date Me


Interesting books

Never Cry Wolf
(19K)
Never Cry Wolf
by Farley Mowat
If You Deceive
(10.3K)
If You Deceive
by Kresley Cole
The Viper's Nest
(40.1K)
The Viper's Nest
by Peter Lerangis
The Lowland
(72.7K)
The Lowland
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Stung
(8.6K)
Stung
by Bethany Wiggins
Never Never: Part Two
(38.8K)
Never Never: Part Tw...
by Colleen Hoover

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.