Rita Levi-Montalcini

"The women who changed the world never needed to show anything other than their own intelligence.Cited in Addio a Rita Levi Montalcini, scienziata e donna straordinaria, Panorama.it, 30 dicembre 2012."

"Those who are lucky enough to have faith are granted with a great support in all stages of life. If instead of an anthropomorphous God, who rewards the good, one replaces the imperative chiselled in our genetic program that good deeds have a price in themselves, and that evil has its own punishment, both the non-believer and the believer will find the same answer.From an interview to a university journal Uniroma Network, anno 4, n. 7-8, pag. 3."

"I consider imperfection a Darwinian spring of natural selection. For example, present day insects are identical to those of six million years ago: they were already perfect, and there was no reason for them to change. Man was instead imperfect, and this was the proxy for his own development and evolution."

"Im an atheist: I dont know what it means to believe in God.Interview with Piergiorgio Odifreddi in Incontri con menti straordinarie (TEA, Milano, 2007), ISBN 978-88-502-1523-2."

"Everything came easy to me in life. I could always shake off difficulties, like water on a ducks wings."

"I have lost a bit of my sight, much of my hearing. At conferences, I cant see the presentations and cant hear well. But I think more now than when I when I was twenty. The body can do whatever it likes. I am not the body: I am the mind.In an interview with Paolo Giordano, 100 anni di futuro, Wired, n. 1, marzo 2009.Cited by Elisabetta Intini, Addio alla signora della scienza, le sue frasi più belle, Focus.it, 31 dicembre 2012.Cited in Addio Rita Levi Montalcini, le frasi più belle di un genio gentile, VanityFair.it, 30 dicembre 2012."