In recent years, more and more of my time has become absorbed by administrative work for the research council of ETH-Z of which I am presently the president.

A brief visit to Nepal started my insatiable love for Asian art.

I wanted to understand the secrets behind my chemical experiments and behind the processes in nature.

Thus, after finishing high school, I started with high expectations and enthusiasm to study chemistry at the famous Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

I am not surprised that they show no intention to follow in my footsteps, although if I had a second chance myself, I would certainly try to repeat my present career.

On the theoretical side, I was concerned with stochastic resonance.

I recognized that teaching and research institutions vitally depend on the involvement of active scientists also in management functions.

My father, Robert Ernst, was teaching as an architect at the technical high school of our city.

I thus decided to leave the university forever and tried to find an industrial job in the United States.

I can't force your lips to smile, but I can show them how easily mine do.

I take criticism to heart. The words hit me literally and it hurts. It can take me a long time to recover from it.

Never loan your car to anyone to whom you've given birth.

I'm a relatively respectable citizen. Multiple felon perhaps, but certainly not dangerous.

You don't get points for predicting rain. You get points for building arks.

Economic markets are collapsing. People all over the world are suffering and people afraid. What happens when peep are afraid? They become intolerant.

You are the sum total of your dominating or most prominent thoughts.

When I look back on everything I've done, it all somehow makes sense to me. But it doesn't make sense when you're actually doing it.

You can use data wrong. It's just like polling. There have been a lot of politicians who go conduct a poll to figure out what they believe.