Don't be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don't let others discourage you or tell you that you can't do it. In my day I was told women didn't go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn't.
Gertrude B. ElionRead
I had fallen in love with a young man... and we were planning to get married. And then he died of subacute bacterial endocarditis... Two years later with the advent of penicillin, he would have been saved. It reinforced in my mind the importance of scientific discovery...
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the profound impact of scientific advancements on human life and relationships.
Gertrude B. Elion expresses the deep personal loss of her young love who died from a treatable condition before the discovery of penicillin. This tragic event highlighted for her the critical significance of scientific research and discovery in improving health and saving lives, reinforcing her commitment to advancing medicine.
Themes
LoveLossScienceDiscoveryPenicillinMedicine
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of medical research, one might use this quote to emphasize how scientific efforts save lives.
More from Gertrude B. Elion
All quotes →Nobody . . . took me seriously. They wondered why in the world I wanted to be a chemist when no women were doing that. The world was not waiting for me.
Gertrude B. ElionRead
The Nobel Prize is fine, but the drugs I've developed are rewards in themselves.
Gertrude B. ElionRead
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