Lars Onsager

Banquet speech

Lars Onsager’s speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1968

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have received the greatest honor in my life – and the greatest surprise. Never did I dream that the Nobel Prize could be awarded for the reciprocal relations. Not that I felt bashful about the work, but how does one equate a principle with a discovery? It is not the naked principle but rather the philosophy that goes with it; by and by, that is fruitful.

But a joy it is, so much greater because all those who ever shared anything with me, whether in youthful play or in earnest endeavor, they are so glad, all of them!

Min hjertelige takk!

From Les Prix Nobel en 1968, Editor Wilhelm Odelberg, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1969
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1968

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