William P. Murphy’s speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1934

Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

As Alfred Nobel has been characterised as the typical Swede, so also was he a roamer. Always a courier of good-will his wanderings took him to France, England, Russia, Spain, Denmark, Italy and to America, but always to return at least once each year to Sweden. In like manner, this agent of goodwill – the Nobel Prize Award – travels from country to country as did its founder. It is, therefore, most fitting that we also return each year to Sweden to honor him.

As an idealist he believed that scientific research, and particularly the practical application of the results thereof, as through medicine, should benefit the great masses of people throughout the world and thus serve as a powerful instrument in the interest of peace among nations.

It gives me the greatest joy to have the privilege, as a recipient of a Nobel Prize Award, of participating actively in this ceremony of homage to Alfred Nobel. My joy is intensified by the belief that the work for which this award has been made typifies the Nobel ideal.

In accepting the award I cannot adequately express my gratitude to the representatives of the great Swedish nation, empowered to make the award, for this magnificent indication of the high esteem in which my own modest efforts in the interest of the good of mankind are held.