Quotes from Martin Lewis Perl

Naturally, I have compensated in my adult years by owning very large numbers of books.

The remoteness of my parents from the schools, so unfashionable today, was often painful for me, but I learned early to deal with an outside and sometimes hard world.

They wanted me to play more sports because they were acutely sensitive to their children being one hundred percent American, and they believed that all Americans played sports and loved sports.

There were two free public libraries within walking distance of my home; I remember taking six books home from every visit, the limit set by the library.

Going to school and working for good marks, indeed working for very good marks, was a serious business.

About 1900 my parents came to the United States as children from what was then the Polish area of Russia.

Whatever the course, whether the course was boring or interesting to me, whether I was talented in mathematics or not talented in languages, my parents expected A's.

I was also interested in chemistry, but my parents were not willing to buy me a chemistry set.

My parents regarded school teachers as higher beings, as did many immigrants.

My parents were determined to move into the middle class.

It was good fortune to be a child during the Depression years and a youth during the war years.

Natures' curriculum cannot be changed.

A parent being called to the school because their child had misbehaved was as serious as a parent being called to the police station because their child had robbed a bank.

I learned quickly, as I tell my graduate students now, there are no answers in the back of the book when the equipment doesn't work or the measurements look strange.

I read everything: fiction, history, science, mathematics, biography, travel.

They wanted me to play more sports because they were acutely sensitive to their children being one hundred percent American, and they believed that all Americans played sports and loved sports.