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Science & Tech Quote by Guglielmo Marconi

"I am glad to have this opportunity of expressing my high appreciation of the honour extended to me many years ago by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science by enrolling me amongst its members"

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Marconi’s sentence looks like polite boilerplate, but it’s doing the highly strategic work of prestige maintenance. “Glad” and “opportunity” frame the moment as gracious spontaneity, as if recognition is simply being acknowledged in passing. Yet the real engine is “high appreciation” for an “honour extended to me many years ago,” a phrase that subtly turns an institutional accolade into a long-term credential. He’s not just thanking the Royal Swedish Academy; he’s reminding everyone that his legitimacy was conferred early and endures.

The wording matters because Marconi’s career sat at the crossroads of discovery, engineering, and public spectacle. Wireless telegraphy made him a household name, but it also made him a magnet for disputes over priority and patents. In that climate, membership in an august academy functions like a seal: not a claim he has to litigate, but a verdict already rendered by a tribunal that supposedly stands above commercial squabbles and national rivalries.

Notice the careful formality: “Royal,” “Swedish,” “Academy of Science,” each title stacked to maximize the institution’s gravity. And “enrolling me amongst its members” is a passive, almost ceremonial construction that casts Marconi as the recipient of sober judgment, not a self-promoter demanding applause.

The intent, then, isn’t mere gratitude. It’s reputation management in velvet gloves: a scientist-inventor reaffirming that his work belongs in the canon of science, not just the marketplace of gadgets and claims.

Quote Details

TopicGratitude
SourceNobel Lecture "Wireless Telegraphy", Guglielmo Marconi, Nobel Prize in Physics 1909; sentence appears in the opening paragraph of his Nobel lecture (NobelPrize.org).
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Marconi, Guglielmo. (2026, January 15). I am glad to have this opportunity of expressing my high appreciation of the honour extended to me many years ago by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science by enrolling me amongst its members. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-glad-to-have-this-opportunity-of-expressing-148400/

Chicago Style
Marconi, Guglielmo. "I am glad to have this opportunity of expressing my high appreciation of the honour extended to me many years ago by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science by enrolling me amongst its members." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-glad-to-have-this-opportunity-of-expressing-148400/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I am glad to have this opportunity of expressing my high appreciation of the honour extended to me many years ago by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science by enrolling me amongst its members." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-glad-to-have-this-opportunity-of-expressing-148400/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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Marconi on Honor from the Royal Swedish Academy
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About the Author

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Guglielmo Marconi (April 25, 1874 - June 20, 1937) was a Scientist from Italy.

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