Politics & Power Quote by Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

A Nobel stage is supposed to universalize genius, but Szent-Gyorgyi keeps tugging the camera back to the passport. By leading with "son of a small and far-away nation", he frames his achievement as improbable not because of talent, but because of geography. It is a quiet rebuke to the way prestige travels: big countries export confidence; small ones export people.

The sentence then expands outward - "the other laureates... different countries from all over the world" - not to flatten difference, but to set up a striking contrast. In this room, hierarchy is suspended. The crucial phrase is "equally received": he is not praising hospitality in the abstract; he is noting a deliberate performance of equality by the host culture. The "signs of sympathy" are doing rhetorical work, too. Sympathy implies a shared awareness of distance, disruption, and the historical conditions that make certain arrivals feel freighted.

Context matters. Szent-Gyorgyi was a Hungarian scientist whose career unfolded amid the churn of two world wars, the collapse of empires, and the tightening grip of authoritarian politics in Central Europe. For someone from a region routinely treated as Europe's periphery, recognition in a global capital could feel less like a coronation than a temporary visa into the center of attention. His intent is gratitude, but with an edge: a reminder that scientific laurels are awarded to individuals while nations - especially "small" ones - remain stuck negotiating visibility.