You don’t have to be much cleverer. Just be one day earlier! (L. Sz.)

“I was born a scientist. I believe that many children are born with an inquisitive mind and I assume that I became a scientist because in some way, I remained a child,” Leo Szilard said. According to his brother, Béla, the young Leo had four guiding principles:

1) Be different.

2) Think, and let others tend to the details.

3) Be honest.

4) Focus on the future.

“Of all Hungarians, Leo Szilard was the most Hungarian. A Hungarian is one who enters a revolving door behind you and comes out ahead. Leo Szilard was a dedicated nonconformist. He did not mind offending anybody, but never committed the sin of being boring. He had one principle, which he did not violate on any occasion; never to say what was expected of him.”

This is how Edward Teller characterized his compatriot, his co-worker in nuclear power development, and his antagonist in foreign affairs. His fellow student Albert Korodi (Peter Lax’s uncle) commented about him, “The German poet Lessing said, ‘If one tries to be polite, one has to lie’, but Szilard always preferred being honest.” Eugene P. Wigner said, “Throughout my long life, I had the chance to meet very talented people, but I never met anybody else more imaginative than Leo Szilard. No one had more independence of thought and opinion.” And he added in a low voice, “You may value this statement better if you recall that I knew Albert Einstein as well.”

When he was already in America, Szilard was called for jury duty once. When the murder trial was completed, the jury voted eleven “guilty,” one “innocent.” This one was Szilard. Since an unanimous vote was required, the verdict was delayed. Szilard went around and argued with the others that the evidence against the defendant was not completely convincing.

On the next day, the opinion of the jury became eleven “innocent,” one “guilty.” This one was Szilard because while arguing with the other members of the jury, he had discovered a hole in the alibi of the suspect.

***

Leo’s great-grandfather was a shepherd in the Orava Mountains around 1800. His son was born there (1810); he cultivated leased lands in the Vág Valley. He obtained the Castle of Végles. They raised their 10 daughters and 4 sons in the castle with a drawbridge. His son (Leo’s father) attended school in Kremnica (Körmöcbánya), enrolled at the Budapest University of Technology in his twenties in 1880, and then married an intelligent Pest girl. Their child, Leo was born and raised near City Park. The Eötvös Physical Society and the American Physical Society placed a bilingual plaque at his birthplace (50, Bajza utca) on the centenary of his birth (1998). In 1901, the family vacationed at Lake Wörth in Austria. While boating, a cousin, who could not swim, slipped and fell into the water from the rocking boat, along with Leo’s mother Tekla. Luckily, Leo’s father Louis held the wailing Leo with one hand and Tekla’s dress with the other, and in the end, nothing fatal happened. The consequence of this shock was that Leo never learned to swim. (Thirty years later, with his love, Trudi, Leo was visiting Oxford with Nicholas Kurti. Seeing the mutual attraction of the young people, Kurti offered his kayak for a trip together, just the two of them. He was surprised by Leo’s fierce protest against any kind of water activity.)

 

A szövegrészlet György Marx: The Voice of the Martians című könyvéből származik.

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