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Quotes by or related to Ava Helen Pauling


"[Simon's] family is in Berlin now. He is worried about anti-Semitism. He is a Jew, and so is his wife (and the children). We talked about Jews a while. He said Euken was brought to Gottingen instead of Stern because there are so many Jews there already (Franck, Born, Conant, Goldschmidt) and they thought it better not to have another."
Linus Pauling. Letter to Ava Helen Pauling. May 9, 1932.


"Oh, I might mention that everyone from the East who writes to give Linus advice urges him to get in touch with a Dr. Addis somewhere in San Francisco, at Berkeley, Stanford, etc. You see how things get nosed around."
Ava Helen Pauling. Letter to Thomas Addis. May 20, 1941.


"Although [USCOM is] officially dissolved as a Committee, let us remain united as individuals in the thought that if and when we are called upon again for further service in this worthwhile project, we too shall be found 'standing by.'"
Mrs. Philip Schuyler Doane. Letter to Ava Helen Pauling. May 28, 1941.


"I took the exam and everything was o.k. It will take a couple of weeks for papers to get through, and then I'll be inducted. After induction I get sent home for another week to await orders. Then Santa Ana, probably. Some fun."
Linus Pauling, Jr.. Letter to Ava Helen Pauling. June 2, 1943.


"What do you think about Russia? I think we're going to have a lot of trouble avoiding a war with her; if there is war, it almost means the end of the world. Perhaps this is the end; another Dreary Day is just around the corner. I shouldn't be surprised if we never see peace in our lives. My faith in the ability of nations to be tolerant is weak, very weak indeed. Every nation is extremely suspicious of every other, and these suspicions are too often well-found. Why cannot all nations have a sort of brotherly spirit? By the way racial prejudice in Texas is horribly strong - a negro does not look at a white man without being accused of trying to own the world. It is such feeling that creates unrest, even between nations."
Linus Pauling, Jr.. Letter to Ava Helen Pauling. January 21, 1944.


"The doc contemplated using me as a test case for penicillin, but decided my case wasn't bad enough. So I missed glory."
Linus Pauling, Jr.. Letter to Ava Helen Pauling. April 20, 1944.


"During the year 1944 Mrs. Ava Helen Pauling worked for several months in my laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Her task consisted in the separation by chromatography of various colored derivatives of plant products and the determination of their physical constants. I remember with a great deal of pleasure her participation in our research which she carried out to my full satisfaction. I have no hesitation in recommending her for an appointment which would enable her to return to the laboratory."
A. J. Haagen-Smit. Letter to Linus Pauling. October 27, 1967.


"During the Second World War, when the children were growing up, I think three of the children were still at home or - I don't know, perhaps the youngest one was still at home - [Ava Helen Pauling] worked for a couple of years as a chemist on a war job making rubber out of plants that would grow in the Mojave. She was interested in chemistry and knew a lot of chemistry but it was more an intellectual interest. She was planning to write a cookbook on the science of cooking, because she knew what happened when things were cooked. She knew what baking powder is and why you use it. She used to make her own baking powder, instead of just buying baking powder. Well, she never got that done. She was a very good cook, but she never wrote the book on the science of cooking....It probably wouldn't have had much of a sale, because the contents might well have been above the heads of most cooks."
Linus Pauling. Interview with Samantha Guerry. April 1991.

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