Wise Words of Marie Curie

Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie (November 7th, 1867 – July 4th, 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who did pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win it twice, and the only person to win it in two scientific fields. She was also, in 1906, the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris.

Below we list some words of wisdom by Marie Curie.

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained."

"Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas."

"First principle: never to let one's self be beaten down by persons or by events."

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for our own improvement, and at the same time share a genaral responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think can be most useful."

"I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done."

"We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves."

"We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity."

"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child."

"I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy."

"The older one gets, the more one feels that the present must be enjoyed; it is a precious gift, comparable to a state of grace"

"If it takes a hundred years, it will be a pity, but I will not cease to work for it as long as I live."

"I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries."

"There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth."

"Life is not easy for any for us."

"Humanity needs practical men, who get the most out of their work, and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests. But humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit."

"I have frequently been questioned, especially by women, of how I could reconcile family life with a scientific career. Well, it has not been easy."

"I have frequently been questioned, especially by women, of how I could reconcile family life with a scientific career. Well, it has not been easy."

"Sometimes my courage fails me and I think I ought to stop working, live in the country and devote myself to gardening. But I am held by a thousand bonds, and I don't know when I shall be able to arrange things otherwise. Nor do I know whether, even by writing scientific books, I could live without the laboratory."

Copyright © Stephen Petullo, Scott Petullo