Marie Curie Quotes & Sayings

Life is not easy for any for us. — Marie Curie

You can only analyze the data you
have. Be strategic about what to
gather and how to store it — Marie Curie

Now is the time to understand more, so we fear less. — Marie Curie

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

Each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity. — Marie Curie

In 1906, just as we were definitely giving up the old shed laboratory where we had been so happy, there came the dreadful catastrophe which took my husband away from me and left me alone to bring up our children and, at the same time, to continue our work of research. — Marie Curie

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. — Marie Curie

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 mankind. — Marie Curie

The death of my husband, coming immediately after the general knowledge of the discoveries with which his name is associated, was felt by the public, and especially by the scientific circles, to be a national misfortune. — Marie Curie

We believe the substance we have extracted from pitchblende contains a metal not yet observed, related to bismuth by its analytical properties. If the existence of this new metal is confirmed we propose to call it polonium, from the name of the original country of one of us. — Marie Curie

Certein bodies ... become luminous when heated. Their luminosity disappears after some time, but the capacity of becoming luminous afresh through heat is restored to them by the action of a spark, and also by the action of radium. — Marie Curie

Pierre Curie came to see me and showed a simple and sincere sympathy with my student life. Soon he caught the habit of speaking to me of his dream of an existence consecrated entirely to scientific research, and he asked me to share that life. — Marie Curie

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. — Marie Curie

My experiments proved that the radiation of uranium compounds can be measured with precision under determined conditions and that this radiation is an atomic property of the element of uranium. — Marie Curie

We should not allow it to be believed that all scientific progress can be reduced to mechanisms, machines, gearings, even though such machinery also has its beauty. Neither do I believe that the spirit of adventure runs any risk of disappearing in our world. — Marie Curie

The first experiments on the biological properties of radium were successfully made in France, with samples from our laboratory, while my husband was living. — Marie Curie

In 1903, I finished my doctor's thesis and obtained the degree. At the end of the same year, the Nobel prize was awarded jointly to Becquerel, my husband and me for the discovery of radioactivity and new radioactive elements. — Marie Curie

The various reasons which we have enumerated lead us to believe that the new radio-active substance contains a new element which we propose to give the name of radium. — Marie Curie

Pierre Curie voluntarily exposed his arm to the action of radium for several hours. This resulted in damage resembling a burn that developed progressively and required several months to heal. Henri Becquerel had by accident a similar burn as a result of carrying in his vest pocket a glass tube containing radium salt. He came to tell us of this evil effect of radium, exclaiming in a manner at once delighted and annoyed: "I love it, but I owe it a grudge." — Marie Curie

After all, science is essentially international, and it is only through lack of the historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it. — Marie Curie

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

All my mind was centered on my studies, which, especially at the beginning, were difficult. In fact, I was insufficiently prepared to follow the physical science course at the Sorbonne, for, despite all my efforts, I had not succeeded in acquiring in Poland a preparation as complete as that of the French students following the same course. — Marie Curie

We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. — Marie Curie

We must have perserverence and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something. — Marie Curie

So perished the hope founded on the wonderful being who thus ceased to be. In the study room to which he was never to return, the water buttercups he had brought from the country were still fresh. — Marie Curie

It's always good to marry your best friend. — Marie Curie

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. Without doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research. — Marie Curie

I met Pierre Curie for the first time in the spring of the year 1894 ... A Polish physicist whom I knew, and who was a great admirer of Pierre Curie, one day invited us together to spend the evening with himself and his wife. — Marie Curie

It is my earnest desire that some of you should carry on this scientific work and keep for your ambition the determination to make a permanent contribution to science. — Marie Curie

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done. — Marie Curie

If I see anything vital around me, it is precisely that spirit of adventure, which seems indestructible and is akin to curiosity. — Marie Curie

For the admirable gift of himself, and for the magnificent service he renders humanity, what reward does our society offer the scientist? Have these servants of an idea the necessary means of work? Have they an assured existence, sheltered from care? The example of Pierre Curiee, and of others, shows that they have none of these things; and that more often, before they can secure possible working conditions, they have to exhaust their youth and their powers in daily anxieties. Our society, in which reigns an eager desire for riches and luxury, does not understand the value of science. It does not realize that science is a most precious part of its moral patrimony. Nor does it take sufficient cognizance of the fact that science is at the base of all the progress that lightens the burden of life and lessens its suffering. Neither public powers nor private generosity actually accord to science and to scientists the support and the subsidies indispensable to fully effective work. — Marie Curie

A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales. — Marie Curie

Scientist believe in things, not in person — Marie Curie

The older one gets, the more one feels that the present moment must be enjoyed, comparable to a state of grace. — Marie Curie

I have no dress except the one I wear every day. If you are going to be kind enough to give me one, please let it be practical and dark so that I can put it on afterwards to go to the laboratory. — Marie Curie

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. — Marie Curie

Sometimes I had to spend a whole day mixing a boiling mass with a heavy iron rod nearly as large as myself. I would be broken with fatigue at the day's end. Other days, on the contrary, the work would be a most minute and delicate fractional crystallization, in the effort to concentrate the radium. — Marie Curie

The sensitive plate, the gas which is ionised, the fluorescent screen, are in reality receivers, into another kind of energy, chemical energy, ionic energy ... luminous energy. — Marie Curie

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. — Marie Curie

Unknown in Paris, I was lost in the great city, but the feeling of living there alone, taking care of myself without any aid, did not at all depress me. If sometimes I felt lonesome, my usual state of mind was one of calm and great moral satisfaction. — Marie Curie

This means that we have here an entirely separate kind of chemistry for which the current tool we use is the electrometer, not the balance, and which we might well call the chemistry of the imponderable. — Marie Curie

I have the best husband one could dream of; I could never have imagined finding one like him. He is a true gift of heaven, and the more we live together the more we love each other. — Marie Curie

We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. — Marie Curie

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. — Marie Curie

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 must be attained. — Marie Curie

During the course of my research, I had had occasion to examine not only simple compounds, salts and oxides, but also a great number of minerals. — Marie Curie

You must never be fearful of what you are doing when it is right. — Marie Curie

I shall devote only a few lines to the expression of my belief in the importance of science ... it is by this daily striving after knowledge that man has raised himself to the unique position he occupies on earth, and that his power and well-being have continually increased. — Marie Curie

I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy. — Marie Curie

During the year 1894, Pierre Curie wrote me letters that seem to me admirable in their form. No one of them was very long, for he had the habit of concise expression, but all were written in a spirit of sincerity and with an evident anxiety to make the one he desired as a companion know him as he was. — Marie Curie

Stability can only be attained by inactive matter. — 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. — Marie Curie

It was like a new world opened to me, the world of science, which I was at last permitted to know in all liberty. — Marie Curie

Radium is not to enrich any one. It is an element; it is for all people. — Marie Curie

Nothing in this world is to be feared ... only understood. — Marie Curie

Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas. — Marie Curie

When one studies strongly radioactive substances special precautions must be taken if one wishes to be able to take delicate measurements. The various objects used in a chemical laboratory and those used in a chemical laboratory, and those which serve for experiments in physics, become radioactive in a short time and act upon photographic plates through black paper. Dust, the air of the room, and one's clothes all become radioactive. — Marie Curie

In science, we must be interested in things, not in persons. — Marie Curie

Just remember you will find that one special love that you know is right but for some reason just doesn't last — Marie Curie

I was taught the method for advancement is not quick or simple. — Marie Curie

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

My husband and I were so closely united by our affection and our common work that we passed nearly all of our time together. — Marie Curie

I tried out various experiments described in treatises on physics and chemistry, and the results were sometimes unexpected. At times, I would be encouraged by a little unhoped-for success; at others, I would be in the deepest despair because of accidents and failures resulting from my inexperience. — Marie Curie

I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician, he is also a child place before natural phenomenon, which impress him like a fairy tale. — Marie Curie

In chemical terms, radium differs little from barium; the salts of these two elements are isomorphic, while those of radium are usually less soluble than the barium salts. — Marie Curie

More and more, I feel the need for a house and a garden. — Marie Curie

All my life through, the new sights of nature made me rejoice like a child. — Marie Curie

I believe international work is a heavy task, but that it is nevertheless indispensable to go through an apprenticeship in it, at the cost of many efforts and also of a real spirit of sacrifice: however imperfect it may be, the work of Geneva has a grandeur that deserves our support. — Marie Curie

I was only fifteen when I finished my high-school studies, always having held first rank in my class. The fatigue of growth and study compelled me to take almost a year's rest in the country. I then returned to my father in Warsaw, hoping to teach in the free schools. — Marie Curie