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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“איננו צריכים לפחד, אנחנו רק צריכים להבין.”

“יש להאמין בכשרונות עצמנו בקשר לאיזה דבר, ומן ההכרח להשיגו בכל מחיר.”

“לעולם איני מסתכלת בעבודה שעשיתי. תמיד אני רואה רק את מה שעוד צריך לעשות.”

“אנו חייבים לא לשכוח שכאשר הרדיום התגלה אף אחד לא ידע שזה יוכח כמועיל בבתי חולים. העבודה הייתה מדע טהור. וזוהי הוכחה שעבודה מדעית לא חייבת להישקל מנקודת המבט של התועלת הישירה שלה. זה חייב להיעשות עבור עצמו, עבור המדע היפה, ואז תמיד יש סיכוי שהגילוי המדעי יוכל להפוך, כמו הרדיום, למועיל לאנושות.”

“אדם לעולם לא שם לב מה נעשה פעם; אדם יכול רק לראות מה נותר לעשות.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“I am among those who think that science has great beauty.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”