Marie Curie - The Quotation Index

Authors Scientist Marie Curie

Marie Curie

Physicist and chemist · 1867–1934

Pioneering researcher on radioactivity who discovered polonium and radium and won two Nobel Prizes.

Lifetime

Nov 7, 1867 – Jul 4, 1934 (age 66)

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Radioactivity Nobel Prize in Physics Nobel Prize in Chemistry Polonium Radium Sorbonne University

Marie Skłodowska Curie was a Polish-born physicist and chemist whose research helped establish the scientific study of radioactivity. Born in Warsaw, she moved to Paris in 1891 to study at the Sorbonne. Working with her husband, Pierre Curie, she investigated uranium radiation and in 1898 announced the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium.

Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, becoming the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize. In 1911 she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on radium and polonium, making her the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two scientific fields. During the First World War, Curie helped develop mobile X-ray units for treating wounded soldiers. She later directed research at the Radium Institute in Paris. Curie died in 1934 from aplastic anaemia, associated with prolonged exposure to radiation.

Quotations

“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.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“But 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.”

Marie Curie · The Discovery of Radium, 1921 · Primary source

“I have no dress except the one I wear. If you are going to be kind enough to give me one [a wedding dress], please let it be practical and dark, so that I can put it on afterwards to go to the laboratory.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“In science we must be interested in things, not in persons.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“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 placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“We cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individual. Toward this end, each of us must work toward his own highest development, accepting at the same time his share of responsibility in the general life of humanity—our particular duty being to help those to whom we feel we can be most useful.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.”

Marie Curie · No reliable source

Selected works

Address · 1921

The Discovery of Radium

An account of Marie Curie’s early research on radioactivity, the isolation of radium, its properties, medical uses, and scientific significance.

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