The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out.
“In the field of observations, chance favors only the prepared mind.”
“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.”
“The imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.”