Marie Curie quotes

Marie Curie was a pioneering Polish-French physicist and chemist, renowned for her research on radioactivity. Her groundbreaking work led to the discovery of the elements polonium and radium, and she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She remains an inspiration for women in science and a symbol of dedication to research. Here are 24 of her quotes:

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

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.

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 humanity.

Marie Curie

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

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, at whatever cost, must be attained.

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

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

Marie Curie

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

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

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

Marie Curie

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

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

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

Marie Curie

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

Marie Curie

Scientist believe in things, not in person.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marie Curie