Marie Curie is famous for her groundbreaking work in the field of radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1903. Her research helped pave the way for the development of modern science. Widely considered one of the most influential scientists of her time, quotes by Marie Curie are still just as powerful today.
Marie Curie passed away in 1934 from aplastic anemia, a cancer likely caused by her years of exposure to radiation. She is remembered for her pioneering work in the field of radiation and how it could be used to treat cancer. Her research also contributed to major advances in the field of atomic physics.
In honor of what would have been her 155th birthday this month, here are 31 famous Marie Curie quotes that will inspire you to change the world.
I hope you enjoy these quotes by Marie Curie…
1) “After all, science is essentially international, and it is only through lack of the historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it.”
2) “All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.”
3) “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.”
4) “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.”
5) “Certain 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.”
6) “First principle: never to let one’s self be beaten down by persons or by events.”
7) “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.”
8) “Have no fear of perfection; you’ll never reach it.”
9) “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.”
Insightful quotes from the first woman to receive a Nobel prize.
10) “I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries.”
11) “If I see anything vital around me, it is precisely that spirit of adventure, which seems indestructible and is akin to curiosity.”
12) “In science, we must be interested in things, not in persons.”
13) “We must keep our certainty that after the bad days the good times will come again.”
14) “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.”
15) “You must never be fearful of what you are doing when it is right.”
16) “You’ll never make me believe women were made to walk on stilts.”
17) “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.”
18) “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.”
19) “Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.”
Marie Curie quotes about the importance to understand more and fear less.
20) “Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
21) “I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries.”
22) “One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.”
23) “Radium is not to enrich any one. It is an element; it is for all people.”
24) “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.”
25) “All that I saw and learned was a new delight to me…”
26) “The older one gets, the more one feels that the present moment must be enjoyed, comparable to a state of grace.”
27) “There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth.”
28) “I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.”
29) “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 quotes about her contributions to medical science…
30) “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…”
31) “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.”
Please share these Marie Curie quotes with your friends and family.
