Marie Curie Quotes

140 Marie Curie Quotes

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I consider abominable the intrusion of the press and the public into private life. This intrusion is particularly criminal when it involves people who have manifestly consecrated their life to preoccupations of an elevated order and general utility.
Marie Curie

Thee is nothing in my acts which obliges me to feel diminished. I will not add anything. Whatever may be the suffering that I have felt, I refuse to engage in lawsuits right now, because of the formal retractions and apologies which have been addressed to me. But from now on I will rigorously pursue all publication of writings which are attributed to me or tendentious allegations regarding me. Since I have the right, I will demand damages and interest of considerable sums which will be used in the interests of science.
Marie Curie

You suggest to me that I put off accepting the Nobel prize that has just been awarded to me, and you give this explanation that the Academy of Stockholm, if it had been forewarned, would probably have decided not to give me the prize, unless I could publicly explain the attacks of which I have been the object. If that were the general feeling of the Academy, I would be profoundly disappointed. But I do not believe that it is up to me to surmise the intentions and opinions of the Academy. I must therefore act according to my convictions.
Marie Curie

Scarcely seventeen, I left my father’s house to begin an independent life.
Marie Curie

[On turning to advanced problems in algebra or trigonometry] When I feel myself quite unable to read with profit.
Marie Curie

In spite of everything I came through it all honestly with my head high.
Marie Curie

I tried out various experiments described in treatises on physics and chemistry, and the results were sometimes unexpected. At times, I would be encouraged by a little unhoped for success, at others I would be in the deepest despair because of accidents and failures resulting from my inexperience.
Marie Curie

[On at the age of four taking over reading her older sister’s reading assignment that her sister three years older was having trouble with] I didn’t do it on purpose. It’s not Bronya’s fault. It’s only because it was so easy!
Marie Curie

[When asked to recite Russian in front of the Russian school inspector] This was a great trial to me, because of my timidity; I wanted always to run away and hide.
Marie Curie

[On the Russian impositions] [I] wanted always to raise my little arms to shut the people away from me, and sometimes I must confess, I wanted to raise them as a cat [raises] it’s paws to scratch!
Marie Curie



We are young. We are strong. We will succeed.
Marie Curie

The history of the discovery and the isolation of this substance has furnished proof of my hypothesis that radioactivity is an atomic property of matter and can provide a means of seeking new elements.
Marie Curie

All the elements emitting such radiation I have termed radioactive.
Marie Curie

I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.
Marie Curie

[On rejecting Pierre’s father offer of furniture because] Every sofa and chair would be one more object to dust in the morning and to furbish up on days of full cleaning.
Marie Curie

I am going to have a child, and this hope has a cruel way of showing itself. For more than two months I have had continual dizziness, all day long from morning to night. I tire myself out and get steadily weaker, and although I do not look ill, I feel unable to work and am in a very bad state of spirits.
Marie Curie

My husbands mother is very ill, and as it is an incurable disease (cancer of the breast) we are very depressed. I am afraid, above all, that the disease will reach it’s end at the same time as my pregnancy. If this should happen my poor Pierre will have some very hard weeks to go through…
Marie Curie

I frequently ask myself whether, in spite of recent efforts of the government aided by some private donations, I shall ever succeed in building up for those who will come after me an Institute of Radium, such as I wish to the memory of Pierre Curie and to the highest interest of humanity.
Marie Curie

[On her husband Pierre] It is clear that a mind of this kind can hold great future possibilities. But it is no less clear that no system of education can be especially provided by the public school for persons of this intellectual type. If, then, Pierre’s earliest instruction was irregular and incomplete, it had the advantage of [freeing his mind from] dogmas, prejudices or preconceived ideas. And he was always grateful to his parents for this liberal attitude.
Marie Curie

My head is so full of plans that it seems aflame.
Marie Curie

I regret only one thing, which is that the days are so short and that they pass so quickly.
Marie Curie



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