The 43 best phrases of Marie Curie

Marie Salomea Sklodowska Curie, better known as Marie Curie, was a Polish physicist and naturalized French chemist, recognized for her work on radioactivity. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911.. So far she has been the only scientist to achieve two awards in different categories. We collect the best phrases from Marie Curie that will surely interest you.

Marie Curie’s legacy continues today. Not only from a medical scientific point of view, but also in organizations or programs that keep her legacy alive. For example, the Curie Institute has been active since 1920, the Marie Curie charity has been providing its services since 1948, and the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions program is one of the European Union’s reference plans in education. We bring together his best phrases so you can connect with his ideas.

The best phrases of Marie Curie

Although our list of 45 Marie Curie quotes may well have revolved only around scientific topics, In reality we choose very varied sentences. They tell you about her vision of her life, her discoveries, her relationship with her husband, her fears in relation to her work and, of course, some reproaches towards society. This way you can access the complete panorama of this reference scientist.

1. “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.”

Curiosity leads you to interest in learning. A man who lives without curiosity is a man who has turned his back on knowledge..

2. “They taught me that the path to progress was not quick or easy.”

And in fact, Curie’s own life gave an account of these words. She built the trail so that women could develop a scientific career, so he faced many limitations.

3. “You don’t have to fear anything in life, you just have to understand it. Now is the time to understand more to fear less.”

To a large extent fear is born from ignorance. You fear the darkness because you don’t know, because you don’t know what can be hidden in it.

4. “Life is not easy for any of us, but what about that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this must be achieved.”

One of the most reproduced Marie Curie phrases.

5. “I am one of those who, like Nobel, thinks that humanity will derive more good than harm from new discoveries.”

Although of course, at the moment, the discoveries themselves do not always point to practical use. You will see them in more detail in other quotes by Marie Curie.

6. “You never realize what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.”

Or in any case it is something that you should take as a philosophy of life: not see what already exists, but what can be done.

7. “You should never be afraid of what you are doing when it is right.”

It will not always be easy to distinguish whether what you do is correct or not. This at least until you have traveled a certain path. When you do so, you will discover it.

8. “The older one gets, the more one feels that the present moment should be enjoyed, comparable to a state of grace.”

Remember this and other phrases from Marie Curie. Sooner or later you will realize that they hide a great truth that you can apply practically in your life.

9. “We must maintain our certainty that after the bad days, the good times will return.”

Not hope, but certainty. Life is a coming and going of good and bad moments, so we just have to wait for the wave to pass so that calm can arrive.

10. “First principle: never let yourself be defeated by people or events.”

Because you will always find people or obstacles that try to stop your progress. Rest assured that sooner or later you will find them, so assuming the attitude of avoiding them is very useful the first moment you start walking the path.

11. “You cannot hope to build a better world without improving individuals.”

Because the world is not an isolated entity that improves by itself. It is only done with the active participation of those who live in it.

12. “I am one of those who thinks that science has great beauty.”

It has it in many ways, it’s just that from the outside, as a mere observer, it is sometimes difficult to appreciate it.

13. “I have often been asked, especially by women, how I could reconcile family life with a scientific career. Well, it hasn’t been easy.”

As we have already pointed out, Curie is a reference in terms of the paradigm shift in women’s participation in science. Currently, some sectors consider her a symbol of feminism.

14. “There are sadistic scientists who rush to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth.”

Errors are part of the scientist’s job. Many are quick to point out a discovery without first ascertaining whether it can be classified as an error.

15. “I don’t have a dress except the one I wear every day. If you are going to be so kind as to give me one, let it be practical and dark so that I can wear it later to go to the laboratory.”

This is one of the most popular Marie Curie phrases. It is because these words refer to her wedding dress.

16. “All my life new visions of nature made me rejoice like a child.”

In fact, Curie always fantasized about the idea of ​​living in the countryside; away from scientific life. Her desire to continue researching always kept her tied to the laboratory..

17. “If I see something vital around me, it is precisely that adventurous spirit, which seems indestructible and is akin to curiosity.”

We have already mentioned that curiosity is the prelude to knowledge. The adventurous spirit is added to this to foster the ambition to move forward, in favor of learning.

18. “After all, science is essentially international, and only through lack of historical sense have national qualities been attributed to it.”

Because scientific discoveries are never restricted to a country, but rather overwhelm it.

19. “Each of us must work for our own betterment and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for humanity, it being our particular duty to help those to whom we believe they can be of most service.”

An absolute individualistic vision never results in anything profitable. Although in some contexts it is necessary, as we will see in other quotes by Marie Curie, collective feeling is what has brought humanity to the place where it is now.

20. “A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also a child who faces natural phenomena that impress him as if they were fairy tales.”

And this is why you should make curiosity and the feeling of adventure part of your daily life. Two values ​​associated with childhood that are of great benefit in science.

21. “For the admirable gift of himself, and for the magnificent service he renders to humanity, what reward does our society offer to the scientist? Do these servers have the necessary working resources? Do they have a guaranteed existence protected by citizens?”

It is an open secret that the Curies carried out a good part of their research in absolute precariousness. This is something that continues to this day, so the reproaches are still valid..

22. “Humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the selfless development of an enterprise is so captivating that it is impossible for them to devote their care to their own material benefit.”

Not everyone can be a dreamer, but a few are essential for the progress of a society.

23. “Radio is not to enrich anyone. It is an element, it is for all people.”

Words in relation to the lucrative value of the element discovered by the Curies. We will see them in detail in other phrases by Marie Curie.

24. “Thus perished the hope founded on the wonderful being that thus ceased to be. In the study room that she would never return to, the water buttercups that she had brought from the field were still fresh.”

One of the many phrases by Marie Curie in relation to her husband, Pierre Curie.

25. “We must not allow it to be believed that all scientific progress can be reduced to mechanisms, machines, gears, although that machinery also has its beauty. “I also don’t think the spirit of adventure is in danger of disappearing in our world.”

Because scientific progress can be interpreted in many ways. They are often associated with machines or great discoveries, but the truth is that the little ones also contribute to this progress.

26. “I tried various experiments described in treatises on physics and chemistry, and the results were sometimes unexpected. Sometimes I was encouraged by a bit of surprise success; at other times I was in the deepest despair due to accidents and failures resulting from my inexperience.”

Words that summarize very well what the scientific method consists of.

27. “When radium was discovered, no one knew that it would be useful in hospitals. The work was pure science. And this is proof that scientific work should not be considered from the point of view of its direct usefulness.”

Today radiation therapy (radiotherapy) is one of the standard treatments for different types of cancer. His contribution to medicine is capital.

28. “In 1906, when we definitively abandoned the old laboratory shed where we had been so happy, the terrible catastrophe occurred that took my husband away from me and left me alone to raise our children and, at the same time, to continue our work of investigation”.

Curie continued working almost until the end of his days. He died in 1934 due to aplastic anemia; which is believed to have developed due to radiation exposure.

29. “You can only analyze the data you have. Be strategic about what to collect and how to store it.”

A guideline that every scientist must keep in mind.

30. “Scientists believe in things, not people.”

A different formulation from the one we present in other phrases by Marie Curie.

31. “The various reasons we have enumerated lead us to believe that the new radioactive substance contains a new element to which we propose to give the name radium.”

This is the excerpt in which Curie and her team (her husband and Henri Becquerel) present what they think is the discovery of a new chemical element.

32. “Humanity needs practical men who make the most of their work and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests.”

Phrase that complements the previous one that we have noted about collaborative work.

33. “It is by this daily struggle for knowledge that man has elevated himself to the unique position he occupies on earth, and that his power and well-being have continually increased.”

Knowledge, the desire to investigate, are what has brought man to the position he is in…