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. Read Summary
One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done. Read Summary
I am among those who think that science has great beauty. Read Summary
If I see anything vital around me, it is precisely that spirit of adventure, which seems indestructible and is akin to curiosity. Read Summary
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. Read Summary
In science, we must be interested in things, not in persons. Read Summary
The death of my husband, coming immediately after the general knowledge of the discoveries with which his name is associated, was felt by the public, and especially by the scientific circles, to be a national misfortune. Read Summary
I met Pierre Curie for the first time in the spring of the year 1894... A Polish physicist whom I knew, and who was a great admirer of Pierre Curie, one day invited us together to spend the evening with himself and his wife. Read Summary
During the year 1894, Pierre Curie wrote me letters that seem to me admirable in their form. No one of them was very long, for he had the habit of concise expression, but all were written in a spirit of sincerity and with an evident anxiety to make the one he desired as a companion know him as he was. Read Summary
During the course of my research, I had had occasion to examine not only simple compounds, salts and oxides, but also a great number of minerals. Read Summary
Sometimes I had to spend a whole day mixing a boiling mass with a heavy iron rod nearly as large as myself. I would be broken with fatigue at the day's end. Other days, on the contrary, the work would be a most minute and delicate fractional crystallization, in the effort to concentrate the radium. Read Summary
All my mind was centered on my studies, which, especially at the beginning, were difficult. In fact, I was insufficiently prepared to follow the physical science course at the Sorbonne, for, despite all my efforts, I had not succeeded in acquiring in Poland a preparation as complete as that of the French students following the same course. Read Summary
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 must be attained. Read Summary
Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas. Read Summary
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. Read Summary
There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth. Read Summary
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. Read Summary
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. Read Summary
After all, science is essentially international, and it is only through lack of the historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it. Read Summary
Pierre Curie came to see me and showed a simple and sincere sympathy with my student life. Soon he caught the habit of speaking to me of his dream of an existence consecrated entirely to scientific research, and he asked me to share that life. Read Summary