Marie Curie on Mental Models Quotes

"The isolation of radium has shown that the atomic weight is a constant of nature."

"First principle: never to let oneself be beaten down by persons or by events."

"Sometimes I lack the courage and I think I ought to stop working, live in the country and devote myself to gardening."

"The various reasons which we have enumerated lead us to believe that the new radioactive substance contains a new element."

"I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy."

"The way of progress is neither swift nor easy, but it is certain if one follows the light of reason."

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals."

"Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas."

"I am convinced that the scientific spirit is a necessary factor in the progress of the world."

"A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale."

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves."

"I feel less and less the need of any kind of luxury."

"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."

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

"One must have the courage to face the facts."

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

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

"It is my hope that the world will be a better place for our having been here."

"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."

"We must keep our eyes on the stars and our feet on the ground."

"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."

"Stability can only be attained by the constant measurement of variables."

"The scientific method is the only way to arrive at the truth."

"Our special duty is to aid those to whom nature has given the power of creation."

"I believe that the scientific spirit is necessary for the development of our civilization."

"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."

"A great discovery does not leap from the scientist’s brain ready-made; it is the fruit of an accumulated preliminary work."

"Each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity."

"It is necessary to make a dream of life and to make a dream a reality."

"Humanity needs practical men, who get the most out of their work, and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests."

"We should not allow it to be believed that all scientific progress can be reduced to mechanisms, machines, gearings."

"I tried to find the same things in several different ways."

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