Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.
Marie CurieRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Marie Curie reflects on the challenges she faced in her studies due to a lack of preparation compared to her French peers.
In this quote, Marie Curie emphasizes the struggle she encountered as an international student at the Sorbonne, where she found herself underprepared for a rigorous physical science course. Despite her dedication and hard work, she acknowledged the difficulty of competing with students who had more comprehensive preparatory education. This illustrates the challenges faced by many individuals when attempting to pursue their ambitions in an unfamiliar or advanced academic environment.
Themes
EducationChallengeLearningHardshipDetermination
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech, this quote can highlight the importance of perseverance in education.
More from Marie Curie
All quotes →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 CurieRead
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. We should not allow it to be believed that all scientific progress can be reduced to mechanisms, machines, gearings, even though such machinery has its own beauty.
Marie CurieRead
The sensitive plate, the gas which is ionised, the fluorescent screen, are in reality receivers, into another kind of energy, chemical energy, ionic energy... luminous energy.
Marie CurieRead
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.
Marie CurieRead
Certein 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.
Marie CurieRead
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