My experiments proved that the radiation of uranium compounds can be measured with precision under determined conditions and that this radiation is an atomic property of the element of uranium.
The first experiments on the biological properties of radium were successfully made in France, with samples from our laboratory, while my husband was living.
In chemical terms, radium differs little from barium; the salts of these two elements are isomorphic, while those of radium are usually less soluble than the barium salts.
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.
We should not allow it to be believed that all scientific progress can be reduced to mechanisms, machines, gearings, even though such machinery also has its beauty. Neither do I believe that the spirit of adventure runs any risk of disappearing in our world.
After all, science is essentially international, and it is only through lack of the historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it.
When radium was discovered, no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it.
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.
There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth.
I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries.
In science, we must be interested in things, not in persons.
If I see anything vital around me, it is precisely that spirit of adventure, which seems indestructible and is akin to curiosity.
I am among those who think that science has great beauty.
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.
All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.
I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.
Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.
You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.
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.
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.