If it takes a hundred years, it will be a pity, but I will not cease to work for it as long as I live.

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. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity.

All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.

It was like a new world opened to me, the world of science, which I was at last permitted to know in all liberty.

Sometimes my courage fails me and I think I ought to stop working, live in the country and devote myself to gardening. But I am held by a thousand bonds, and I don't know when I shall be able to arrange things otherwise. Nor do I know whether, even by writing scientific books, I could live without the laboratory.

The older one gets, the more one feels that the present must be enjoyed; it is a precious gift, comparable to a state of grace

Now is the time to understand more, so we fear less.