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

Nothing in this world is to be feared... only understood.

We believe the substance we have extracted from pitchblende contains a metal not yet observed, related to bismuth by its analytical properties. If the existence of this new metal is confirmed we propose to call it polonium, from the name of the original country of one of us.

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, at whatever cost, must be attained.

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

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.

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