You Cannot Hope To Build A Better

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.

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.

We Must Have Perseverance And Above All Confidence In Ourselves.

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.

Humanity Needs Practical Men, Who Get The Most Out Of Their Work, And, Without Forgetting The General Good, Safeguard Their Own Interests. But Humanity Also Needs Dreamers, For Whom The Disinterested Development Of An Enterprise Is So Captivating That It Becomes Impossible For Them To Devote Their Care To Their Own Material Profit.