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Quote of the Day: We Must Persevere
“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.” — Marie Curie
Sometimes life beats us down: we have too many demands on our lives; disappointments abound; we feel isolated and lonely. Curie tells us to get over our complaints and our temptation to make excuses. And she certainly practiced what she preached: she was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics, and the first person to win it twice. She had a loving personal and professional partnership with her husband, who was also a physicist. She had periods where life could have knocked her down, but she picked herself up and continued on. One great tragedy was losing her husband:
On 19 April 1906, Pierre Curie was killed in a road accident. Walking across the Rue Dauphine in heavy rain, he was struck by a horse-drawn vehicle and fell under its wheels, causing his skull to fracture. Curie was devastated by her husband’s death. On 13 May 1906 the physics department of the University of Paris decided to retain the chair that had been created for her late husband and to offer it to Marie. She accepted it, hoping to create a world-class laboratory as a tribute to her husband Pierre. She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris.
Marie Curie found a way to persevere and, knowing her gifts, she transformed her grief over the loss of her husband into positive contributions to the world.
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One key for me in life, and maybe for all of us, is to believe we have gifts to offer the world. They may seem like small attributes to us, but they provide the path for us to make a contribution, even in a modest way. When we strive to identify our gifts and feel compelled to actualize them in our lives, we become a light to the world.
Published in General
To persevere also means to speak out for, and act for, that which is good and true. In these times, we have many people who seem to be our political adversaries. We must not be discouraged or give up.
Sometimes what seems like a “failure” can later be looked on as a success. One of my ideas was not funded to completion, but was taken up at a different company. They produced an integrated circuit which was later used at another company where I was consulting. This cycle occurred again while I was working.
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There was a science fiction story that had a time traveler saving Pierre accidentally. Unfortunately, that led to Pierre’s death from radiation, since he used to carry radioactive chemicals around with him. This led to the discovery of the effects of radiation earlier, and that led to the use of dirty (radioactive) bombs in WWI.
Hear, hear. Marie was the first woman to get two Nobel prizes…I hope she’s not the last. Her daughter was no slouch in the chemistry department either.
That’s wonderful! We never know for certain what will happen, do we? 😊
Thanks for the perspective. I have felt that carrying on was just too hard in several periods of my life and stories like this help me keep going.
You are very kind, Dan. It’s this kind of comment that inspires me to write!
Oh come now. This person was obviously the recipient of white privilege and the product of a heteronormative Western culture. One of life’s winners. How could she possibly have any valid advice? (please push the sarc – off button now)
You did make me chuckle, @penfold. Except she wasn’t. They didn’t want women attending universities, and certainly not teaching. They also didn’t want to give her the Nobel Prize, but her husband wouldn’t accept his without her being rewarded. She succeeded against the odds. Thanks for making me smile, though.