Did she really say that?
June 8, 2011 11:15 AM   Subscribe

I love this quote: "Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained." The interwebs attribute it to Marie Curie but I can't verify this or where it's from. Please hope me.
posted by Dilemma to Writing & Language (7 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Found in Google Books: a portion of a letter to her brother, talking about him passing his doctor's thesis, dated March 18, 1894. I'll leave it up to other web sleuths to find a trove of her letters, or this specific one for more context.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:46 AM on June 8, 2011


The German: "Es scheint, daß das Leben für keinen von uns leicht ist. Aber was, man muß Ausdauer und insbesondere Selbstvertrauen haben! Man muß daran glauben, für eine bestimmte Sache begabt zu sein, und diese Sache muß man erreichen, koste es, was es wolle."
posted by languagehat at 11:55 AM on June 8, 2011 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: languagehat: Do you know if the English translation is faithful to the original German? And if not, would you suggest a better translation?
posted by Dilemma at 1:39 PM on June 8, 2011


Response by poster: ...also: are you actually suggesting that it was originally written in German?
posted by Dilemma at 1:47 PM on June 8, 2011


Dilemma, she was born in partitioned Poland, and the Polish language was actually officially banned. Russian was apparently her first school language, but she eventually attended the underground Flying University. She ended up fluent in five languages. A page from her personal diary is in the same book linked above, where she copied out a poem in German.

As German was also an important scientific language, it is not surprising that she remained fluent.
posted by dhartung at 10:31 PM on June 8, 2011


The English translation is almost correct. It skips a few words. Here is my translation:

It seems, that life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? One must have stamina and especially confidence. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and this thing we must achieve, at whatever cost.
posted by copperbleu at 2:19 AM on June 9, 2011


Response by poster: Thanks everyone!
posted by Dilemma at 1:29 PM on June 20, 2011


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