Widely credited to Marie Curie and consistent with a view she is documented to have expressed — “In science, we should be interested in things, not persons” (1923) — but no primary source pins this exact wording, which reads as a modern paraphrase. Wikiquote lists it with no citation ↗.
“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas” Attributed to Marie Curie — widely credited to her but unsourced; it reworks her documented 1923 remark, "In science, we should be interested in things, not persons." Quotle.info
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? We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.
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In context
Evoking the world of Marie Curie — Physicist and chemist; two-time Nobel laureate. Theme: "Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Where it comes from
Attributed to
Marie Curie
Popularised as
Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas
Documented cognate
“In science, we should be interested in things, not persons” (1923)
Primary source
None located for this wording
Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.
↑ the popular wording is a paraphrase, not a documented quote
No book, letter, or speech has been found containing this sentence. The nearest documented statement is one journalist Marie Mattingly Meloney recorded in 1923: Curie, correcting a reporter’s interest in her private life, said “In science, we should be interested in things, not persons.” Curie herself credited that principle to her husband, Pierre. The familiar “curious about people / curious about ideas” phrasing appears to be a much later aphoristic reworking of that idea.
The sourced Curie sentiment first appears in 1923, in Marie Mattingly Meloney’s introduction to Curie’s Pierre Curie (Macmillan): “In science, we should be interested in things, not persons,” as traced by Quote Investigator ↗.
The popular reworded aphorism is carried by Wikiquote ↗ with no source, book, or date attached.
It has spread widely as a verbatim quote — over a thousand Goodreads likes ↗ — on a page the site marks as community-added and unverified.
The documented 1923 cognate (“In science, we should be interested in things, not persons”) is public domain. The exact reworded aphorism has no identifiable author or date, so its provenance — not its copyright — is the open question.
Fact-check
The attribution problem
This is less a wrong-person mix-up than a wording problem: a genuine Curie idea has been polished into a snappy quote she is not documented to have said in these words.
✕
Circulated as the verbatim words of Marie Curie
No primary source contains “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” Wikiquote ↗ lists it without any citation, and Goodreads ↗ flags such quotes as community-added and unverified.
✕
Origin of the underlying idea sometimes traced to Pierre Curie the real story
In her 1923 biography Pierre Curie, Marie attributed the principle — “in science we should be interested in things and not in persons” — to her husband, per Quote Investigator ↗, which concludes the saying is best ascribed to both Curies.
✓The honest verdict: a real Curie sentiment, first documented in 1923, later reworded into a quote she is not on record as saying — see the full chronology ↗.
Context
Why it resonates
The line endures because it distils a real trait of Curie’s: an almost total impatience with celebrity and gossip, and a conviction that science should be about phenomena rather than personalities. She lived it — declining to patent radium, shrinking from the press, and, when a reporter pressed her about herself, redirecting the conversation to the work.
That the exact aphorism is a later paraphrase rather than her documented words doesn’t make it dishonest — but on a provenance site it earns amber, not green.
A genuine Curie idea, polished into words she is not on record as saying.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1867–1934 · Physicist and chemist; two-time Nobel laureate
Born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw in 1867, Marie Curie was a pioneer of research on radioactivity — a term she coined. She won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1903), shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911), becoming the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences. Famously indifferent to fame and money, she repeatedly steered public attention away from her person and toward her work — the very attitude this quote tries to capture.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source — Chicago
Best-available: Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, trans. Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg, intro. Marie Mattingly Meloney (New York: Macmillan, 1923), in Meloney’s introduction — documents the cognate “In science, we should be interested in things, not persons.” No source documents the popular reworded wording.
MLA (9th ed.)
Curie, Marie. Pierre Curie. Translated by Charlotte Kellogg and Vernon Kellogg, introduction by Marie Mattingly Meloney, Macmillan, 1923.
APA (7th ed.)
Curie, M. (1923). Pierre Curie (C. Kellogg & V. Kellogg, Trans.). Macmillan. (Introduction by M. M. Meloney)
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas’?” Last verified 7 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/be-less-curious-about-people-and-more-curious-about-ideas