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Who really said it

First principle: never to let one's self be beaten down by persons or by events

Written by Marie Curie 1867–1934 · Physicist and chemist
Verified In copyright

Marie wrote it in a letter to her cousin Henrietta dated November 25, 1888, while she was working as a governess at Szczuki. The letter is printed in Eve Curie’s Madame Curie: A Biography (1937), translated by Vincent Sheean. The popular wording matches that English translation word for word.

Last verified 2 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“First principle: never to let one's self be beaten down by persons or by events” Marie Curie, letter to her cousin Henrietta, November 25, 1888, in Eve Curie, Madame Curie (1937), trans. Vincent Sheean

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Vincent Sheean translation, copyright 1937 Doubleday, Doran & Company (or successors); Eve Curie estate). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

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Provenance

The documented source

Work
Madame Curie: A Biography, by Eve Curie
Letter
Manya (Marie Skłodowska) to her cousin Henrietta, November 25, 1888
Translation
Vincent Sheean (Literary Guild of America, New York, 1937; copyright 1937 Doubleday, Doran & Company)
Location
Ch. VI, “The Long Wait,” p. 80 (Literary Guild printing)

I was barely eighteen when I came here, and what have I not been through! There have been moments which I shall certainly count among the most cruel of my life … I feel everything very violently, with a physical violence, and then I give myself a shaking, the vigor of my nature conquers, and it seems to me that I am coming out of a nightmare. … First principle: never to let one’s self be beaten down by persons or by events. Letter to Henrietta, Nov. 25, 1888

From Vincent Sheean’s 1937 English translation of Eve Curie’s biography. The ellipses are in the printed text. The circulating version keeps only the final sentence.

Scanned book (1937)
Madame Curie (Literary Guild, 1937) at the Internet Archive
Full text of Eve Curie, Madame Curie (1937), at the Internet Archive

How we traced it

In copyright

The 1888 letter is old, but this English wording is Vincent Sheean’s translation in Madame Curie, copyright 1937 by Doubleday, Doran & Company. Because the translation was first published in 1931 or later, we treat it as in copyright. We have not checked its renewal status.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Real line, missing source

Curie is a magnet for invented quotes, but this one is genuine. The problem is that it travels without any source attached.

Quote lists such as Goalcast No source

Goalcast’s Curie list ↗ prints the sentence word for word but names no letter, date or book. That leaves readers no way to check it.

Wikiquote Unsourced

Wikiquote keeps the line on its Talk page “Unsourced” list ↗ and not on the Marie Curie page itself. Without the 1888 letter, it can look like one more unverified Curie quote.

The sentence comes from Marie’s letter to her cousin Henrietta of November 25, 1888, as printed in Eve Curie’s Madame Curie (1937), translated by Vincent Sheean ↗.

Context

A governess’s private resolve

This is not a public motto. It closes a frank passage in a private letter. Marie wrote it while she was working as a governess at Szczuki, and in the letter she calls her life there like that of “one of those slugs which haunt the dirty water of our river.” She tells her cousin that some moments there were “among the most cruel of my life,” then describes shaking herself out of it.

Her daughter Eve printed the letter in her 1937 biography. Through Vincent Sheean’s English translation, this one sentence became a stand-alone inspirational quote. Removed from its letter, it lost the date and the person it was written to.

the vigor of my nature conquers, and it seems to me that I am coming out of a nightmare

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Resilience Character Courage

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Madame Curie (1937), scanned bookarchive.org

Eve Curie's biography in Vincent Sheean's translation (Literary Guild, 1937). The 1888 letter is in Chapter VI.
Talk:Marie Curie (Unsourced list)en.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote's list of Curie quotes that still lack a source. This line is on it.
Marie Curie on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced Curie quotes. This line is not on the main page.
Pierre Curie, with Autobiographical Notes (1923)gutenberg.org

Marie Curie's own memoir and autobiographical notes, free full text. It does not contain this line.
Marie Curieen.wikipedia.org

Biography, including her years as a governess at Szczuki.

The author

About Marie Curie

Marie Curie

1867–1934 · Polish-French physicist and chemist

Marie Curie was born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw. She pioneered the study of radioactivity, was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. As a young woman she worked from 1886 to 1889 as a governess at Szczuki, and this line comes from a letter she wrote there.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Marie Skłodowska (Curie) to Henrietta Michalovska, November 25, 1888, in Eve Curie, Madame Curie: A Biography, trans. Vincent Sheean (New York: Literary Guild of America, 1937), 80.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘First principle: never to let one's self be beaten down by persons or by events’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/first-principle-never-to-let-ones-self-be-beaten-down-by/

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