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
Written byMarie Curie1867–1934 · Physicist, chemist & twice Nobel laureate
From Marie Curie’s autobiographical notes, where she defends her and Pierre’s choice not to profit from radium. This exact wording is Vincent Sheean’s translation in Eve Curie’s Madame Curie (1937), p. 336, which reads “Humanity certainly needs practical men…”. The 1923 English edition of Pierre Curie gives the same passage in different words.
“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” Marie Curie, autobiographical notes, as translated by Vincent Sheean in Eve Curie, Madame Curie (1937), p. 336
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End of ch. XXIII, “America”, p. 336, quoting Marie Curie’s autobiographical notes
Earlier English version
Marie Curie, “Autobiographical Notes,” in Pierre Curie (Macmillan, 1923), trans. Charlotte & Vernon Kellogg
A large number of my friends affirm, not without valid reasons, that if Pierre Curie and I had guaranteed our rights, we should have acquired the financial means necessary to the creation of a satisfactory radium institute, without encountering the obstacles which were a handicap to both of us, and which are still a handicap for me. Nevertheless, I am still convinced that we were right.
Humanity certainly 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.
Without the slightest doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research.
“certainly” dropped in the popular form
As printed in Eve Curie, Madame Curie, trans. Vincent Sheean (1937), p. 336. Eve Curie introduces the passage as coming from “some short autobiographical notes drawn up after her return from America.”
1923. Marie Curie’s “Autobiographical Notes” are published in English in Pierre Curie (Macmillan, trans. Charlotte & Vernon Kellogg). The passage there reads: “Humanity, surely, needs practical men who make the best of their work for the sake of their own interests, without forgetting the general interest. But it also needs dreamers…” Project Gutenberg #69617 ↗
1937. Eve Curie’s biography Madame Curie, translated by Vincent Sheean, quotes the notes in the wording that now circulates: “Humanity certainly needs practical men, who get the most out of their work… But humanity also needs dreamers…” (p. 336). Internet Archive scan ↗
Today. Wikiquote lists the line under Marie Curie’s sourced quotes, but cites only a 2003 astrophysics textbook (Dopita & Sutherland, Astrophysics of the Diffuse Universe) and not either Curie book. Wikiquote: Marie Curie ↗
The popular wording is Vincent Sheean’s English translation in Eve Curie’s Madame Curie. The 1937 printing carries a 1937 Doubleday, Doran copyright notice, so we treat that wording as in copyright in the US. The earlier 1923 Kellogg translation of the same passage (“Humanity, surely, needs practical men…”) was published before 1931 and is public domain ↗.
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
What gets garbled
The attribution holds: Marie Curie did write this. What drifts is the wording, and the source people give for it.
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WordingThe popular form trimmed
It drops one word. Sheean’s 1937 translation opens “Humanity certainly needs practical men”, and the circulating version starts “Humanity needs practical men”. Madame Curie (1937) ↗
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CitationWikiquote and quote sites secondary source
Wikiquote cites the line only to a 2003 astrophysics textbook, not to Curie’s own notes or to Eve Curie’s biography. Wikiquote ↗
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Variant“Humanity, surely, needs practical men… it also needs dreamers” same passage
This is not a separate quote. It is the 1923 Kellogg translation of the same paragraph from Curie’s Autobiographical Notes. Pierre Curie (1923) ↗
✓Marie Curie wrote it in her autobiographical notes. The wording that circulates comes from Vincent Sheean’s translation in Eve Curie’s Madame Curie (1937), p. 336 ↗.
Context
Why she wrote it
Marie and Pierre Curie published their method for preparing radium and took out no patent. In the 1923 notes Curie writes that this gave up “a fortune”. Friends argued that patent money could have paid for the radium institute she had to fund by appeals, including the American campaign that bought her a gram of radium.
The “dreamers” paragraph is her answer. She does not regret the choice, but says a well-organized society owes such researchers the means to work. In the 1937 translation, that means a life “freed from material care and freely consecrated to research.”
Nevertheless, I am still convinced that we were right.
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1867–1934 · Polish-born French physicist & chemist
Marie Curie (born Maria Skłodowska) pioneered research on radioactivity and discovered polonium and radium. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences: physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911. In 1923 she published Pierre Curie, a memoir of her husband, together with her own autobiographical notes.
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Chicago
Marie Curie, autobiographical notes, quoted in Eve Curie, Madame Curie: A Biography, trans. Vincent Sheean (New York: Literary Guild of America, 1937), 336. Earlier English version in Marie Curie, “Autobiographical Notes,” in Pierre Curie, trans. Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg (New York: Macmillan, 1923).
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