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Who really said it

I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy

Written by Marie Curie 1867–1934 · Polish-French physicist and chemist; notes written 1923
Verified Free to reuse

Confirmed in her own words: the line comes from the “Autobiographical Notes” Marie Curie wrote for Pierre Curie (The Macmillan Company, 1923), recalling her first self-taught experiments in a small Warsaw laboratory. Her original reads “the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.”

Last verified 7 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy” Marie Curie, Autobiographical Notes, in Pierre Curie (Macmillan, 1923). Original wording: "the way of progress is neither swift nor easy." Via Quotle.info · Verbatim: “I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.”

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Evoking the world of Marie Curie — physicist and chemist, two-time Nobel laureate. Theme: "I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy". 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.

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Provenance

Pierre Curie — Autobiographical Notes

Work
Pierre Curie, with Autobiographical Notes by Marie Curie
Author
Marie Curie (trans. Charlotte & Vernon Kellogg)
Published
The Macmillan Company, 1923
Passage
Autobiographical Notes — on her early lab work in Warsaw

At times I would be encouraged by a little unhoped-for success, at others I would be in the deepest despair because of accidents and failures resulting from my inexperience. But on the whole, though I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy, this first trial confirmed in me the taste for experimental research in the fields of physics and chemistry. ↑ the popular version lifts out the middle clause and changes ‘is’ to ‘was’

In the original this is not a free-standing maxim — it is a subordinate clause inside Curie’s account of teaching herself experimental science, working only evenings and Sundays in a small municipal laboratory in Warsaw directed by one of her cousins.

Scanned 1923 first edition
Read the 1923 first edition
Full text at Project Gutenberg

How we verified this

  • The sentence appears verbatim in the Project Gutenberg text of Pierre Curie ↗: “though I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.”
  • It sits within Curie’s own Autobiographical Notes, first published by The Macmillan Company in 1923 ↗, where she describes her first experiments in a Warsaw laboratory.
  • Quote aggregators reproduce the line with no real source — Wikiquote ↗ even cites a 2002 software-engineering manual, showing how the sentence circulates unmoored from its origin.
Public domain

Pierre Curie was published in 1923 and is in the public domain in the United States; it is freely readable via Project Gutenberg ↗ and the Internet Archive ↗.

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

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 travels with the quote

The attribution to Marie Curie is correct — but the wording and the sourcing that usually accompany it are not.

the ‘was’ version wording

The famous form uses the past tense (“was neither swift nor easy”) as a stand-alone maxim; Curie’s original in Pierre Curie (1923) ↗ uses the present tense (“is”) inside a longer sentence about her first experiments.

unrelated reference books citation error

Wikiquote ↗ lists the line with a citation to Java Connector Architecture (2002), a software-engineering manual — not to Curie’s 1923 book, where it actually originates.

The quote is genuinely Marie Curie’s, from the Autobiographical Notes in Pierre Curie (1923) ↗ — where she wrote that “the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.”

Context

Where it comes from

Marie Curie was famously reluctant to talk about herself. She wrote her brief Autobiographical Notes in 1923 only at the insistence of the American journalist Marie Mattingly Meloney, to accompany a memoir of her husband Pierre. The line about progress comes from that short memoir — recalling not her Nobel-winning discoveries but her earliest, fumbling experiments as a young woman.

In the passage she is describing teaching herself physics and chemistry in a small municipal laboratory in Warsaw, run by one of her cousins, with time to work only in the evenings and on Sundays — “encouraged by a little unhoped-for success” one day and “in the deepest despair” the next. The famous maxim is really her wry summary of that apprenticeship.

though I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy…

Read the full story

The subtle drift from “is” to “was” changes the tone slightly: the present tense frames it as a standing lesson she carried forward, not a closed chapter. Quote sites almost universally print the past-tense version, stripped of the surrounding sentence about her first trial at experimental research.

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

Pierre Curie — full textgutenberg.org

The complete 1923 book with Curie’s Autobiographical Notes; the sentence appears in the Warsaw-laboratory passage.
Pierre Curie — 1923 scanarchive.org

Scanned Macmillan first edition, readable and downloadable, confirming publisher and year.
Marie Curieen.wikipedia.org

Biography confirming her dates, nationality, and two Nobel Prizes (Physics 1903, Chemistry 1911).
Marie Curie — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Shows how the line circulates with a spurious citation to an unrelated 2002 software manual.

The true author

About Marie Curie

Marie Curie

1867–1934 · physicist and chemist, two-time Nobel laureate

Born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw, Marie Curie was a Polish-French physicist and chemist who pioneered research on radioactivity — a term she and Pierre coined. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences: Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911). She wrote her brief autobiographical notes in 1923 at the urging of the American journalist Marie Mattingly Meloney, appending them to her memoir of her late husband Pierre.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, with Autobiographical Notes, trans. Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1923).

MLA (9th ed.)

Curie, Marie. Pierre Curie, with Autobiographical Notes. Translated by Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg, The Macmillan Company, 1923.

APA (7th ed.)

Curie, M. (1923). Pierre Curie, with autobiographical notes (C. Kellogg & V. Kellogg, Trans.). The Macmillan Company.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy’?” Last verified 7 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-was-taught-that-the-way-of-progress-was-neither-swift-nor/

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