Marie Curie — Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.Marie Curie
Attributed to Marie Curie
Curie offers a trade: exchange fear for understanding, and the thing itself stops being frightening. Not because it changed, but because you now know its shape.
This is exactly what happens with a difficult piece of English. It is terrifying while it is a mystery, and merely a rule once you have understood it.
Words that widen the world
To grasp the meaning or nature of something.
Synonyms: comprehend, grasp, fathom
Once understood, it stopped frightening her.
An unpleasant feeling caused by expected danger.
Synonyms: dread, alarm, anxiety
Understanding dissolved the fear.
Common questions
It means fear usually comes from not understanding something, so knowledge is the remedy for fear.
A physicist and chemist, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.
Carry it with you
In your own words, what does this thought mean to you? Write three or four sentences in English about a moment when it felt true — saying it yourself is how it stays with you.
Read more from Marie Curie
A hand-picked book or collection to sit with this idea longer. Affiliate links — replace # with your tagged URL.
Explore the readingLove this one? Order it as a print or poster → (shop coming soon)