Marie CurieIn existographies, Marie Curie (1867-1934) (IQ:180|#120) [RGM:13|1,500+] (CR:30) was a Polish-born French physicist and chemist, an early parental death activated genius, turned smartest woman ever (#4), noted for her pioneering work in radioactivity.

Prodigy
Curie was a child prodigy of sorts; at age four, e.g. she was tutoring her older sister on reading. [1]

Atheism | Agnosticism
Curie’s father was a freethinker and physics professor; her mother a Catholic.

In 1867, at age 11, her older sister died (dereacted) from typhus and her mother of tuberculosis. Sometime thereafter she fell into a profound depression and concluded that “god did not exist”. [1] Soon after her mother’s death, Marie seemed to lose herself in books for hours, sometimes days, at a time. She spoke little. The only way she was able to cope was by screening out the world and focusing obsessively on a subject. [2]

Though most label Curie as atheist (Ѻ), others have attempted to label Curie as “agnostic” or an “anticlerical atheist”. (Ѻ)

Quotes | By
The following are noted quotes by Curie:

“Pierre belongs to no religion, and I do no not practice any.”
— Marie Curie (1895), on reasons for civil ceremony marriage (Ѻ)

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.”
— Marie Curie (c.1920) (Ѻ)

“Never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”
— Marie Curie (c.1920) (Ѻ)

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
— Marie Curie (c.1920) (Ѻ)

References
1. McGrayne, Sharon B. (1993). Nobel Prize Woman in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries (pg. 12). Birch Lane Press Books.
2. Goldsmith, Barbara. (2005). Obsessive Genius: the Inner World of Marie Curie (Ѻ). Publisher.

External links
Marie Curie – Wikipedia.

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