Marie Curie gets advice from Albert Einstein in lost letter

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- "Haters gonna hate."

That is the message of a 1911 letter from Albert Einstein to Marie Curie where the scientist told his colleague not to listen to her critics.

About 10 years after she won her Nobel Prize for her work in radiation, Curie was still facing a lot of criticism as a woman, an atheist and an alleged Jew -- which was looked down upon during a time of anti-semitism in France. Einstein said she should not listen to any of them.

"I am convinced that you consistently despise this rabble," he wrote. "Whether it obsequiously lavishes respect on you or whether it attempts to satiate its lust for sensationalism!"

There was also a lot of criticism over the rumors that Curie was having an affair with Paul Langevin, who was married but estranged from his wife. People said she damaged the name of her dead husband, Pierre Curie. Einstein just told her to ignore it.

He told her, "[i]f the rabble continues to occupy itself with you, then simply don't read that hogwash, but rather leave it to the reptiles for whom it has been fabricated."