# Curiosity

Curiosity is the desire learn new things by asking questions, investigating and exploring.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · See also · External links

## A

* Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.
** Joseph Addison, The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes, Volume 3, Bosworth, 1854, p. 273.
* Man in his universe is like a baby in a strange room. Just as a baby reaches out to finger or taste all the mysterious objects in the room, so man’s curiosity is excited by the wonderful sights, sounds, and smells that greet him whichever way he turns.
** Ginestra Giovene Amaldi, Il nostro mondo e l'universo che lo circonda; as quoted in Carl C. Gaither, et al., p. 481 Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, Springer, 5 January 2012, p. 481.
* Curiosity, the overwhelming desire to know, is not characteristic of dead matter. Nor does it seem to be characteristic of some forms of living organism, which, for that very reason, we can scarcely bring ourselves to consider alive.
** Isaac Asimov, "Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations", p. 481.
* An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment, but also in the long run, essential to our future survival.
** David Attenborough, in Alan Graham The Sum of You: Teach Yourself, Hachette UK, 29 October 2010, p. 13.
* In how many of the most minute and trivial things my curiosity is still daily tempted, and who can keep the tally on how often I succumb? How often, when people are telling idle tales, we begin by tolerating them lest we should give offense to the sensitive; and then gradually we come to listen willingly! I do not nowadays go to the circus to see a dog chase a rabbit, but if by chance I pass such a race in the fields, it quite easily distracts me even from some serious thought and draws me after it—not that I turn aside with my horse, but with the inclination of my mind. And unless, by showing me my weakness, thou dost speedily warn me to rise above such a sight to thee by a deliberate act of thought—or else to despise the whole thing and pass it by—then I become absorbed in the sight, vain creature that I am.
** Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, as translated by A. Outler, Book 10, Chapter 35.
* Curiosis fabricavit inferos.
** He fashioned hell for the inquisitive.
** Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, Book XI, Chapter XII. Quoting an unnamed author. Adapted from "Alta, scrutantibus gehennas parabat." God prepared hell, for those who are inquisitive about high things.

## B

* As children, our imaginations are vibrant, and our hearts are open. We believe that the bad guy always loses and that the tooth fairy sneaks into our rooms at night to put money under our pillow. Everything amazes us, and we think anything is possible. We continuously experience life with a sense of newness and unbridled curiosity.
** Yehuda Berg, Calling All Bad Guys, Writing.com.
* Only barbarians are not curious about where they come from, how they came to be where they are, where they appear to be going, whether they wish to go there, and if so, why, and if not, why not.
** Isaiah Berlin, The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of Essays (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998), pp. 1–2.
* CURIOSITY, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul.
** Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
* Curiosity is inherent in man; and, in some measure, accompanies every degree of human understanding, and every modification of the mind. From the philosopher to the peasant, scarcely any one is found who is not desirous of information on one subject or the another; but this curiosity is directed to different objects, in different minds, in proportion to their degrees of elevation, or the extent of their previous improvements.
** John Bigland, in “Letters on the Study and Use of Ancient and Modern History”, p. 18.
* Wisdom. No match for the troublemaker Curiosity.
** David Brin, Glory Season (1993), chapter 16
* Curiosity, from its nature is a very active principle; it quickly runs over the greatest part of its objects, and soon exhausts the variety which is commonly to be met with in nature; the same things make frequent returns, and they return with less and less of any agreeable effect.
** Edmund Burke, The Works of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke: With a Biographical and Critical Introduction, and Portrait After Sir Joshua Reynolds, Volume 1, Holdsworth and Ball, 1834, p. 30.
* The first and the simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is Curiosity. By curiosity, I mean whatever desire we have for, or whatever pleasure we take in, novelty.
** Edmund Burke, in "The Works of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke: With a Biographical and Critical Introduction, and Portrait After Sir Joshua Reynolds, Volume 1", p. 30.
* Those things, which engage us, merely by their novelty, cannot attach us for any length of time, curiosity is the most superficial of all affections; it changes its object perpetually, it has an appetite which is very sharp, but very easily satisfied; and it has always an appearance of giddiness, restlessness, and anxiety.
** Edmund Burke, in "The Works of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke: With a Biographical and Critical Introduction, and Portrait After Sir Joshua Reynolds, Volume 1", p. 30.
* Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all - that has been my religion.
** John Burroughs, in William Martin What Liberals Believe: Thousands of Quotes on Why America Needs to Be Rescued from Greedy Corporations, Homophobes, Racists, Imperialists, Xenophobes, and Religious Extremists, Skyhorse Publishing Inc., 2008, p. 492.
* Each window like a pill'ry appears, With heads thrust through nail'd by the ears.
** Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part II (1664), Canto III, line 391.
* I loathe that low vice—curiosity.
** Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto I, Stanza 23.

## C

* In seeking God, the most direct path and the fittest method is, not to attempt with presumptuous curiosity to pry into his essence, which is rather to be adored than minutely discussed, but to contemplate him in his works, by which he draws near, becomes familiar, and in a manner communicates himself to us.
** John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
* "Curiouser and curiouser!" Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). "Now I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!" (for when she looked down at her feet they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off).
** Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Ch. 2)
* Curiosity responsible for cat needing nine lives.
** Charlie Chan, Charlie Chan's Words of Wisdom, Wildside Press LLC, 2001, p. 33.
* Perhaps one day men will no longer be interested in the unknown, no longer tantalized by mystery. This is possible, but when man loses his curiosity one feels he will have lost most of the other things that make him human.
** Arthur C. Clarke, The Promise of Space, Berkley Publishing Group, 1 January 1985, p. 293.
* Curiosity, curiosity, curiosity, is an imperious tyrant, and it will be obeyed
** Clerage, in The Fruitless Repentance; Or, The History Of Miss Kitty Le Fever, Volume 1, Newbery, 1769, p. 152.
* Curiosity endows the people who have it with a generosity in argument and a serenity in their own mode of life which springs from their cheerful willingness to let life take the form it will.
** Alistair Cooke, in David Wilkinson Science, Religion, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Oxford University Press, 1 August 2013, p. 3.
* Youths’ insatiable curiosity is soon squelched and its breadth of view quickly forced into the furrow cut by the plow of convention.
** Dale Rex Coman, in The Endless Adventure, 1972, p. 139.

## D

* All animals feel Wonder, and many exhibit Curiosity. They sometimes suffer from this latter quality, as when the hunter plays antics and thus attracts them.
** Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871), volume I, chapter II: "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals", p. 42.
* Energy and curiosity are the lifeblood of universities; the desire to find out, to uncover, to dig deeper, to puzzle out obscurities, is the spirit of the university, and it is a channelling of that unresting curiosity that holds mankind together.
** Robertson Davies, Cornish Trilogy, The Rebel Angels, The New Aubrey III, section 2 (1981).
* Creatures whose mainspring is curiosity will enjoy the accumulating of facts, far more than pausing at times to reflect on these facts.
** Clarence S. Day, This Simian World, Library of Alexandria, p. 29.
* So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there.
** René Descartes, Le Discours de la Méthode (1637).
* Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
** Walt Disney, As quoted in the ending credits of the movie Meet the Robinsons (2007) and also in Jane Sutcliffe Walt Disney, Lerner Publications, 2009, p. 45.
* The poorest of the sex have still an itch To know their fortunes, equal to the rich. The dairy-maid inquires, if she shall take The trusty tailor, and the cook forsake.
** John Dryden, Sixth Satire of Juvenal, line 762.
* The primary relationship between the infant and the care-giver influences the development of curiosity, the ability to use it productively for thinking and for building the internal world. Curiosity, in its schizoparanoid forms, is an attempt at freezing states of primary undifferentiatedness. In its more mature forms, it serves as an integrative agent and signifies both the possibility and the need to know, as well as the boundaries of knowledge. It is an essential element in the individual's psychic fabric and counterbalances splitting and projective identification.
** Ofer G, Durban. in Curiosity: reflections on its nature and functions: Abstract, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
* By allowing curiosity and surviving it, curiosity is transformed from an expression of destructiveness and disintegrating intrusiveness to a necessary prerequisite for psychological growth, self-discovery and creativity. Several vignettes illustrate the impact of curiosity during therapy.
** Ofer G, Durban. in "Curiosity: reflections on its nature and functions: Abstract".

## E

* It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
** Albert Einstein, Conducting Meaningful Interpretation: A Field Guide for Success, Fulcrum Publishing, 2006, p. 154.
* The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when contemplating the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of the mystery every day. The important thing is not to stop questioning; never lose a holy curiosity.
** Albert Einstein, Statement to William Miller, as quoted in LIFE magazine (2 May 1955) and in Joseph S. Willis Finding Faith in the Face of Doubt: A Guide for Contemporary Seekers, Quest Books, 2001, p. 58.

## F

* The humanist has four leading characteristics - curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.
** E. M. Forster, in Sunil Kumar Sarker A Companion to E.M. Forster, Volume 1, Atlantic Publishers & Dist, 1 January 2007, p. 123
* The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
** Anatole France, in Susan Assouline, Ann Lupkowski-Shoplik Developing Mathematical Talent: A Guide for Challenging and Educating Gifted Students, Prufrock Press Inc., 2003, p. 260.

## G

* Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.
** Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act III.

## H

* Curiosity is the lust of the mind.
** Thomas Hobbes, Very Happy to Be Here!, Lulu.com, 1 December 2006, p. 137.
* Percunctatorem fugito, nam garrulus idem est.
** Shun the inquisitive person, for he is also a talker.
** Horace, Epistles, I. 18. 69.
* Curiosity is one form of feminine bravery.
** Victor Hugo,in Inspirational Being, Lulu.com, p. 41.
* Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. It is a seeking that he who wishes may know the cosmic secrets of the world and they that dwell therein.
** Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat, Rutgers University Press, 1997
* Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.
** Aldous Huxley, Fanatically Formative: Successful Learning During the Crucial K?3 Years, SAGE, 12-Jun-2012, p. 113.

## J

* I believe that curiosity, wonder and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers; that restlessness and discontent are vital things; and that intense experience and suffering instruct us in ways that less intense emotions can never do.
** Kay Redfield Jamison, The Benefits of Restlessness and Jagged Edges, NPR, org, 6 June 2005.
* Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
** Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 103 (12 March 1751).
* Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
** Samuel Johnson, in John Bigland Letters on the Study and Use of Ancient and Modern History, W. W. Woodward, No. 52, corner of Second and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, 1806, p. 18.

## K

* Some advice: keep the flame of curiosity and wonderment alive, even when studying for boring exams. That is the well from which we scientists draw our nourishment and energy. And also, learn the math. Math is the language of nature, so we have to learn this language.
** Michio Kaku, in Gus Lubin String Theory Genius Explains The Coming Breakthroughs That Will Change Life As We Know It, Business Insider, 10 March 2014.

## L

* The scientist is motivated primarily by curiosity and a desire for truth.
** Irving Langmuir in M.I. Seka Life Lessons of Wisdom & Motivation - Volume IV, Providential Press, 28 February 2014, p. 205.
* Rise up, rise up, Xarifa! lay your golden cushion down; Rise up! come to the window, and gaze with all the town!
** John G. Lockhart, The Bridal of Andella.

## M

* The basic drive behind real philosophy is curiosity about the world, not interest in the writings of philosophers. Each of us emerges from the preconsciousness of babyhood and simply finds himself here, in it, in the world. That experience alone astonishes some people. What is all this — what is the world? And what are we? From the beginning of humanity some have been under a compulsion to ask these questions, and have felt a craving for the answers. This is what is really meant by any such phrase as "mankind's need for metaphysics."
** Bryan Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher : A Journey Through Western Philosophy (1997), p. 232.
* I saw and heard, for we sometimes, Who dwell this wild, constrained by want, come forth To town or village nigh, nighest is far, Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear, What happens new; fame also finds us out.
** John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book I, line 330.
* Hackers are breaking the systems for profit. Before, it was about intellectual curiosity and pursuit of knowledge and thrill, and now hacking is big business.
** Kevin Mitnick, in Wednesday, January 30, 2013, Issue 65, Western Gazette, 30 January 2013,
* Platon estime qu'il y ait quelque vice d'impiété à trop curieusement s'enquerir de Dieu et du monde.
** Plato holds that there is some vice of impiety in enquiring too curiously about God and the world.
** Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book II, Chapter XII.

## N

* Zaccheus, he Did climb the tree, His Lord to see.
** New England Primer (1814)
* Curiosité n'est que vanité. Le plus souvent, on ne veut savoir que pour en parler.
** Translation: Curiosity is nothing more than vanity. More often than not we only seek knowledge to show it off.
** Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 152. (1669).

## P

* We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
* Incitantur enim homines ad agnoscenda quæ differuntur.
** Our inquisitive disposition is excited by having its gratification deferred.
** Pliny the Younger, Epistles, IX. 27.

## R

* I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.
** Eleanor Roosevelt, in Daniel Freeman, Jason Freeman You Can be Happy ePub eBook: How CBT can change how you feel, Pearson UK, 21 February 2014, p. 21.
* Without transformation, you can assume you're at a high moral, spiritual level just because you call yourself Lutheran or Methodist or Catholic. I think my great disappointment as a priest has been to see how little actual spiritual curiosity there is in so many people.
** Richard Rohr, in Judy Valente Richard Rohr, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, 11 November 2011
* Cognition is autonomous; it refuses to have any answers foisted on it from the outside. Yet it suffers without protest having certain questions prescribed to it from the outside (and it is here that my heresy regarding the unwritten law of the university originates). Not every question seems to me worth asking. Scientific curiosity and omnivorous aesthetic appetite mean equally little to me today, though I was once under the spell of both, particularly the latter. Now I only inquire when I find myself inquired of. Inquired of, that is, by men rather than by scholars. There is a man in each scholar, a man who inquires and stands in need of answers. I am anxious to answer the scholar qua man but not the representative of a certain discipline, that insatiable, ever inquisitive phantom which like a vampire drains whom it possesses of his humanity.
** Franz Rosenzweig, in Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought (1961/1998), p. 97
* Curiosity is not a sin.... But we should exercise caution with our curiosity... yes, indeed.
** J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, spoken by Albus Dumbledore (2000).

## S

* Things that people learn purely out of curiosity can have a revolutionary effect on human affairs.
** Frederick Seitz, In an interview for the George C. Marshall Institute, September 3, 1997.
* 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.
** William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act V, scene 1.
* I have perceived a most faint neglect of late, which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness.
** William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act I, scene 4, line 73.
* They mocked thee for too much curiosity.
** William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens (date uncertain, published 1623), Act IV, scene 3, line 302.
* First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity.
** George Bernard Shaw, in Martin Avery Sherry Baby: Young Love/First Love, Lulu.com, p. 5.
* Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.
** James Stephens, in “Inspirational Being”, p. 41.
* The human brain had a vast memory storage. It made us curious and very creative. Those were the characteristics that gave us an advantage - curiosity, creativity and memory. And that brain did something very special. It invented an idea called 'the future.'
** David Suzuki, in John Bermingham The David Suzuki interview, canada.com, 23 April 2007
* Everything is new to the newborn child. His gradual grasp of his environment and of the world around him are discoveries which, in experiential scope and quality, go far beyond any discovery that the most adventurous and daring explorer will ever make in his adult ife. No Columbus, no Marco Polo has ever seen stranger and more fascinating and thoroughly absorbing sights than the child that learns to perceive, to taste, to smell, to touch, to hear and see, and to use his body, his senses and his mind. No wonder the child shows an insatiable curiosity. He has the whole world to discover.
** Ernest G. Schachtel, Metamorphosis (Basic Books, 1959), p. 292.

## T

* There is always a place I can take someone's curiosity and land where they end up enlightened when we're done. That's my challenge as an educator. No one is dumb who is curious. The people who don't ask questions remain clueless throughout their lives.
** Neil deGrasse Tyson, Neil deGrasse Tyson Interview, askmen.com.

## V

* My brain, otherwise a sound instrument, has a serious defect—a hypertrophied lobe of curiosity.
** Jack Vance, The Howling Bounders (1949), originally published in Startling Stories, March 1949

## W

* China is an old nation with a colourful history. Its booming economy has triggered an appetite and a curiosity around the world for its art and culture, one that continues to grow. I can, however, tell people that it is a show with no actor.
** Ai Weiwei, Culture Ai Weiwei: 'China's art world does not exist', The Guardian, 10 September 2012.
* You have a right to be curious. And I have a right to refuse to satisfy it.
** Jack Williamson and James E. Gunn, Star Bridge (1955), chapter 11
* Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect.
** Steven Wright, The Book of Uncommon Quips and Quotations, Pustak Mahal, 1 January 2003, p. 26.