Quotes About Curiosity

George himself is no mystery, but the mystery George is immense. It's watching him uncover it all that's so damn interesting.

I draw comfort from the notion that nature reveals its motivations only slowly; mysteries within mysteries that keep us arrogant, would-be know-alls firmly in our place.

British moths include the Uncertain, the Confused, the Magpie, the Lackey, the Drinker, the Streak, the Ruddy Highflyer, the Buff Arches, the Figure of Eighty, the Anomalous, the Dark Dagger, the Lettuce Shark, the Isabelline Tiger, the Waved Tabby and the Mother Shipton.

Cats could follow human instructions if they wanted to, but they don't.

What we need is a treasure house, not of knowledge, but of ignorance. Something that gives not answers but questions. Something that shines light, not on already garish facts, but into the dark, damp corners of ignorance. And

The Victorians made tiepins out of badgers' penis bones.   Some

Any fool can find answers. People who ask new questions, they are the geniuses

There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.

began using that door. In 1880 Pasteur—who observed, "Chance favors the prepared mind"—

Which raises another question: How does one know when one knows? In turn this leads to more practical questions: How does one know when to continue to push an experiment? And how does one know when to abandon a clue as a false trail?

Nature answers only when she is questioned.

The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying." A brilliant scientist, later president of the Royal Society, he advised investigators, "Sit down before a fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing." He also believed that learning had purpose, stating, "The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

Sit down before a fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.

Jacob Henle, the first scientist to formulate the modern germ theory, echoed Francis Bacon when he said, "Nature answers only when she is questioned.

At the top of the page is a photo of sunrise as seen from space, and in between are the words "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." Brand intended the photo as a way to describe living a life open to serendipity. As Jobs put it, "I have always wished that for myself.

In particular, Brand has been constant in his commitment to science, which he refers to as the only "true news"; in his commitment to bottom-up democracy (with a small d); and in his relentless curiosity.

At Stanford, he had experienced an epiphany: "I'm not really actually here to learn French, or whatever, I'm learning how to be able to learn anything, and then I can go forth and have a life. . . . I don't need the class." Learning was an end unto itself.

For nonfiction projects, ideas are everywhere. They just go by in a ceaseless stream.

Ideas are where you find them

If you have to ask that question, you wouldn't understand the answer.

All readers are good readers, when they have the right book.

It can be of no practical use to know that Pi is irrational, but if we can know, it surely would be intolerable not to know.

Education is preeminently a matter of quality, not amount.

They read all the books, but they can't find the answers.