Curious Quotes - Page 33

• Note, to-day, an instructive, curious spectacle and conflict. Science, (twin, in its fields, of Democracy in its)—Science, testing absolutely all thoughts, all works, has already burst well upon the world—a sun, mounting, most illuminating, most glorious—surely never again to set. But against it, deeply entrench'd, holding possession, yet remains, (not only through the churches and schools, but by imaginative literature, and unregenerate poetry,) the fossil theology of the mythic-materialistic, superstitious, untaught and credulous, fable-loving, primitive ages of humanity.

  Walt Whitman

  School, Humanity, Democracy

  Walt Whitman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Walt Whitman (Illustrated)”, p.1406, Delphi Classics

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• There's a curious knot that binds novelists and terrorists...Years ago I used to think it was possible for a novelist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory. They make raids on human consciousness. What writers used to do before we were all incorporated.

  Don DeLillo

  Taken, Thinking, Years

  "Mao II". Book by Don DeLillo, 1991.

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• When I write, the story is always uppermost in my mind, and I feel that everything must be sacrificed to it. All elegant passages, all the curious details, all the so-called beautiful writing - if they are not truly relevant to what I am trying to say, then they have to go.

  Paul Auster

  Beautiful, Writing, Mind

  Paul Auster, James M. Hutchisson (2013). “Conversations with Paul Auster”, p.11, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Winston Churchill said that appetite was the most important thing about education. Leadership guru Warren Bennis says he wants to be remembered as 'curious to the end.' David Ogilvy contends that the greatest ad copywriters are marked by an insatiable curiosity 'about every subject under the sun.'

  Tom Peters

  Leadership, Education, Curiosity

  Tom Peters (1999). “The Project50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Every "Task" into a Project That Matters!”, p.29, Knopf

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• I have seen
  A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
  Of inland ground, applying to his ear
  The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell;
  To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
  listened intensely; for from within were heard
  Murmurings whereby the monitor expressed
  Mysterious union with its native sea.
  Even such a shell the universe itself
  Is to the ear of faith; and there are times,
  I doubt not, when to you it doth impart
  Authentic tidings of invisible things,
  Of ebb and flow, and ever enduring power,
  And central peace, subsisting at the heart
  Of endless Agitation.

  William Wordsworth

  Children, Heart, Sea

  "The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth: The Excursion".

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• What's curious about the left's current obsession with Timothy McVeigh is that it proves that - despite a frantic search for 15 years - liberals have come across no better evidence of burgeoning "right-wing extremist" violence than a drug-taking, self-described "agnostic" who was thrown out of the Michigan Militia and who proclaimed, "Science is my religion." That sounds more like Bill Maher than Rush Limbaugh.

  Ann Coulter

  Self, Years, Wings

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• A lot of people are curious why I'm a lesbian - ladies and gentlemen, the cast of Entourage.

  Jane Lynch

  Gay, People, Gentleman

  "Jane Lynch Lesbian Joke About Entourage 'Not Fair,' Says Kevin Dillon". Jane Lynch's speech as host at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, www.eonline.com. September 18, 2011.

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• What a curious picture it is to find man, homo sapiens, of divine origin, we are told, seriously considering going underground to escape the consequences of his own folly. With a little wisdom and foresight, surely it is not yet necessary to forsake life in the fresh air and in the warmth of the sunlight. What a paradox if our own cleverness in science should force us to live underground with the moles.

  J. William Fulbright

  Men, Air, Moles

  "Fulbright of Arkansas: The Public Positions of a Private Thinker". Book by J. William Fulbright, 1963.

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• Staying requires being curious about who you actually are when you don't take yourself to be a collection of memories.When you don't infer your existence from replaying what happened to you, when you don't take yourself to be the girl your mother/father/brother/teacher/lover didn't see or adore. When you sense yourself directly, immediately, right now, without preconception, who are you?

  Geneen Roth

  Girl, Mother, Teacher

  Geneen Roth (2011). “Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything”, p.45, Simon and Schuster

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• What I am telling you is that you do not need to know to love, and it is right that you feel it all in any moment. And it is right that you see it through--that you are amazed, then curious, then belligerent, then heartbroken, then numb. You have the right to all of it.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Heartbroken, Needs, Moments

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• A funny thing about women and machines: the combination made men curious.

  Rachel Kushner

  Men, Funny Things, Machines

  Rachel Kushner (2014). “The Flamethrowers: A Novel”, p.179, Simon and Schuster

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• We're all naturally curious when we're eight years old. But as most people get older, they become less and less curious, so they ask other people to be curious for them. That's what I do for a living.

  Ron Miriello

  Eight, Years, People

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• There's a wonderful saying that's dead wrong. 'Why did you climb the mountain?' 'I climbed the mountain because it was there.' That's utter nonsense...You climbed the mountain because you were there, and you were curious if you could do it. You wondered what it would be like.

  Larry Ellison

  Inspirational, Mountain, Would Be

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• By the time these students enter the workforce, many of the jobs they will apply for ill be in industries that don't even exist yet. That's a hard future to prepare someone for. Teachers have their sights set on the real goal: not to produce Ivy League graduates, but to encourage the development of naturally curious, confident, flexible, and happy learners who are ready for whatever the future has in store.

  Taylor Mali

  Teacher, Jobs, Real

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• In all places where there is a Summer and a Winter, and where your Gardens of pleasure are sometimes clothed with their verdant garments, and bespangled with variety of Flowers, and at other times wholly dismantled of all these; here to recompense the loss of past pleasures, and to buoy up their hopes of another Spring, many have placed in their Gardens, Statues, and Figures of several Animals, and great variety of other curious pieces of Workmanship, that their walks might be pleasant at any time in those places of never dying pleasures.

  John Worlidge

  Summer, Hope, Art

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• History's villains are more easily recognized in retrospect. In an article published in 1935 and reprinted in 1937, Winston Churchill expressed a curious ambivalence towards the German chancellor prior to the outbreak of war: We cannot tell whether Hitler will be the man who will once again let loose upon the world another war in which civilization will irretrievably succumb, or whether he will go down in history as the man who restored honour and peace of mind to the great Germanic nation. . . .

  Winston Churchill

  War, Men, Civilization

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• Praised be the fathomless universe, for life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious.

  Walt Whitman

  Life, Knowledge, Joy

  'When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed' st. 14

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• It is a curious thing that when one speaks from the heart it is invariably in the worst of taste.

  Ngaio Marsh

  Heart, Taste, Speak

  Ngaio Marsh (2012). “Death in a White Tie: Inspector Roderick Alleyn #7”, p.58, Felony & Mayhem Press

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• What’s so curious about human beings is that we can look deeply into the future, foresee disaster, and still do nothing in the present to stop it. The majority of people on this planet, they’re overwhelmed with concerns about their immediate well being.

  Daniel Gilbert

  People, Majority, Looks

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• Rather than going after our walls and barriers with a sledgehammer, we pay attention to them. With gentleness and honesty, we move closer to those walls. We touch them and smell them and get to know them well. We begin a process of acknowledging our aversions and our cravings. We become familiar with the strategies and beliefs we use to build the walls: What are the stories I tell myself? What repels me and what attracts me? We start to get curious about what’s going on.

  Pema Chodron

  Wall, Honesty, Moving

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• There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.

  Mark Twain

  Glasses, Ideas, Giving

  Mark Twain (2017). “The Complete Novels of Mark Twain (Illustrated): 12 American Classics & Author’s Biography: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, A Horse’s Tale, The Prince and the Pauper, The American Claimant, The Mysterious Stranger…”, p.4051, e-artnow

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• All these factors are only valuable if you're curious. But in any case, the more knowledge you have, the more things are open and available to you.

  Jay Maisel

  Photography, Photographer, Cases

  Jay Maisel (2014). “Light, Gesture, and Color”, p.214, New Riders

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• It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Creativity, Men, Gambling

  Joseph de Maistre (2017). “The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment”, p.128, Routledge

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• Curious how Love destroys every vestige of that politeness which the human race, in its years of evolution, has so painfully acquired.

  Stella Gibbons

  Race, Years, Evolution

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• There’s nothing entertaining about watching goons hurl venomous slurs at congressmen like the civil rights hero John Lewis and the openly gay Barney Frank. How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht.

  Frank Rich

  Hero, Gay, Rights

  "The Rage Is Not About Health Care". www.nytimes.com. March 27, 2010.

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