CURATED COLLECTION

Staying Curious

The death of curiosity is the death of everything interesting — on why questions matter more than answers.

50 quotes found

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The only interesting answers are those that destroy the questions.

—Susan SontagWriter & Critic

Post-War ERA • North America

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The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.

—Fyodor DostoevskyNovelist

Industrial Age ERA • Eastern Europe

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The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague.

—Edgar Allan PoePoet & Writer

Industrial Age ERA • North America

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Live your questions now, and perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

—Rainer Maria RilkePoet

Early Modern ERA • Western Europe

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Curiosity is the key to problem‑solving. Always ask, 'Why?'

—Richard TurereAuthor & Thinker

Digital Age ERA • East Africa

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The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.

—Albert EinsteinPhysicist

Post-War ERA • Western Europe

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All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

—Edgar Allan PoePoet & Writer

Industrial Age ERA • North America

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America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement.

—Alexis de TocquevilleScientist & Historian

Industrial Age ERA • Western Europe

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I want to taste, smell, see, hear, and feel everything. I want to know everything.

—Sylvia PlathPoet & Novelist

Post-War ERA • North America

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Every being is a book containing the secrets of God.

—Tierno BokarMystic, Scholar & Sage

Early Modern ERA • West Africa

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Everything in the universe, from particle to planet, reflects a single truth.

—Ibn TufaylPhilosopher & Physician

Medieval ERA • MENA

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God is in everything, just as everything is in God.

—Giordano BrunoPhilosopher & Mathematician

Renaissance ERA • Southern Europe

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The universe is a book, and everything in it is a letter.

—Ibrahim al-KoniNovelist

Contemporary ERA • North Africa

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In everything there is a portion of everything.

—AnaxagorasPre-Socratic Philosopher

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

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Nature has neither core nor shell; she is everything at once.

—Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWriter, Scientist & Statesman

Enlightenment ERA • Western Europe

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Poetry is what remains when everything has been said.

—Dulce María LoynazPoet & Novelist

Post-War ERA • Caribbean

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Everything is worthwhile if the soul is not small.

—Fernando PessoaPoet & Writer

Early Modern ERA • Southern Europe

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All things were together, infinite in number and in smallness.

—AnaxagorasPre-Socratic Philosopher

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

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The profoundest emotion is the transformation of everything familiar into something strange.

—Elias CanettiWriter

Early Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

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Heaven and Earth are only names for the same great entity, the Ultimate Source.

—LieziTaoist Philosopher

Ancient World ERA • East Asia

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