“Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.”
Source: Works of Samuel Johnson
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Samuel Johnson 362
English writer 1709–1784Related quotes

“The first and the simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is Curiosity.”
Part I Section I
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)

Veronika Decides to Die (1998)
Context: The great problem with poisoning by Bitterness was that the passions — hatred, love, despair, enthusiasm, curiosity — also ceased to manifest themselves. After a while, the embittered person felt no desire at all. They lacked the will either to live or to die, that was the problem.

“Passions are generally roused from great conflict.”
Book III, sec. 40
History of Rome

“Love, the most generous passion of the mind
The softest refuge innocence can find”
A Letter from Artemisia in Town to Chloe in the Country (1679)

The reference is to Charles Townshend (1725–1767)
First Speech on the Conciliation with America (1774)


Source: A Cafe in Space: The Anais Nin Literary Journal, Volume 3