“What makes us want to know the worst? Is it that we tire of preferring to know the best? Does curiosity always hurdle self-interest? Or is it, more simply, that wanting to know the worst is love's favorite perversion.”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What makes us want to know the worst? Is it that we tire of preferring to know the best? Does curiosity always hurdle s…" by Julian Barnes?
Julian Barnes photo
Julian Barnes 77
English writer 1946

Related quotes

Prevale photo

“One of the worst categories of people is the one who always wants to being right knowing you don't have it.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Una delle peggiori categorie di individui è quella che vuole sempre aver ragione sapendo di non averla.
Source: prevale.net

Leo Tolstoy photo

“A great deal of what we know about reality is accompanied by little more interest than simple curiosity.”

Roger Haight (1936) American theologian

Source: Dynamics Of Theology, Chapter Eight, Symbolic Religious Communication, p. 147

Jodi Picoult photo
Cassandra Clare photo

“Always ask for what you want, because the worst thing that can happen is embarrassment but the best thing that can happen is nudity.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale

William Penn photo

“Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst; and for which God will certainly most strictly reckon with us, when Time shall be no more.”

William Penn (1644–1718) English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania

The Preface
Fruits of Solitude (1682)
Context: There is nothing of which we are apt to be so lavish as of Time, and about which we ought to be more solicitous; since without it we can do nothing in this World. Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst; and for which God will certainly most strictly reckon with us, when Time shall be no more.

Robert Jordan photo
Dan Fogelberg photo

“She says no
When she means yes
And what she wants
You know that I can't guess.
When we want more
You know we ask for less
Such is the language of love…”

Dan Fogelberg (1951–2007) singer-songwriter, musician

The Language of Love.
Song lyrics, Windows and Walls (1984)

Related topics