“People say: idle curiosity. The one thing that curiosity cannot be is idle.”
Leo Rosten (1908–1997) American writer
Wikimedia CEO on facts, hoaxes and the promise of Wikipedians by Luke Ottenhof, Canada's National Observer https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/03/19/news/wikimedia-ceo-facts-wiki-hoaxes-and-promise-wikipedians, (19 March 2021) <br class="br">2021
“People say: idle curiosity. The one thing that curiosity cannot be is idle.”
Leo Rosten (1908–1997) American writer
“Curiosity is the one thing invincible in Nature.”
Freya Stark (1893–1993) British explorer and writer
Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman
Source: The Essays: A Selection
Mark Oliphant (1901–2000) Governor of South Australia (1971-76)
On his research on atomic nuclei with Ernest Rutherford, p. 24
Portraits in Science interviews (1994)
Context: We were able to discover two new kinds of atomic species, one was hydrogen of mass 3, unknown until that time, and the other helium of mass 3, also unknown. … We were able to show that heavy hydrogen nuclei, that is to say the cores of heavy hydrogen atoms, could be made to react with one another to produce a good deal of energy and new kinds of atom. …Of course, we had no idea whatever that this would one day be applied to make hydrogen bombs. Our curiosity was just curiosity about the structure of the nucleus of the atom, and the discovery of these reactions was purely, as the Americans would put it, coincidental.
Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time
Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from The Teachings of Don Juan (Chapter 4)
Edward Norris Kirk (1802–1874) American Christian missionary, pastor, teacher, evangelist and writer
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 258.
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer
"On Living to One's-Self" <br class="br"> Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)