Blaise Pascal Quotes

Some men covet knowledge out of a natural curiosity and inquisitive temper; some to entertain the mind with variety and delight; some for ornament and reputation; some for victory and contention; many for lucre and a livelihood; and but few for employing the Divine gift of reason to the use and benefit of mankind.

Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish not to know, but to talk. We would not take a sea voyage for the sole pleasure of seeing without hope of ever telling.

There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.

I have a natural curiosity about the world, and I just love to talk.

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Every advance into knowledge opens new prospects, and produces new incitements to farther progress.

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.

Curiosity is what separates us from the cabbages. It's accelerative. The more we know, the more we want to know.

To this principle of vanity, which philosophers call a mean one, and which I do not, I owe a great part of the figure which I have made in life.

The exceeding delight we take in talking about ourselves should give us cause to fear that we are giving but very little pleasureto our listeners.

Vanity does not refer to the opinion a man entertains of himself, but to that which he wishes others to entertain of him.

When you are inquisitive, Jane, you always make me smile. You open your eyes like an eager bird, and make every now and then a restless movement, as if answers in speech did not flow fast enough for you, and you wanted to read the tablet of one's heart.

One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing. When that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has become something less than human.

People often say that I'm curious about too many things at once... But can you really forbid a man from harbouring a desire to know and embrace everything that surrounds him?

Why do we pursue information that we know will never leave our heads?

I hate books; they only teach people to talk about what they don't understand.

Through your rags I see your vanity.

Everyone likes talking about himself. - Hercule Poirot

What is "this drive"? It's the tendency to not simply accept things as they are but to want to think about them, to understand them. To not be content to simply feel sad but to ask what sadness means. To not just get a bus pass but to think about the economic reasons getting a bus pass makes sense. I call this tendency the intellectual.

My mother's always looking for answers. She's always searching for new information. I think she has a thirst for hunger that very few possess innately.

It's much more important to be interested than to be interesting.

Wonder is the seed of knowledge

We've got ego's like hairdos.

I can't imagine why you're so interested." He shook his head. "Interested? We're talking about you. I'm fascinated.