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All In Your Mind
Knowledge/Learning/Study/Wisdom
1,067. Curiosity
"Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of
a vigorous intellect."
Johnson: Rambler #103 (March 12, 1751)
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1,070. Curiosity
"The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness
than confers pleasure; we are more pained by ignorance than
delighted by instruction. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul;
it inflames and torments us, and makes us taste every thing with
joy, however otherwise insipid, by which it may be quenched."
Johnson: Rambler #103 (March 12, 1751)
Link
1,139. Curiosity
"Among the lower classes of mankind there will be found very
little desire of any other knowledge than what may contribute
immediately to the relief of some pressing uneasiness, or the
attainment of some near advantage."
Johnson: Rambler #118 (May 4, 1751)
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1,140. Career Choice; Curiosity;
Focus; Perspective
"Even of those who have dedicated themselves to knowledge, the
far greater part have confined their curiosity to a few objects,
and have very little inclination to promote any fame but that of
which their own studies entitle them to partake. The naturalist
has no desire to know the opinions or conjectures of the
philosopher; the botanist looks upon the astronomer as a being
unworthy of his regard; the lawyer scarcely hears the name of a
physician without contempt; and he that is growing great and
happy by electrifying a bottle, wonders how the world can be
engaged by trifling prattle about war or peace."
Johnson: Rambler #118 (May 4, 1751)
Link
1,245. Curiosity
"Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and
the last; and perhaps always predominates in proportion to the
strength of the contemplative faculties. He who easily
comprehends all that is before him, and soon exhausts any single
subject, is always eager for new inquiries; and in proportion as
the intellectual eye takes in a wider prospect, it must be
gratified with variety, by more rapid flights and bolder
excursions."
Johnson: Rambler #150 (August 24, 1751)
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1,310. Curiosity; History
"It is not easy to discover how it concerns him that gathers the
produce, or receives the rent of an estate, to know through what
families the land has passed, who is registered in the
Conqueror's survey as its possessor, how often it has been
forfeited by treason, or how often sold by prodigality. The
power or wealth of the present inhabitants of a country cannot be
much increased by an inquiry after the names of those barbarians
who destroyed one another twenty centuries ago, in contests for
the shelter of woods or convenience of pasturage. Yet we see no
man can be at rest in the enjoyment of a new purchase till he has
learned the history of his grounds from the ancient inhabitants
of the parish, and that no nation omits to record the actions of
their ancestors, however bloody, savage, and rapacious."
Johnson: Rambler #161 (October 1, 1751)
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1,311. Curiosity
"Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as
pleasure."
Johnson: Rambler #161 (October 1, 1751)
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1,407. Conviviality; Curiosity;
Humility; Progress
"I am far from any intention to limit curiosity, or confine
the labours of learning to arts of immediate and necessary use.
It is only from the various essays of experimental industry, and
the vague excursions of mind set upon discovery, that any
advancement of knowledge can be expected; and though many must be
disappointed in their labours, yet they are not to be charged
with having spent their time in vain; their example contributed
to inspire emulation, and their miscarriage taught others the way
to success.
"But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought
not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally
requisite to the great and mean, to the celebrated and obscure;
the art of moderating the desires, of repressing the appetites;
and of conciliating or retaining the favour of mankind."
Johnson: Rambler #180 (December 7, 1751)
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1,529. Curiosity
Those who have past much of their lives in this great city, look
upon its opulence and its multitudes, its extent and variety,
with cold indifference; but an inhabitant of the remoter parts of
the kingdom is immediately distinguished by a kind of dissipated
curiosity, a busy endeavour to divide his attention amongst a
thousand objects, and a wild confusion of astonishment and
alarm.
Johnson: Adventurer #67 (June 26, 1753)
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