“I have a very great desire to go to Norway and the Orkney Islands for a month in order to see those countries and their people, for I am much interested in North of Europe romance.”

Reveals his curiosity about distant places and the stories and traditions associated with them. · Letter to Mr. Gray, 1890

• Curiosity
• Travel

“From that strong sympathy which most creatures, but the human above all, feel for others of their kind, nothing has become so much an object of man's curiosity as man himself.”

Her central claim that we watch one another because fellow-feeling and curiosity are native to us · Introductory Discourse, A Series of Plays, 1798

• Curiosity
• Humanity
• Sympathy

“Today I climbed the highest mountain in this region, not improperly called Ventosum. My only motive was the wish to see what so great a height had to offer.”

Original: Altissimum regionis huius montem, quem non immerito Ventosum vocant, hodie, sola videndi cupiditate ductus, ascendi. — The opening of a famous letter that turns a climb into an examination of the inner life. · Letter to Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro on the ascent of Mont Ventoux, Familiares IV, 1 (Latin)

• Curiosity
• Nature
• Self Knowledge

“I don’t know that you have told me where it came from.”

A small glimpse of his continuing curiosity about the provenance of objects · Letter concerning a gift of snake skin

• Curiosity
• Knowledge
• Nature

“I am much interested in North of Europe romance.”

Reveals his literary fascination with northern European traditions and stories. · Letter to Mr. Cowen, 13 November 1889

• Curiosity
• Literature

“It is our best and most powerful instructor.”

Sympathetic curiosity is treated as a moral school rather than idle gazing · Introductory Discourse, A Series of Plays, 1798

• Curiosity
• Education
• Morality

“Onelie for the desire I had to see it; that, when I came home againe, I might say, once in my life, I have beene at Rome.”

His stated motive for the journey, emphasising simple curiosity over any deeper commitment · The English Romayne Lyfe (1582), conversation reported

• Curiosity
• Experience
• Travel

“I am ambitious to write tales about the folk of those particular points.”

Shows his curiosity about unfamiliar cultures and his desire to turn travel into literary material. · Letter to Mr. Cowen, 13 November 1889

• Curiosity
• Travel
• Writing

“Think of yourself each morning as an explorer in a new realm.”

Encouraging curiosity about ordinary experience · Essay, The Philosophy of Happiness

• Adventure
• Attitude
• Curiosity

“I have a miscellaneous collection of books, numbering 3,500, and I am fond of the quaint and curious in every line.”

A revealing glimpse of his bibliophilic appetite and attraction to the unusual. · Auto-Analysis

• Books
• Curiosity

“When we begin reading we are insatiably curious; all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them seem to lie open before us in our books.”

Recalling the boundless appetite of a young student · Inaugural lecture, A Plea for the Historical Teaching of History, 1904

• Books
• Curiosity

“I should like to own a big astronomical telescope and a twenty-four-tune music-box.”

An appealing pairing of scientific curiosity with a love of mechanical music. · Auto-Analysis

• Curiosity
• Music

“He may be full of curiosity and wonder about the life on which he is just entering, and for that reason may plunge into any and every book he can lay hands on.”

Celebrating curiosity as one of the natural motives for reading. · Speech, The Uses of Reading, 1912

• Curiosity
• Reading
• Wonder

“I am interested in everything; I cannot help it.”

Original: Je m'intéresse à tout, je n'y peux rien. — A concise expression of intellectual curiosity without any pretence of selectivity. · Cahiers (French)

• Curiosity
• Knowledge
• Wonder

“Formed as we are with these sympathetick propensities in regard to our own species, it is not at all wonderful that theatrical exhibition has become the grand and favourite amusement of every nation into which it has been introduced.”

Theatre exists, she says, because we cannot help watching one another · Introductory Discourse, A Series of Plays, 1798

• Curiosity
• Humanity
• Theatre

“He may be full of curiosity and wonder about the life on which he is just entering.”

Presenting reading as a natural response to curiosity about life. · Speech, The Uses of Reading, 1912

• Curiosity
• Reading
• Wonder

“The man who satisfies a ceaseless intellectual curiosity probably squeezes more out of life in the long run than anyone else.”

Praise of restless inquiry as the richest way of living · Prose reflection, commonly cited from his writings

• Curiosity
• Knowledge
• Life

“To understand one thing it is necessary to know so many others that a man is always learning something new.”

Arguing that specialisation need not narrow the mind · Inaugural lecture, A Plea for the Historical Teaching of History, 1904

• Curiosity
• Learning