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Energy and curiosity are the lifeblood of universities; the desire to find out, to uncover, to dig deeper, to puzzle out obscurities, is the spirit of the university, and it is a channelling of that unresting curiosity that holds mankind together.

— Robertson Davies

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Curiosity

More quotes by Robertson Davies

Aristocrats need not be rich, but they must be free, and in the modern world freedom grows rarer the more we prate about it.

Osbert Sitwell (1945)

Sometimes there was a serious article on a hot topic, and I especially remember one by a bishop headed "Is Nudity Salacious?"

A Rake at Reading (1980)

One might think, to hear some people talk, that this had been a particularly fine summer. From their point of view, I suppose, it has.

To be apt in quotation is a splendid and dangerous gift. Splendid, because it ornaments a man's speech with other men's jewels; dangerous, for the same reason.

Robertson Davies Dangerous Jewels (1960)

The pleasures of love are for those who are hopelessly addicted to another living creature. The reasons for such addiction are so many that I suspect they are never the same in any two cases.

The Pleasures of Love (1961)

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The basic drive behind real philosophy is curiosity about the world, not interest in the writings of philosophers.

Bryan Magee Confessions of a Philosopher (1997)

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

Samuel Johnson The Rambler (1750)

My brain, otherwise a sound instrument, has a serious defect—a hypertrophied lobe of curiosity.

Jack Vance The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph (1966)

Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.

James Stephens

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robertson Davies (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.