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CURIOSITY, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul.

— Ambrose Bierce The Cynic's Dictionary (1906)

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Curiosity

More quotes by Ambrose Bierce

When lost in a forest go always down hill. When lost in a philosophy or doctrine go upward.

An army's bravest men are its cowards. The death which they would not meet at the hands of the enemy they will meet at the hands of their officers, with never a flinching.

What I Saw At Shiloh (1881)

The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.

O proud philanthropist, your hope is vain
To get by giving what you lost by gain.

When prosperous the fool trembles for the evil that is to come; in adversity the philosopher smiles for the good that he has had.

All Ambrose Bierce quotes →

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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: Ambrose Bierce (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.