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Curiosity endows the people who have it with a generosity in argument and a serenity in their own mode of life which springs from their cheerful willingness to let life take the form it will.

— Alistair Cooke

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Curiosity

More quotes by Alistair Cooke

Moving among wretched people in mean places, as I often saw him do, he had the impulses of a saint but not the serenity.

Six Men (1977)

He was at his best only when the going was good.

Six Men (1977)

In life no such colour brightened the grey picture of a man devoted to the daily study of warfare on several continents with all the ardour of a certified public accountant.

All Presidents start out pretending to run a crusade but after a couple of years they find they are running something less heroic and much more intractable: namely, the presidency.

Talk About America (1968)

He measured all his fellow workers by the test of professionalism, and a professional is a man who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.

Six Men (1977)

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