Ten Greatest Ideas for Opening Your Mind

Idea 24: Curiosity

I have no exceptional talents, other than a passionate curiosity.

Albert Einstein, German physicist

‘The important thing is not to stop questioning’, said Einstein. ‘Curiosity has its own reason for exisng. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.’

Such curiosity is – or should be – the appetite of the intellect. Creative thinkers have it, because they need to be taking in information from many different sources. The novelist William Trevor, for example, sees his role as an observer of human ...

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