"Knowledge for the sake of knowledge, as the history of science proves, is an aim with an irresistible fascination for mankind, and which needs no defense. The mere fact that science does, to a great extent, gratify our intellectual curiosity, is a sufficient reason for its existence." (John W N Sullivan, "The Limitations of Science", 1915)
"Curiosity is the aspect of the universe seeking to realise itself, and the fruit of such activity is new reality, stimulating to new research." (Cassius J Keyser, "The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking: Essays and Addresses", 1916)
"We have come to believe that a pupil in school should feel that he is living his own life naturally. with a minimum of restraint and without tasks that are unduly irksome; that he should find his way through arithmetic largely hoy his own spirit of curiosity; and that he should be directed in arithmetic as he would he directed in any other game, - not harshly driven, hardly even led, but proceeding with the feeling that he is being accompanied and that he is doing his share in finding the way." (David E Smith, "The Progress of Arithmetic", 1923)
"The curves treated by the calculus are normal and healthy; they possess no idiosyncrasies. But mathematicians would not be happy merely with simple, lusty configurations. Beyond these their curiosity extends to psychopathic patients, each of whom has an individual case history resembling no other; these are the pathological curves in mathematics." (Edward Kasner & James R Newman, "Mathematics and the Imagination", 1940)
"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. It is a seeking that he who wishes may know the cosmic secrets of the world and they that dwell therein." (Zora Neale Hurston, "Dust Tracks on a Road", 1942)
"A great discovery solves a great problem but there is a grain of discovery in the solution of any problem. Your problem may be modest; but if it challenges your curiosity and brings into play your inventive faculties, and if you solve it by your own means, you may experience the tension and enjoy the triumph of discovery." (George Polya, "How to solve it", 1944)
"Scientific progress on a broad front results from free play of free intellects, working on subjects of their own choice, in the manner dictated by their curiosity for the exploration of the unknown." (Vannevar Bush, "Science: The Endless Frontier", 1945)
"When a student makes really silly blunders or is exasperatingly slow, the trouble is almost always the same; he has no desire at all to solve the problem, even no desire to understand it properly, and so he has not understood it. Therefore, a teacher wishing seriously to help the student should. first of all, stir up his curiosity, give him some desire to solve the problem. The teacher should also allow some time to the student to make up his mind to settle down to his task. Teaching to solve problems is education of the will. Solving problems which are not too easy for him, the student learns to persevere through success, to appreciate small advance, to wait for the essential idea, to concentrate with all his might when it appears, If the student had no opportunity in school to familiarize himself with the varying emotions of the struggle for the solution his mathematical education failed in the most vital point." (George Pólya, "How to Solve It", 1945)
"Science cannot be stopped. Men will gather knowledge no matter what the consequences. Science will go on whether we are pessimistic or optimistic, as I am. More interesting discoveries than we can imagine will be made, and I am awaiting them, full of curiosity and enthusiasm." (Linus Pauling, "Chemical Achievement and Hope for the Future", 1947)
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