On Curiosity (1950-1999)

"The characteristic feature of our age results from the wedding of science and engineering. It is the working together of disciplined curiosity and purposeful ingenuity to create new materials, new forces, and new opportunities which powerfully affect our manner of living and ways of thinking." (Karl T Compton, "A Scientist Speaks: Excerpts from Addresses by Karl Taylor Compton - During the Years 1930-1949", 1955)

"No one will get very far or become a real mathematician without certain indispensable qualities; he must have hope, faith, and curiosity, and prime necessity is curiosity."(Louis J Mordell, "Reflections of a Mathematician", 1959)

"No one will get very far or become a real mathematician without certain indispensable qualities. He must have hope, faith, and curiosity, and prime necessity is curiosity." (Louis J Mordell, "Reflections of a Mathematician", 1959)

"Many teachers and textbook writers have never recognized the power of sheer intellectual curiosity as a motive for the highest type of work in mathematics, and as a consequence they have failed to organize and present the work in a manner designed to stimulate the student’s interest through a challenge to his curiosity." (Charles H Butler & F Lynwood Wren, "The Teaching of Secondary Mathematics" 5th Ed., 1970)

"Questions are the engines of intellect, the cerebral machines which convert energy to motion, and curiosity to controlled inquiry." (David H Fischer, "Historians’ Fallacies", 1970)

"Curiosity, a healthy curiosity, and a desire to learn is what leads the scientist from one problem to another. Once that feeling is lost and there is no excitement or pleasure in learning new facts, the scientist will no longer be able to discover anything new." (Yakov Khurgin, "Did You Say Mathematics?", 1974) 

"A branch of physics, once it becomes obsolete or unproductive, tends to be forever part of the past. It may be a historical curiosity, perhaps the source of some inspiration to a modern scientist, but dead physics is usually dead for good reason. Mathematics, by contrast, is full of channels and byways that seem to lead nowhere in one era and become major areas of study in another." (James Gleick, "Chaos: Making a New Science", 1987)

"Mathematics is a remarkable sprawling riot of imagination, ranging from pure intellectual curiosity to nuts-and-bolts utility; and it is all one thing." (Ian Stewart, "Game, Set, and Math: Enigmas and Conundrums", 1989)

"Some methods, such as those governing the design of experiments or the statistical treatment of data, can be written down and studied. But many methods are learned only through personal experience and interactions with other scientists. Some are even harder to describe or teach. Many of the intangible influences on scientific discovery - curiosity, intuition, creativity - largely defy rational analysis, yet they are often the tools that scientists bring to their work." (Committee on the Conduct of Science, "On Being a Scientist", 1989)

"The life of a mathematician is dominated by an insatiable curiosity, a desire bordering on passion to solve the problems he is studying." (Jean Dieudonné, "Mathematics - The Music of Reason", 1992)