“Schooling that children are forced to endure—in which the subject matter is imposed by others and the “learning” is motivated by extrinsic rewards and punishments rather than by the children’s true interests—turns learning from a joyful activity into a chore, to be avoided whenever possible. Coercive schooling, which tragically is the norm in our society, suppresses curiosity and overrides children’s natural ways of learning. It also promotes anxiety, depression and feelings of helplessness that all too often reach pathological levels.” ~ Peter O. Gray
“A person’s freedom of learning is part of his freedom of thought, even more basic than his freedom of speech. If we take from someone his right to decide what he will be curious about, we destroy his freedom of thought. We say, in effect, you must think not about what interests and concerns you, but about what interests and concerns us.” ~ John Holt
“It is among the commonplaces of education that we often first cut off the living root and then try to replace its natural functions by artificial means. Thus we suppress the child’s curiosity and then when he lacks a natural interest in learning he is offered special coaching for his scholastic difficulties.” ~ Alice Miller
“The child is curious. He wants to make sense out of things, find out how things work, gain competence and control over himself and his environment, and do what he can see other people doing. He is open, perceptive, and experimental. He does not merely observe the world around him, He does not shut himself off from the strange, complicated world around him, but tastes it, touches it, hefts it, bends it, breaks it. To find out how reality works, he works on it. He is bold. He is not afraid of making mistakes. And he is patient. He can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance, and suspense … School is not a place that gives much time, or opportunity, or reward, for this kind of thinking and learning.” ~ John Holt
“Homeschooling is an act of liberation and an act of passion. It is an occasion to walk away from institutional images of life and to embrace a vision that is filled with personal meaning and unmistakable truths for our families. The quality of awareness that comes from the heart is more dependable… Homeschooling… is about helping make it possible for children to reach maturity with healthy, curious, fully conscious minds.” ~ Earl Gary Stevens
“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreak and ruin. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty. To the contrary, I believe that it would be possible to rob even a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the aid of a whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry, especially if the food, handed out under such coercion, were to be selected accordingly.” ~ Albert Einstein
“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” ~ Albert Einstein
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” ~ Albert Einstein
“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” ~ Albert Einstein
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” ~ Albert Einstein
“Wisdom begins in wonder.” ~ Socrates
“Curiosity has no important place in my work, only conformity.” ~ John Taylor Gatto
“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.” ~ James Stephens
“Have you ever seen a six-month-old or a three-year-old who’s not curious and self-directed? I haven’t. That’s how we are out of the box.” ~ Daniel Pink
“We’re born with a curiosity about the universe. Those people who don’t have a curiosity don’t have it because it’s gotten beaten out of them in some way.” ~ Kip Thorne
“No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby naturally explores everything it can get at, unless restraining forces have already been at work. And this tendency doesn’t die out, it’s wiped out.” ~ B.F. Skinner
“Children are notoriously curious about everything, everything except… the things people want them to know. It then remains for us to refrain from forcing any kind of knowledge upon them, and they will be curious about everything.” ~ Floyd Dell
“There is something profoundly deadening to a curious, engaged child about the feeling of being watched and measured, or even, some studies suggest, the anticipation of being measured.” ~ Carol Black
“Institutionalized school has taught us to seek answers in order to get the lesson over with rather than to inspire more questions and extend the curiosity of the students.” ~ Leigh Bortins [The Question]
“Schooling is a manufacturing process whereby the raw material called curious boys is turned into products called obedient men.” ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory.” ~ Richard Whately
“Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.” ~ Samuel Johnson
“Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness.” ~ Bryant H. McGill
“Satisfaction of one’s curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.” ~ Linus Pauling
“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.” ~ Oscar Wilde
“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” ~ Leo Burnett
“We all know that what you learn out of curiosity and interest sticks with you forever.” ~ Niccolo Viviani
“Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Enjoy every step you take. If you’re curious, there is always something new to be discovered in the backdrop of your daily life.” ~ Roy T. Bennett
“Curiosity is the engine of achievement.” ~ Ken Robinson
“I know you were just wondering, but sometimes wondering is better than knowing.” ~ Christopher Scotton
“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” ~ William Arthur Ward
“Curiosity is the lust of the mind.” ~ Thomas Hobbes
“Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.” ~ Aldous Huxley
“Kids are born curious about the world. What adults primarily do in the presence of kids is unwittingly thwart the curiosity of children.” ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson
“The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.” ~ Edmund Burke
“Kids are naturally curious about what they don’t know, or don’t understand, or what is foreign to them. They only learn to be frightened of those differences when an adult influences them to behave that way and censors that natural curiosity.” ~ Aimee Mullins
“Standardized testing is at cross purposes with many of the most important purposes of public education. It doesn’t measure big-picture learning, critical thinking, perseverance, problem solving, creativity or curiosity, yet those are the qualities great teaching brings out in a student.” ~ Randi Weingarten
“Children don’t need to be taught how to learn; they are born learners. They come out of the womb interacting with and exploring their surroundings. Babies are active learners, their burning curiosity motivating them to learn how the world works. And if they are given a safe, supportive environment, they will continue to learn hungrily and naturally – in the manner and at the speed that suits them best.” ~ Wendy Priesnitz
“Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat dies nobly.” ~ Arnold Edinborough
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” ~ Walt Disney
“You can’t just give someone a creativity injection. You have to create an environment for curiosity and a way to encourage people and get the best out of them.” ~ Ken Robinson
“The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.” ~ E. M. Forster
“To have good ideas, we need to consume good ideas too. Follow your curiosity.” ~ Isaac Asimov
“Creativity flows when curiosity is stoked.” ~ Neil Blumenthal
“One of the secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute.” ~ William Lyon Phelps
“The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.” ~ Anatole France
“I am generally fascinated by what are the big, challenging questions – that’s behind my curiosity." ~ Paul Allen
"Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
“I follow and cultivate my own curiosity. I think curiosity is one of the top two or three human characteristics. It’s something that I really like about myself. […] I want to understand stuff! I want to understand people! Following my curiosity so frequently leads me to better life decisions and better business decisions but also - just feeling better! You’re never going to feel bad about your whole life if you loved people and you were curious. I mean, that’s kind of all I want!” ~ Hank Green