“You can purchase the mind of Pascal for a crown. Pleasures even cheaper are sold to those who give themselves up to them. It is only luxuries and objects of caprice that are rare and difficult to obtain; unfortunately they are the only things that touch the curiosity and taste of ordinary men.” MenGivingMindDifficultPleasureObjectsTasteOrdinaryCuriosityLuxuryCrownsCheaperOrdinary ManCapricePascal Book:La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims Source: La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims
“Someone once said that the two most important things in developing taste were sensitivity and intelligence. I don't think this is so; I'd rather call them curiosity and courage. Curiosity to look for the new and the hidden; courage to develop your own tastes regardless of what others might say or think.” ThinkingLooksSaidTwoImportantMightTasteImportant ThingsCuriosityDevelopingSensitivity Author:R. Murray Schafer
“Just out of curiosity, I wonder what makes music or culture or taste go in certain directions. Who knows what the forces are behind it.” KnowsCertainCultureForceBehindsWonderTasteCuriosity Author:Beck
“I had no books at home. I started to frequent a public library in Lisbon. It was there, with no help except curiosity and the will to learn, that my taste for reading developed and was refined.” BookHelpingHomeReadingTasteCuriosityLibraryReading BooksRefinedPublic Library Author:Jose Saramago
“It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.” LiteraturePromiseTasteDignityCuriosityCuriousParadiseCivilizedCreeds Author:Evelyn Waugh
“Of course genes can’t pull the levers of our behavior directly. But they affect the wiring and workings of the brain, and the brain is the seat of our drives, temperaments and patterns of thought. Each of us is dealt a unique hand of tastes and aptitudes, like curiosity, ambition, empathy, a thirst for novelty or for security, a comfort level with the social or the mechanical or the abstract. Some opportunities we come across click with our constitutions and set us along a path in life.” HandsCoursesOpportunitySocialLevelsBrainPathSecurityComfortTasteBehaviorAmbitionUniqueEmpathyConstitutionCuriosityPatternsAbstractSeatsGenesThirstTemperamentNoveltyClicksAptitudeLeversWiring Author:Steven Pinker