Where curious minds do dwell

Curiosity is the lust of the mind. It brings us such great pleasures but also treacherous heartaches. It is curiosity that inspires knowledge; it was satisfaction that brought the cat back.

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"Maybe your garden isn’t flourishing because every time a flower blooms, you cut it, just to prove to someone you’re a gardener.” - Unknown

Focus on yourself first. Why prove something to someone when you yourself know it to be true? Why waste your energy? Your garden thrives because of you, not because of what others think of it. The same way you thrive because of yourself, not because of the opinions of others.

"The Gardener" by Phillip Craig, 1990s to 2010s.

"The young gardener" by George Dunlop Leslie, R.A, 1889

"The gardener" by Padma Prasad, 2018

"Flower Garden Love" by Richard S Johnson, 2011

"The garden wall" by Abbot Fuller Graves, 1800s

"Watering the garden" by Victor Gabriel Gilbert, 1899

(unknown)

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"The scientific attitude of mind involves a sweeping away of all other desires in the interest of the desire to know" - Bertrand Russell.

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Chess captured in art is the definition of a moment frozen in time.

It is a moment where you gaze at the pieces and wonder how they got there and what will happen next.

It is the curious beauty of chess that creates such unique and amazing glimpses into lives.

"The chess players" by Sir John Lavery, 1929

"Checkmate in three moves" by Hildur Nilsen Prahl, 1885

"Cavaliers playing chess" by P.H Andreis, 1870

"The Chess players" by Thomas Eakins, 1876

"Checkmate" but also called "The game of life" or "Chess game with the devil" by Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch, 1831

"A game of Chess" by George Goodwin Kilburne, 1800s

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"A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for." - John G. Shed

Ships are meant to be sailed, your mind is made to be curious. So go on and explore.

"Breezing up (a fair wind) - Winslow Homer, 1876

"The Bay of Naples" by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivozovsky, 1841

"The crescent moon" by Montague Dawson, 1970

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There's just something about the nature of painting geographers and astronomers curiously gazing at globes in the 17th century.

Olivier Van Deuren "A young Astronomer" - 1685

Cornelis de Man "Geographers at Work" - 1670

Vermeer "The Astronomer" -1668

Jacob Toorenvliet "Heraclitus" 1640-1719

Gerrit Dou "Old man with a globe" or "suffering of the geographer" 1650

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“Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.” - Samuel Johnson

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Be curious

Go on be curious, ask that question, wonder about that poem, see what you can find.

Because Eve ate that apple out of curiosity, about what it tastes like. She got banished for it, but in turn she gave humanity its gift: Freewill.

So go on be curious.

Because Pandora opened that box, she may have released sickness and death but she gave us another gift, the chance to cure it.

To be curious about medicine.

So go on be curious about art, maths, literature, science. About humanity itself and the great cosmos or the beings beyond.

Lucifer fell from heaven for asking questions, damned for all eternity,

But curiosity is not damnation, it is salvation.

The very thing that brings innovation.

If God was so against it then would he really give us the Earth and all its treasures?

Would he not want us to ask, to think and question? Every creature does it. From the smallest of ants to the mightiest of giants.

The earth is expansive and it takes great curiosity to wander and traverse it.

So be curious, even about the mundane. Ask yourself how or why or where?

Because the greatest gift is to be willing to learn through your curiosity.

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Timing an Experiment 1910 Painting by Peter Ogden Gallery

"It pays to be curious, does it not professor?"

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Your own mind is your biggest weakness but also your biggest strength. Use it with the same precaution that you would give an unknown parcel - for that is your mind. You may have an idea of what's in it but you do not know for certain until you open it and discover its contents fully.

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“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day." - Albert Einstein from "Old Man's Advice to Youth: 'Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.'" LIFE Magazine (2 May 1955) p. 64”