The world will never starve for want of wonders, but for want of wonder.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Wonder is not a disease. Wonder, and its expression in poetry and the arts, are among the most important things which seem to distinguish men from other animals, and intelligent and sensitive people from morons.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
Stuff your eyes with wonder … live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
—Ray Bradbury (b.1920) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from our sources of strength.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
No wonder lasts over three days.
—Common Proverb
Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man; the power that crosses the white sea, driven by the stormy wind, making a path under surges that threaten to engulf him…
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
The moment one gives a close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world unto itself.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
All are but ministers of Love,
And feed his sacred flame.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
A life of love is one of continual growth, where the doors and windows of experience are always open to the wonder and magic that life offers. To love is to risk living fully.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Childhood is the world of miracle and wonder; as if creation rose, bathed in the light, out of the darkness, utterly new and fresh and astonishing. The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us.
—Eugene Ionesco (1909–94) Romanian-born French Dramatist
He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.
—M. C. Escher (1898–1972) Dutch Graphic Artist
Wonder, says Aristotle, “is the first cause of philosophy.” This is quite as true in the progress of the individual as in that of the concrete mind; and the constant aim of philosophy is to destroy its parent.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Genius goes around the world in its youth incessantly apologizing for having large feet. What wonder that later in life it should be inclined to raise those feet too swiftly to fools and bores.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
In wonder all philosophy began; in wonder it ends; and admiration fills up the interspace.—But the first is the wonder of ignorance; the last is the parent of adoration.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
It is owing to their wonder that people both now begin and at first began to philosophize.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
Men love to wonder and that is the seed of our science.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
—Eden Phillpotts (1862–1960) English Novelist, Dramatist, Poet
Wonder is the basis of worship.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Wonder is involuntary praise.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
The more I wonder, the more I love.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–72) American Jewish Rabbi
If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Wonder is from surprise, and surprise stops with experience.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and the wonder of the world.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.
—Ralph Washington Sockman (1889–1970) American Methodist Clergyman
The man who cannot wonder, who does not habitually wonder and worship, is but a pair of spectacles behind which there is no eye.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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