Curiosity endows the people who have it with a generosity in argument and a serenity in their own mode of life which springs from their cheerful willingness to let life take the form it will.
Interpretation
Curiosity leads to open-mindedness and a peaceful acceptance of life's unpredictability.
Alistair Cooke's quote suggests that curiosity enhances one's ability to engage in arguments generously and maintain a calm lifestyle. This state of mind is rooted in a cheerful acceptance of life’s unpredictable nature, fostering a willingness to embrace whatever comes, rather than resisting or trying to control it.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the value of curiosity in education.
More than anything else, though, to anyone who would write about it, golf offers a four-hour drama in two acts, which becomes memorable even in the tape-recorded reminiscenses of old champs, and which - in the hands of someone like Herb Wind - can become a piece of war correspondence as artfully controlled as Alan Morehead's account of Gallipoli.
Man has an incurable habit of not fulfilling the prophecies of his fellow men.
It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.
A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.
Liberty is the luxury of self-discipline, that those nations historically who have failed to discipline themselves have had discipline imposed by others.
It is a wonderful tribute to the game or to the dottiness of the people who play it that for some people somewhere there is no such thing as an insurmountable obstacle, an unplayable course, the wrong time of the day or year.
The intellectuals' chief cause of anguish are one another's works.
He who knows things, and in fighting puts his knowledge into practice, will win his battles. He who knows them not, nor practices them, will surely be defeated.
Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character. We like to be around those who are grateful. They tend to brighten all around them. They make others feel better about themselves. They tend to be more humble, more joyful, more likable.
Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.
Keep looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so just because you might not like what you find.
If we are ever going to develop an ability to hear from God and be led by His Spirit, we have to start making our own decisions and trust the wisdom God has deposited in our own heart.
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