the curious never dies...

to know almost everything about something, one must inquire.



who can inquire? the unsatisfied one. such people are few and are born once in a while.



those who are easily satisfied,  accept any statement as the true statement about an object, person, situation or hypothesis.



but the curious one does not follow the common trend.



he tells himself: keep curiosity alive, the curiosity of a child.



look at everything around you as thru the eyes of a child. let not wonder about the world fade away from you eyes. this is the secret of keeping young till you die, though your body might have withered.



albert einstein once told:



The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. 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 every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.



dr jayant naraliker, who propounded hoyle-narliker theory, famous in cosmology, had remarked on  similar lines:



it is easy to answer the questions. if questions are raised, someone or some group shall strive and get at the answer. it is the questioner who hold the key to the advancement of learning.



the curious never dies....



socrates, was convicted for his beliefs and was sentenced to death by consuming hemlock. he preferred to drink the deadly poison himself. till the end he kept his curiosity alive, and kept telling his disciples how the poison progressively attacked his vitals. his last hours, in the words of plato:





Then raising the cup to his lips, quite readily and cheerfully he drank off the poison.



And hitherto most of us had been able to control our sorrow; but now when we saw him drinking, and saw too that he had finished the draught, we could not longer forbear, and in spite of myself my own tears were flowing fast; so that I covered my face and wept, not for him, but at the thought of my own calamity in having to part from such a friend.



Nor was I the first; for Crito, when he found himself unable to restrain his tears, had got up, and I followed; and at that moment, Apollodorus, who had been weeping all the time, broke out in a loud and passionate cry which made cowards of us all.



Socrates alone retained his calmness: "What is this strange outcry?" he said. "I sent away the women mainly in order that they might not misbehave in this way, for I have been told that a man should die in peace. Be quiet then, and have patience."



When we heard his words we were ashamed, and refrained our tears; and he walked about until, as he said, his legs began to fail, and then he lay on his back, according to the directions, and the man who gave him the poison now and then looked at his feet and legs; and after a while he pressed his foot hard, and asked him if he could feel; and he said, "No;" and then his leg, and so upwards and upwards, and showed us that he was cold and stiff.



And he felt them himself, and said: "When the poison reaches the heart, that will be the end."

He was beginning to grow cold about the groin, when he uncovered his face, for he had covered himself up, and said--they were his last words--he said: "Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius;  will you remember to pay the debt?



"The debt shall be paid," said Crito; "is there anything else?"



There was no answer to this question; but in a minute or two a movement was heard, and the attendants uncovered him; his eyes were set, and Crito closed his eyes and mouth.

Such was the end . . . of our friend; concerning whom I may truly say, that of all the men of his time whom I have known, he was the wisest and justest and best.

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hemlock  might have killed the  body of socrates as athenians wanted it to be, but  his spirit of inquiry lived on and inspired and influenced the entire philosophical thought of the western world.

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