Couldn’t we at least get started?” on something — whether it was a new project or new initiative. I have discovered, consistent with Goethe’s observa… - James E. Ryan

Learning these stories will inevitably enrich your life. It might even lengthen it. Curiosity, it turns out, is conducive to health and happiness, as scores of social scientists have documented. Curious people, not surprisingly, are likely to learn more and to retain more of what they learn. Curious people are likely to be more attractive to others, as people are attracted to those who seem interested in them. Curiosity also leads to empathy, an emotion that seems in short supply today. Curious people are likely to be healthier, and to experience less anxiety in particular, because they see new situations as an opportunity to learn rather than an opportunity to realize that they don’t know enough. Curious people are also, according to some studies, likely to live longer, presumably because they are more engaged with the world around them.

While the question “I wonder if?” is a question worth asking on its own, it is also closely connected to the question “I wonder why?” Once you start asking “I wonder why?” and especially if you get an unsatisfying answer, you are inevitably going to ask “I wonder if things could be different?” Put another way, to ask “I wonder why?” about the present naturally raises the question “I wonder if?” about the future.

there is no greater gift to bestow on children than the gift of curiosity.