“The desire for knowledge shapes a man.”

“Man loves and honors man as long as he is not able to judge him, and desire is a product of lacking knowledge.”

“There is naturally in every man a desire to know, but what profiteth knowledge without the fear of God?”

“Man has no automatic code of survival. His particular distinction from all other living species is the necessity to act in the face of alternatives by means of volitional choice. He has no automatic knowledge of what is good for him or evil, what values his life depends on, what course of action it requires. Are you prattling about an instinct of self-preservation? An instinct of self-preservation is precisely what man does not possess. An 'instinct' in as unerring and automatic form of knowledge. A desire is not an instinct. A desire to live does not give you the knowledge required for living. And even man's desire to live is not automatic: your secret evil today is that that is the desire you do not hold. Your fear of death is not a love of life and will not give you the knowledge needed to keep it. Man must obtain his knowledge and choose his actions by a process of thinking, which nature will not force him to perform. Man has the power to act as his own destroyer--and that is the way he has acted through most of history.”

“Wonder is the desire of knowledge.”

“There is no desire more natural than the desire of knowledge. (Il n'est desir plus naturel que le desir de connaissance)”