Montaigne 1.27
Vainglory and curiosity are the two scourges of our soul. The latter prompts us to thrust our noses into everything, and the former forbids us to leave anything unresolved and undecided (182).
- Doubt concerning the ‘miraculous’ spread of information – such one knowing the results of a battle three days away within the hour. Odd not to think of the obvious solution, that both reports (of victory and defeat) would circulate following the engagement, but only one would be shown to be correct by report; and of course no one likes to dwell on their failures of prescience.
- The desire to be more knowledgeable than authorities – thus schoolboys pointing out the falsehood (or improbabilities) in Pliny and such like.