Joan D. Vinge Quotes

As humans, we're such a discontented species. We're always trying to further ourselves, and you get all the way to the moon, and then it's just discontent. You want to go to Mars.

I can never rest. I need to always do more. I always want to do more. I'm never going to be satisfied. That's it: Never be satisfied.

It can never be satisfied, the mind, never.

I have this thirst for knowledge that I can't ever satisfy.

We humans are here because nothing can be perfect. There always have to be some living things that are unsatisfied, itchy, trying too hard. If it was all just animals and rocks and lettuce, the gods wouldn't feel like they had enough to do.

My own curiosity and interest are insatiable.

Curiosity is the one thing invincible in Nature.

I'm never satisfied because I've been always interested in too many things and I always want to do everything at once.

Nothing is more certain than that improvement in human affairs is wholly the work of the uncontented characters.

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature

For we Americans, we are restless, the restless of all nations. None but the restless has ever come to America.

Therein lies the greatness of man. Fear is never allowed to dominate that desire for greater knowledge and as long as mankind retains that spirit we will move forward.

It's one of those weird things where I'm always curious about what's next. It's not just an empty restlessness, I try to appreciate things as they're going along and in the moment, but when things are good, I'm always anxious about how I can better that or take it on further.

Some people will stay at home and be content there. Others are born to run. It's that conflict that fascinates me.

I'm never satisfied with anything. It can make things hard for myself, but it also pushes me.

Part of our human nature is finding new ways of being.

I'm always that dude that's looking for the next thing.

I think the curiosity of mankind, that we want something unknown. Like, 500 years ago, humankind wanted to know what the other side of the ocean is, and it was a very risky project, and then we decided that probably we can fly; let's fly higher. And now we're flying space station, and still it's not enough for us: we want to know what's beyond.

It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order to go into darkness again; the never-satisfied man is so strange if he has completed a structure, then it is not in order to dwell in it peacefully,but in order to begin another. I imagine the world conqueror must feel thus, who, after one kingdom is scarcely conquered, stretches out his arms for others.

Humanity is always looking for the next great world, the next frontier. I wonder how different this world would be if we were content with where we were.

Progress is the life-style of man.

Humanity looks to me like a magnificent beginning but not the final word.

We're always looking for something.

Fishermen, no matter what supreme good fortune befalls them, cannot ever be absolutely satisfied. It is a fundamental weakness of intellect.

It all boils down to the fact that we must never allow ourselves to become satisfied with unattained goals. We must always maintain a kind of divine discontent.