I've always found that the things that I want to run away from making work about are the things that I most need to make work about or the things that are actually going to be interesting to explore.
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The universe is not hostile, nor yet is it friendly. It is simply indifferent. To that indifference man brings imagination — and that is the beginning of all we call civilization.
John Haynes Holmes — The Sensible Man's View of Religion
It is a great mistake to think that the motive which leads a man of science to his work is the desire for practical application. He is moved chiefly by curiosity, that most profound, most arrogant, and most invincible of all the passions.
Henri Poincaré — The Value of Science
The silly question is the first intimation of some totally new development. If someone had asked Newton why apples fell downward rather than sideward, Newton might have reflected on this sufficiently to arrive at the concept of universal gravitation.
Alfred North Whitehead — Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead