I know nothing, ” I say, cheerfully.“ You never seem to. Have you ever wondered why that is?”“ It’s very deliberate. I’ve found that knowledge is usually a burden. I prefer to be surprised and then eventually horrified.

Matthew Norman
About This Quote

Lawrence Block wondered why so many people rely on knowledge in their lives, even when it comes to trivial matters. So he decided to analyze the question by creating a character called Richard Mayhew, an antiques expert who was always surprised and then horrified when he discovered that someone had tried to pass off a fake as the real thing. When Richard realized that his knowledge actually stopped him from being surprised or horrified, he sought out other ways to be surprised. He read books and listened to music.

He took walks around his neighborhood, peering into windows and asking questions of shopkeepers. He learned about things like the history of his apartment building, the origins of buildings in his neighborhood, and the history of his favorite restaurant. He developed friendships with other people who shared his interests, and he began spending time with an old lady named Mrs.

Plessy, who had lived in her apartment building for decades without knowing anything about it.

Source: Domestic Violets

Some Similar Quotes
  1. You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth. - William W. Purkey
  2. Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane. - H.P. Lovecraft
  3. All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused. - Martha Graham
  4. Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free. - Jalaluddin Rumi
  5. Somebody just gave me a shower radio. Thanks a lot. Do you really want music in the shower? I guess there's no better place to dance than a slick surface next to a glass door. - Jerry Seinfeld
More Quotes By Matthew Norman
  1. We must love one another or die
  2. He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
  3. If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me.
  4. I am sure it is everyone’s experience, as it has been mine, that any discovery we make about ourselves or the meaning of life is never, like a scientific discovery, a coming upon something entirely new and unsuspected; it is rather, the coming to conscious...
  5. Truth, like love and sleep, resents approaches that are too intense.
Related Topics