CURIOUS QUOTES | INGENUITY

I selected the themes for Season Two of Curious Quotes, Points to Ponder, and Inspiring Insights based on the finalists for the naming of NASA's 2020 Mars Rover. While the rover was named Perseverance, the technology demonstration project is named Ingenuity and is literally a helicopter designed to fly over the surface of Mars collecting data and providing views never seen before. I am more than a little excited to see what this is going to look like. With that in mind, I was really looking forward to having a week of quotes on the topic of Ingenuity. It turns out there are not a ton of great quotes on the subject. I felt pretty limited and to push my creativity even further, I decided to limit myself to a single font this week. Let's jump into the beauty that is American Typewriter and Ingenuity. 

While looking for quotes about ingenuity, this one from General George Patton came up time and time again. I have lots of curious questions about this photo. Was it staged? Is this a candid shot? What is he looking at? Where is he? The quote is one that resonates with me as a teacher. I feel that it is important to give students and end goal and then see how it is that they get there. Giving step by step instructions does not allow for ingenuity. 

I was intrigued by this quote from Dr. Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin. I went on an investigation as to who she is and what makes her say this. I learned a lot in the process about someone that I was not aware of. Consider how this same quote would have a very different meaning if spoken by someone else. I leave it to you to discover who she is and what she has accomplished. 

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams was a favorite read of mine when I was in high school. In fact, I used the section about Deep Thought and the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything for the reading when competing for the Literary team's Oral Interpretation Competition. I placed 4th in the state that year in case you were wondering. This quote is one that has many different versions and has been attributed to many other authors. This is from the 5th book in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy. 

I have always been a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, and have been in search of a quote from him for quite some time. There is a lot to ponder about this quote. What is Poe really saying here? I see multiple ways to interpret it. This is a photo of Poe shortly before his untimely death. I chose to frame it as an extreme close up to really emphasize the haunted nature of his eyes. 

Last on the list of quotes this week comes from Atul Gawande. I knew his name from The Checklist Manifesto, but digging deeper into his biography really makes one feel like an underachiever. This quote ties together many of the themes covered on Curious Quotes. Gawande ends by saying that we have to be willing to try. If we never try then we never know what might happen.