--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The human desire to know why is as…" description: "\"The human desire to know why is as powerful as the desire to know what happened next, and it is a desire of a higher order.\" — Janet Burroway" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/696/janet-burroway-32021_desire_the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-power_2158858.png" --- # The human desire to know why is as powerful as the desire… ![“The human desire to know why is as powerful as the desire to know what happened next, and it is a desire of a higher order.” quote by Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/696/janet-burroway-32021_desire_the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-power_2158858.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/696/janet-burroway-32021_desire_the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-power_2158858.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/696/janet-burroway-32021_desire_the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-power_2158858.png) > “The human desire to know why is as powerful as the desire to know what happened next, and it is a desire of a higher order.” [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The drive to understand causes is as strong as the urge to know outcomes, reflecting a higher-order curiosity. **In simple terms:** Seeking why is as powerful as seeking what. Key Takeaway Cultivate deep curiosity about causes. Themes curiosity knowledge order Mood inquisitive reflective Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - research - investigative work - personal growth Key Concepts philosophy human nature Questions to Reflect On - What motivates your search for deeper meaning? - How can you balance why and what? A Different Perspective Overemphasis on why can stall action. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Desire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/desire/) [Humans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/humans/) [Nature of man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature-of-man/) [Order](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/order/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) ## Related quotes > [The melancholy thing in our public life is the insane desire to get higher.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutherford-b-hayes/the-melancholy-thing-in-our-public-life-is-the-insane-desire-to-get/) [Rutherford B. 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So do not be ashamed that you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/deepak-chopra/desire-is-what-leads-you-through-life-until-the-time-comes-when-you/) [Deepak Chopra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/deepak-chopra/) > [Driving by my ambitions, desire higher positions, to see eternally and my mission, to be more than just a rap musician.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tupac-shakur/driving-by-my-ambitions-desire-higher-positions-to-see-eternally-and/) [Tupac Shakur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tupac-shakur/) > [Passion, the powerful desire to please limitless, uninhibited until there are no desires remaining.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-wilks/passion-the-powerful-desire-to-please-limitless-uninhibited-until/) [Stacy Wilks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-wilks/) > [One of the keystones of romantic love - and also of the ecstatic religion practiced by mystics - is the powerful desire to become…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diane-ackerman/one-of-the-keystones-of-romantic-love-and-also-of-the-ecstatic/) [Diane Ackerman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diane-ackerman/) > [“Was this what the human reproductive urge was like, a pointless and powerful desire to replicate wonderful, irreplaceable me, even when the me in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeff-lindsay/was-this-what-the-human-reproductive-urge-was-like-a-pointless-and/) [Jeff Lindsay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeff-lindsay/) > [“I never realised how powerful desire could be. 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You know what it is to want, perhaps even to yearn,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/augustus-rose/you-are-too-young-i-think-to-understand-yet-the-nature-of-desire-you/) [Augustus Rose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/augustus-rose/) > [In the desire of the One to know Himself, We exist.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rumi/in-the-desire-of-the-one-to-know-himself-we-exist/) [Rumi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rumi/) > [I think we all have a primal desire to know as much as we can to find out about where we come from.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-c-wolfe/i-think-we-all-have-a-primal-desire-to-know-as-much-as-we-can-to-find/) [George C. Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-c-wolfe/) > [“..the writer’s obsession – the desire to know and communicate, or, rather, to know everything so as to communicate with the greatest degree of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-klima/the-writer-s-obsession-the-desire-to-know-and-communicate-or-rather/) [Ivan Klima](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-klima/) > [All men by nature desire to know.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/all-men-by-nature-desire-to-know/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) ## More by Janet Burroway > [The mystique and the false glamour of the writing profession grow partly out of a mistaken belief that people who can express profound ideas…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-mystique-and-the-false-glamour-of-the-writing-profession-grow/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [What is the pattern of change?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/what-is-the-pattern-of-change/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring. It is the sensation of rearing and peering…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-sensation-of-writing-a-book-is-the-sensation-of-spinning-blinded-2/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [Most writing is done between the mind and the hand, not between the hand and the page.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/most-writing-is-done-between-the-mind-and-the-hand-not-between-the/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [In literature only trouble is interesting. It takes trouble to turn the great themes of life into a story: birth, love, sex, work, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/in-literature-only-trouble-is-interesting-it-takes-trouble-to-turn/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [If character is the foreground of fiction, setting is the background, and as in a painting's composition, the foreground may be in harmony or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/if-character-is-the-foreground-of-fiction-setting-is-the-background/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [I sit and pass judgment on myself: this is dull, this is unclear, this is insignificant: ergo I am dull, I am unclear, I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/i-sit-and-pass-judgment-on-myself-this-is-dull-this-is-unclear-this/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [The only justification for writing a novel is that it should be wonderful. Adequate is inadequate.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-only-justification-for-writing-a-novel-is-that-it-should-be/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I aspire to comedy. Being a novelist, I aspire to the musical. Being organized, I aspire…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-being-solemn-i-aspire-to/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [In Literature, only trouble is interesting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/in-literature-only-trouble-is-interesting/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [What matters is not publication or success (success is bad for your prose) but the practice of the imaginative act. Our damaged values depend…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/what-matters-is-not-publication-or-success-success-is-bad-for-your/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [“Don't dread. Do.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/don-t-dread-do/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [Reject without regret whatever seems on reflection wrongheaded, dull, destructive, or irrelevant to your vision. It’s just as important to be able to discriminate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/reject-without-regret-whatever-seems-on-reflection-wrongheaded-dull/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [Right now-whether you're in writing courses getting "paid" in credit for writing, or burdened and distracted by earning a living and changing diapers-figure out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/right-now-whether-you-re-in-writing-courses-getting-paid-in-credit/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [Part of the trouble is that I've never properly understood that some disasters accumulate, that they don't all land like a child out of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/part-of-the-trouble-is-that-i-ve-never-properly-understood-that-some/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) [Explore all 16 Janet Burroway quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) ## More Desire quotes > [I put myself in the student's place and remember the frustrations, doubts, determination, and desires I felt when I was going through the initial…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ted-martinez/i-put-myself-in-the-student-s-place-and-remember-the-frustrations/) Ted Martinez > [Passion is what you need to be good, an unforgiving passion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-easton/passion-is-what-you-need-to-be-good-an-unforgiving-passion/) [David Easton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-easton/) > [I want the municipality to be a helping hand to the man with a desire of sympathy, to help the fallen when it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-burns/i-want-the-municipality-to-be-a-helping-hand-to-the-man-with-a-desire/) [John Burns](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-burns/) > [Ye youths and virgins, when your generous blood Has drunk the warmth of fifteen summers, now The loves invite; now to new rapture wakes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-armstrong/ye-youths-and-virgins-when-your-generous-blood-has-drunk-the-warmth/) [John Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-armstrong/) > [I have observed this in my experience of slavery, - that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-douglass/i-have-observed-this-in-my-experience-of-slavery-that-whenever-my/) [Frederick Douglass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-douglass/) > [“THE ESSENCE OF YOUR DESIRE IS A FEELING”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/danielle-laporte/the-essence-of-your-desire-is-a-feeling/) [Danielle LaPorte](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/danielle-laporte/) > [On the brink of being satiated, desire still appears infinite.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-rostand/on-the-brink-of-being-satiated-desire-still-appears-infinite/) [Jean Rostand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-rostand/) > [If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/if-there-is-any-period-one-would-desire-to-be-born-in-is-it-not-the/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [He caught her, she fell, he caught her in his arms, he held her tightly unconscious of what he was doing. He held her…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/victor-hugo/he-caught-her-she-fell-he-caught-her-in-his-arms-he-held-her-tightly/) [Victor Hugo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/victor-hugo/) > [ Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. My three \[great teachers\] did not… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-steinbeck/teaching-might-even-be-the-greatest-of-the-arts-since-the-medium-is/) [John Steinbeck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-steinbeck/) > [“The deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/the-deepest-urge-in-human-nature-is-the-desire-to-be-important/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [In discovering books, you became free to explore the full range of human motives, desires, secrets, and lies. All my life, people have scolded…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/betsy-lerner/in-discovering-books-you-became-free-to-explore-the-full-range-of/) [Betsy Lerner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/betsy-lerner/) > [I have never been in, nor have I had any strong particular desire to be in, what is termed a costume drama, but I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-freeman/i-have-never-been-in-nor-have-i-had-any-strong-particular-desire-to/) [Martin Freeman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-freeman/) > [Now I am in the place I call this wide wide Heaven because it includes all my simplest desires but also the most humble…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alice-sebold/now-i-am-in-the-place-i-call-this-wide-wide-heaven-because-it/) [Alice Sebold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alice-sebold/) > [“from THE DEVIL YOU KNOW : She wanted him too. He could see it in the rapid rise of her breasts. He could smell…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emery-lee/from-the-devil-you-know-she-wanted-him-too-he-could-see-it-in-the/) [Emery Lee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emery-lee/) [Browse all 15,155 Desire quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/desire/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The human desire to know why is as powerful as the desire to know what happened next, and it is a desire of a higher order.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Janet Burroway" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-powerful-as-the-desire-to-know/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Desire" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-powerful-as-the-desire-to-know/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/696/janet-burroway-32021_desire_the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-power_2158858.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/696/janet-burroway-32021_desire_the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-power_2158858.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/696/janet-burroway-32021_desire_the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-power_2158858.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The human desire to know why is as powerful as the desire to know what happened next, and it is a desire of…” — Janet Burroway", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Janet Burroway", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The human desire to know why...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-powerful-as-the-desire-to-know/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-powerful-as-the-desire-to-know/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```