--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: What we have to do is to be forever…" description: "\"What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions.\" — Walter Pater" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/044/walter-pater-9808_curiosity_what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curi_55303.jpg" --- # What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new… ![“What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions.” quote by Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/044/walter-pater-9808_curiosity_what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curi_55303.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/044/walter-pater-9808_curiosity_what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curi_55303.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/044/walter-pater-9808_curiosity_what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curi_55303.jpg) > “What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions.” [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Encourages perpetual curiosity and openness to revising beliefs through continual testing and fresh experiences. **In simple terms:** Promote ongoing intellectual curiosity. Key Takeaway Never settle on fixed opinions. Themes Curiosity Open-mindedness Intellectual growth Self-improvement Learning Exploration Mood Inspired Reflective Motivated Type Philosophical Motivational When to use this quote - Academic research - Creative brainstorming - Personal development - Cultural immersion - Strategic planning Key Concepts Critical thinking Perspective-taking Adaptability Practical Applications - Innovation workshops - Continuous learning programs Questions to Reflect On - How can you integrate regular opinion challenges into daily routines? - What mechanisms help you stay receptive to new impressions? ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Curiosity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/curiosity/) [Mathematics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mathematics/) [New beginnings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/new-beginnings/) [Opinion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/opinion/) [Science](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science/) ## Related quotes > [Being in a foreign place, preferably for the first time, having seen many things and collected new impressions, and returning to an empty hotel…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stefan-sagmeister/being-in-a-foreign-place-preferably-for-the-first-time-having-seen/) [Stefan Sagmeister](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stefan-sagmeister/) > [But when reflexion begins to play upon these objects... like some trick of magic each object is loosed into a group of impressions -…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/but-when-reflexion-begins-to-play-upon-these-objects-like-some-trick/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Experience, already reduced to a group of impressions, is ringed round for each one of us by that thick wall of personality through which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/experience-already-reduced-to-a-group-of-impressions-is-ringed-round/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Nothing is really typical of my efforts... I'm simply casting about for better ways to crystallise and capture certain strong impressions (involving the elements…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-p-lovecraft/nothing-is-really-typical-of-my-efforts-i-m-simply-casting-about-for/) [H. P. Lovecraft](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-p-lovecraft/) > [I've always been a performer. I love doing impressions of people and being the clown.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emma-rigby/i-ve-always-been-a-performer-i-love-doing-impressions-of-people-and/) [Emma Rigby](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emma-rigby/) > [Some simple words we tell have lasting impressions on them](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tallent-jnr-chingwah-iii/some-simple-words-we-tell-have-lasting-impressions-on-them/) Tallent Jnr Chingwah III > [“First impressions are rarely worth preserving. Men typically fall short of our expectations.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/renate-linnenkoper/first-impressions-are-rarely-worth-preserving-men-typically-fall/) Renate Linnenkoper > [“We are each a work in progress—special and unique. By learning and living the “Art of First Impressions,” you can design a masterpiece of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-c-young/we-are-each-a-work-in-progress-special-and-unique-by-learning-and/) [Susan C. Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-c-young/) > [Everybody searches for a chance to impress other. But they don't understands, That impressions are made by very casual happening...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pacifiersucker/everybody-searches-for-a-chance-to-impress-other-but-they-don-t/) Pacifiersucker > [“The earliest impressions are pictographic in form - little pictures that are the stylized versions of the things they represent. And most things they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chris-godsen/the-earliest-impressions-are-pictographic-in-form-little-pictures/) Chris Godsen > [“Good first impressions…are good for business.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cs-edit/good-first-impressions-are-good-for-business/) CS-Edit > [“Imagination is a holy impressions.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lailah-gifty-akita/imagination-is-a-holy-impressions/) [Lailah Gifty Akita](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lailah-gifty-akita/) > [History never exactly repeats itself, but it does some rather good impressions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dean/history-never-exactly-repeats-itself-but-it-does-some-rather-good/) [John Dean](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dean/) > [I don't do impressions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-rickles/i-don-t-do-impressions/) [Don Rickles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-rickles/) > [First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not infrequently) to our cost, when we have been wheedled out of them by plausible…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-hazlitt/first-impressions-are-often-the-truest-as-we-find-not-infrequently-to/) [William Hazlitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-hazlitt/) ## More by Walter Pater > [A counted number of pulses only is given to us of a variegated, dramatic life. How may we see in them all that is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-counted-number-of-pulses-only-is-given-to-us-of-a-variegated/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [One of the most beautiful passages of Rousseau is that in the sixth book of Confessions, where he describes the awakening in him of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/one-of-the-most-beautiful-passages-of-rousseau-is-that-in-the-sixth/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/for-art-comes-to-you-proposing-frankly-to-give-nothing-but-the/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Every moment some form grows perfect in hand or face; some tone on the hills or the sea is choicer than the rest; some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/every-moment-some-form-grows-perfect-in-hand-or-face-some-tone-on-the/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, and in the very brilliancy of their gifts some tragic dividing of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/not-to-discriminate-every-moment-some-passionate-attitude-in-those/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [A certain strangeness, something of the blossoming of the aloe, is indeed an element in all true works of art: that they shall excite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-certain-strangeness-something-of-the-blossoming-of-the-aloe-is/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“The younger, certainly, had to the full that charm of a constitutional freshness of aspect which may defy for a long time extravagant or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-younger-certainly-had-to-the-full-that-charm-of-a-constitutional/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Books are a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from the vulgarities of the actual world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/books-are-a-refuge-a-sort-of-cloistral-refuge-from-the-vulgarities-of/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [The base of all artistic genius is the power of conceiving humanity in a new, striking, rejoicing way, of putting a happy world ofits…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-base-of-all-artistic-genius-is-the-power-of-conceiving-humanity/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“art is self-sufficient and need serve no moral or political purpose”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/art-is-self-sufficient-and-need-serve-no-moral-or-political-purpose/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [In a sense it might even be said that our failure is to form habits: for, after all, habit is relative to a stereotyped…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/in-a-sense-it-might-even-be-said-that-our-failure-is-to-form-habits/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“The essence of humanism is that belief of which he seems never to have doubted, that nothing which has ever interested living men and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-essence-of-humanism-is-that-belief-of-which-he-seems-never-to/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [A very intimate sense of the expressiveness of outward things, which ponders, listens, penetrates, where the earlier, less developed consciousness passed lightly by, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-very-intimate-sense-of-the-expressiveness-of-outward-things-which/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [That sense of a life in natural objects, which in most poetry is but a rhetorical artifice, was, then, in Wordsworth the assertion of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/that-sense-of-a-life-in-natural-objects-which-in-most-poetry-is-but-a/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“Analysis goes a step farther still, and assures us that those impressions of the individual mind to which, for each one of us, experience…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/analysis-goes-a-step-farther-still-and-assures-us-that-those/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) [Explore all 69 Walter Pater quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) ## More Curiosity quotes > [I'm a strange mixture of my mother's curiosity; my father, who grew up the son of the manse in a Presbyterian family, who had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rupert-murdoch/i-m-a-strange-mixture-of-my-mother-s-curiosity-my-father-who-grew-up/) [Rupert Murdoch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rupert-murdoch/) > [“Metal makes everything magical. Just ask a unicorn.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sybrina-durant/metal-makes-everything-magical-just-ask-a-unicorn/) [Sybrina Durant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sybrina-durant/) > [ We have no clear ideas of the agency of \[demonic\] spirits, nor is it necessary. The Scripture says little to satisfy our curiosity; but… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-newton/we-have-no-clear-ideas-of-the-agency-of-demonic-spirits-nor-is-it/) [John Newton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-newton/) > [The four Cs of making dreams come true: Curiosity, Courage, Consistency, Confidence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walt-disney/the-four-cs-of-making-dreams-come-true-curiosity-courage-consistency/) [Walt Disney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walt-disney/) > [Curiosity Can Kill.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anison/curiosity-can-kill/) [Anison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anison/) > [“So curious you must be. Like little calves poking their heads through the fence with big eyes and a headful of curiosity.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carew-papritz/so-curious-you-must-be-like-little-calves-poking-their-heads-through/) [Carew Papritz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carew-papritz/) > [ “\[T\]he question "What is everything?" has no meaning, even though it seems to be profound. \[...\] The point is, perhaps, that I am not… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-w-watts/t-he-question-what-is-everything-has-no-meaning-even-though-it-seems/) [Alan W. Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-w-watts/) > [ By profession a biologist, \[Thomas Henry Huxley\] covered in fact the whole field of the exact sciences, and then bulged through its four fences.… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/by-profession-a-biologist-thomas-henry-huxley-covered-in-fact-the/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [How do we know that we have a right to kill creatures that we are so little above, as dogs, for our curiosity or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-pope/how-do-we-know-that-we-have-a-right-to-kill-creatures-that-we-are-so/) [Alexander Pope](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-pope/) > [Be curious not judge mental](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/unknow/be-curious-not-judge-mental/) Unknow > [There is nothing so carking as the pangs of unsatisfied curiosity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gertrude-atherton/there-is-nothing-so-carking-as-the-pangs-of-unsatisfied-curiosity/) [Gertrude Atherton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gertrude-atherton/) > [Curiosity is the essence of human existence. 'Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?'... I don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/curiosity-is-the-essence-of-human-existence-who-are-we-where-are-we/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Sometimes curiosity is a poison, not only for those who drink it but for everyone around it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-norman-lippert/sometimes-curiosity-is-a-poison-not-only-for-those-who-drink-it-but/) [G. Norman Lippert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-norman-lippert/) > [As long as your curiosity is greater than your fear, you will move forward!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mehmet-murat-ildan/as-long-as-your-curiosity-is-greater-than-your-fear-you-will-move/) [Mehmet Murat Ildan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mehmet-murat-ildan/) > [Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it sure has earned a lot of people graduate degrees](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robyn-irving/curiosity-may-have-killed-the-cat-but-it-sure-has-earned-a-lot-of/) Robyn Irving [Browse all 2,721 Curiosity quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/curiosity/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Walter Pater" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curiously-testing-new-opinions/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Curiosity" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curiously-testing-new-opinions/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/044/walter-pater-9808_curiosity_what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curi_55303.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/044/walter-pater-9808_curiosity_what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curi_55303.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/044/walter-pater-9808_curiosity_what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curi_55303.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions.” — Walter Pater", "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": "Walter Pater", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "What we have to do is...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curiously-testing-new-opinions/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curiously-testing-new-opinions/#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 } } ] } ```