I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.
Spence isn't simply championing curiosity over dogma—he's describing two opposite *postures* toward knowledge itself. A mind opened by wonder remains actively engaged, perpetually asking "what else?", while a closed mind mistakes certainty for completion and stops listening. The real sting appears when we notice how belief can masquerade as wisdom: a person may feel intellectually proud of their convictions while actually having surrendered the harder work of ongoing inquiry. Watch how this plays out in any serious argument—the person still asking questions often learns something, while the person certain of their rightness goes home unchanged.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Aristotle“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
Lao Tzu“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it.”
Seneca“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it mean...”
Steve Jobs