# Quote — John Wyndham, Stowaway to Mars

> "Knowledge?" said the doctor. "Yes, I suppose that is it. For ever and for ever seeking knowledge. And we don't even know why we seek it. It's an instinct, like self-preservation; and about as comprehensible. Why, I wonder, do I keep on living. I know I've got to die sooner or later, yet I take the best care I can that it shall be later instead of finishing the thing off in a reasonable manner. After all, I've done my bit—propagated my species, and yet for some inscrutable reason I want to go on living and learning. Just an instinct. Some kink in the evolutionary process caused this passion for knowledge, and the result is man—an odd little creature, scuttling around and piling up mountains of this curious commodity.
>
> What do you suppose will happen when one day a man sits back in his chair and says: 'Knowledge is complete'? You see, it just sounds silly. We're so used to collecting it, that we can't imagine a world where it is all collected and finished."

- Author: [John Wyndham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham.md)
- Book: [Stowaway to Mars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/stowaway-to-mars.md)
- Page: 63
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#Stowaway_to_Mars_(originally_Planet_Plane_/_The_Space_Machine)_(1935)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/stowaway-to-mars/knowledge-said-the

## More from this book

> The world has so multiplied the causes of fear that no one is left entirely unafraid.

p. 12 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/stowaway-to-mars/the-world-has.md)

> "There are, of course, risks. In fact, there are three distinct kinds of risk: the known ones which we can and shall prepare against; the known ones which we must trust to luck to avoid; and the entirely unknown."

p. 26 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/stowaway-to-mars/there-are-of-course.md)

> "I'm afraid I'm not very good at understanding things like that."
>
> "You say that, but what you really mean is: 'I don't want to understand things like that.' "
>
> "It's true," she admitted.

p. 167 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/stowaway-to-mars/im-afraid-im-not.md)