Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.

Curiosity comes first and method comes after. Before anybody measures anything there is a person struck by something odd enough to be worth staring at, and every rigorous discipline grew out of that unruly impulse. Wonder is not the soft opposite of rigour; it is what rigour is for.

Which means the impulse is worth protecting when it shows up. When something puzzles you, stay with it a minute longer than is convenient before reaching for an explanation. And if a child asks you why, resist the tidy answer that ends the conversation.