"To children, the world and everything in it is new, something that gives rise to astonishment. It is not like that for adults. Most adults accept the world as a matter of course.
This is precisely where philosophers are a notable exception. A philosopher never gets quite used to the world. To him or her, the world continues to seem a bit unreasonable--bewildering, even enigmatic. Philosophers and small children thus have an important faculty in common. You might say that throughout his life a philosopher remains as thin-skinned as a child.
So now you must choose, Sophie. Are you a child who has not yet become world-weary? Or are you a philosopher who will vow never to become so?"
I have loathed people who pretend to be, or in a worse case, truly are world-weary, in order to suggest how sophisticated they are. (The picture conceived itself that when Guojing was wondering at the special ceremony of Gaibang, someone casting him a contemptuous look and saying “少见多怪！”)I hated them quietly and apologetically, because I was afraid that was out of low self-esteem or jealousy.
Now I can denounce them as contemptuous. Let me recount the occasions where my curious nature was discouraged...
In primary school, we would often go climb the hills together. Each time I saw a beautiful flower, i would tell my friends happily. But Y told me how childish it was to wonder at common flowers as such.
In high school, one day i was talking with J and playing with my bottle. Suddenly I thought of something, I told her the one who invented the spiral bottle cap must be a genius! And she immediately called me insane.
Last year, i hold out my newspaper for my roommate to see an African child who was near death. The other roommate C replied without even take a look at it,"what's curious about that? We've seen enough during high school."
......I hope these things does not succeed in undermining me, or reducing me to some human hardware for the society.
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