Zoroaster — "Seek knowledge. And if you can't find it, at least find something interesting to…"
Seek knowledge. And if you can't find it, at least find something interesting to look at.
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More from Zoroaster
"I counsel you to always choose the better way. Unless the better way involves a really steep hill. Then, maybe consider a detour."
"Always meet petulance with gentleness and perverseness with kindness. A gentle hand can lead even an elephant by a hair. Reply to thine enemy with gentleness."
"Turn yourself not away from three best things: Good Thought, Good Word, and Good Deed."
"Always meet petulance with gentleness and perverseness with kindness."
"The greatest battle is within oneself. And sometimes, that battle is with the urge to hit the snooze button."
About Zoroaster (c. 1500-1000 BCE (debated))
Iranian prophet who founded Zoroastrianism, the first major religion of cosmic dualism between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu). Closely associated with The Buddha (near-contemporary Eastern moral-cosmological revolutionary). For an intellectual contrast, see Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher of 'beyond good and evil' — Nietzsche appropriated Zarathustra's name for Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883) precisely to invert the original's moral cosmology — the historical Zoroaster founded the good-versus-evil framework Nietzsche's character announces the end of.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Pursue understanding actively, but don't let frustration stop you when answers elude you. If deep truth stays out of reach, stay curious anyway and keep your attention on something worthwhile. The advice treats curiosity itself as a habit to protect, valuing engaged observation over passive boredom. Even partial learning, noticing, or wondering has value, because a mind that stays alert is more likely to eventually stumble onto the insight it was originally chasing.
Relevance to Zoroaster
Zoroaster built an entire religion around the pursuit of truth, personified as Asha, the cosmic order opposing the lie, Druj. As a priest-reformer who broke from older Iranian polytheism, he urged followers to use Vohu Manah, the Good Mind, to choose wisely through reflection rather than ritual alone. His Gathas repeatedly ask questions of Ahura Mazda, showing a thinker who valued inquiry and observation as religious acts, not just belief.
The era
Zoroaster lived in Bronze-to-Iron Age Iran, roughly the second millennium BCE, among pastoral tribes whose religion centered on sacrifices, warrior gods, and oral hymns. Literacy was rare, sacred knowledge was controlled by hereditary priests, and most people navigated the world through ritual rather than reasoned inquiry. Against that backdrop, telling listeners to seek knowledge themselves, and to stay curious about the world around them, was a quietly radical shift from inherited custom toward personal moral and intellectual responsibility.
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