When God Speaks

You’ve heard the saying that ‘curiosity killed the cat’, but I’m here to tell you that is simply not true. If it were so I would have died decades ago. I love to learn new things and about new things. Always have. I may not be the smartest person on the earth, but I’m pretty close, lol.

To say that being curious is deadly or not to be pursued is a great misconception. How would anyone know anything if not for being curious? Think about all the things you know about, then ask yourself why you know these things. Unless we are curious about something we will never pursue answers thus leaving us, to put it mildly, uninformed. The only reason you have the knowledge you have is because something made you curious and you explored the topic further. Yet, being nosy is much different. Meddling into things not your business may indeed be deadly and possibly the writer’s intent when writing this proverb.

The proverb that curiosity killed the cat is a strange saying. Why a cat? Well, cats are curious creatures. Always snooping around leading them into bad situations at times. So, I would venture to say that is the reason cats were chosen for this proverb. Another could be that when quoted in its full version the proverb rhymes.

Let me tell you the origins of this proverb. When first cloned the intent of curiosity killing the cat meant to warn against prying into matters that do not concern you. Doing so could lead to unpleasant outcomes. I get this intent, but it should have been better quoted for all curiosity is not prying. Better even would be to have chosen another word, but words meanings change over time so possibly curiosity at that time meant someone that was always snooping in affairs not their own.

The original version of this proverb was, ‘Care killed the cat’. This, too, is poorly quoted because most think of care as a good thing, but at that time care referred to worry or sorrow, not helping. Meaning then that dwelling on anxieties could be harmful. Over the years meanings change yet proverbs stay the same and this can cause confusion.

The real kicker with this proverb is that it is not complete. ‘Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back’ is the original, true and complete form. Satisfaction brought it back showing the importance of listening and challenging people on their terms.

This tells me that we need to be careful taking snippets of proverbs and running with them. We should be precise in what we say and as decades or centuries come and go, old proverbs can still make sense and be quoted with confidence and truth.