$${\text{I was an explorer :-( }}$$

Some quotes closer to my heart:

If you tell me, I will listen. If you show me, I will see. But if you let me experience, I will learn.—Lao Tsu

Math is a language, and I want to "read" it (not "recite", i.e. like we can recite medieval German hymns). I need the message behind the definitions.

When you understand something, then you can find the math to express that understanding. The math doesn't provide the understanding.-Leslie Lamport

Imagination is more important than knowledge.—Albert Einstein

Suppose we do not know the rules of chess but are allowed to watch the moves of the players. If we watch the game for a long time, we may make out some of the rules. With the knowledge of these rules, we may try to understand why a player played a particular move.Physics goes the same way. The nature around us is like a big chess game played by Nature. The events in nature are like the moves of the great game. We are allowed to watch the events of nature and guess at the basic rules according to which the events take place.-Richard Feynman

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. —Richard Feynman

To teach effectively a teacher must develop a feeling for his subject; he cannot make his students sense its vitality if he does not sense it himself. He cannot share his enthusiasm when he has no enthusiasm to share. How he makes his point may be as important as the point he makes; he must personally feel it to be important. —George Póyla