Quote Origin: If You Are Curious, You Will Find the Puzzles Around You. If You Are Determined, You Will Solve Them

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Erno Rubik? Apocryphal?

Rubik’s Cube from Unsplash

Question for Quote Investigator: Hungarian architect Ernő Rubik is famous for creating the ingenious Rubik’s Cube puzzle. Apparently, he said something about finding puzzles all around us. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 2020 Ernő Rubik published a biographical book about his experiences making puzzles titled “Cubed: The Puzzle of Us”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1

Puzzles are not just entertainment or devices for killing time. For us, as for our ancestors, they help point the way to our creative potential. If you are curious, you will find the puzzles around you. If you are determined, you will solve them.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Ernő Rubik employed the quotation before 2020, but the evidence uncovered by QI was indirect.

One day in May 2014 the Google Doodle on the homepage of the search engine was a version of the Rubik’s Cube puzzle. “The Christian Science Monitor” of Boston, Massachusetts published a piece about the puzzle and its creator Rubik:2

Perhaps the most enduring contribution of this little cube has less to do with these various incarnations as with instilling a generation with a love of puzzles, and inspiring us to tackle the challenges before us. Or as Rubik himself once said: “If you are curious, you’ll find the puzzles around you. If you are determined, you will solve them.”

Also in 2014 the “Express” of London published a piece about the 40th birthday of the puzzle. The article quoted the President of the UK Cube Association Daniel Sheppard and also Rubik:3

Its appeal, Sheppard believes, is timeless: “It is a personality mindset thing.”

Rubik agrees. “If you are curious, you will find the puzzles around you,” he once said. “If you are determined, you will solve them.”

In 2016 the book “Relational Children’s Ministry” by Dan Lovaglia included the quotation:4

Ernő Rubik, the creator of the cube, once said, “If you are curious, you’ll find the puzzles around you. If you are determined, you will solve them.”

I love finding solutions to problems. If something breaks, I fix it.

In conclusion, Ernő Rubik deserves credit for this quotation. He used it in his 2020 book “Cubed: The Puzzle of Us”. He also used it in 2014 or before. The original statement might be in Hungarian.

Image Notes: Picture of Rubik’s Cube from Volodymyr Hryshchenko at Unsplash. Image has been cropped.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Gabriel Syme whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.

Update History: On April 16, 2024 the format of the bibliographical notes was updated. Also, the full article was placed on this website.

  1. 2020, Cubed: The Puzzle of Us All by Erno Rubik, Chapter 1, Quote Page 10, Flatiron Books, New York. (Verified with Amazon Look Inside) ↩︎
  2. 2014 May 19, The Christian Science Monitor, Rubik’s Cube invention: Can you solve it in 20 moves? by David Clark Scott, Quote Page 17, Boston, Massachusetts. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  3. 2014 May 11, Express (Online), 40 years on…it’s still cool to be square: How the Rubik’s Cube came into play by Giulia Rhodes, London, England. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  4. 2016, Relational Children’s Ministry: Turning Kid-Influencers Into Lifelong Disciple Makers by Dan Lovaglia, Chapter 11: Recalibrate Your Discipleship Target in Children’s Ministry, Quote Page 223, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Verified with scans) ↩︎