6
For curiosity is really a passion for finding out whatever is hidden and concealed, and no one conceals a good thing when he has it; why, people even pretend to have good things when they have them not. Since, then, it is the searching out of troubles that the busybody desires, he is possessed by the affliction called malignancy,A term better expressed by the German Schadenfreude. brother to envy and spite. For envy is pain at another’s good, while malignancy is joy at another’s evil Cf.Moralia, 1046 b.; and both spring from a savage and bestial affliction, a vicious nature.
