quotations about questions
To stand in the midst of ... this whole marvelous uncertainty and rich ambiguity in existence without questioning, without trembling with the craving and the rapture of such questioning ... that is what I feel to be contemptible, and this is the feeling for which I look first in everybody. Some folly keeps persuading me that every human has this feeling just because he is human.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
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attributed, The Gay Science
A good question is, of course, the key by which infinite answers can be educed.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation's Edge
No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Our Theatres in the Nineties
The only stupid question is the one that is not asked.
SAM HO
Operations and Quality Management
The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.
JOHN FOWLES
The Magus
Let a man be never ashamed to put a question to a teacher when something is not well understood.
RABBI ELIAZAR
attributed, Day's Collacon
Philosophy means to be on the way. Its questions are more essential than its answers, and every answer becomes a new question.
KARL JASPERS
Way to Wisdom
To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Left Hand of Darkness
A civil question deserves a civil answer.
MARTIN H. MANSER
The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs
A fundamental American question is, "What's the big idea?"
P. J. O'ROURKE
Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism
It's the questions we ask, the journey we take to get to where we are going that is more important than the actual answer.
CHARLES DE LINT
"Paperjack", Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection
No man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.
CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ
attributed, The American Magazine, Volume 95, 1923
Broken words came first, then half-uttered questions and answers, followed by sighs, tears, and groans.
VOLTAIRE
Candide
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787
There are questions so indiscreet, that they deserve neither truth nor falsehood in reply.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.
EUGÈNE IONESCO
Découvertes
I wish that objections to questions as leading, might be a little better considered before they are made. It is necessary, to a certain extent, to lead the mind of the witness to the subject of inquiry. If questions are asked, to which the answer "Yes" or "No" would be conclusive, they would certainly be objectionable, but in general no objections are more frivolous than those which are made to questions as leading ones.
LORD ELLENBOROUGH
Nicholls v. Dowding and another, 1815
Perhaps depression is caused by asking oneself too many unanswerable questions.
MIRIAM TOEWS
Swing Low
There are these four ways of answering questions. Which four? There are questions that should be answered categorically [straightforwardly yes, no, this, that]. There are questions that should be answered with an analytical (qualified) answer [defining or redefining the terms]. There are questions that should be answered with a counter-question. There are questions that should be put aside. These are the four ways of answering questions.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA
Sutta Pitaka
A good question can send you on a long journey in rain and cold. It can terrify, bringing you straight into your own fears, whether of heights or of loss or of all the mysteries that never go away--our own vulnerability, the heart's utter exposure, the capriciousness and fragility of events, of relationships, of existence.
JANE HIRSHFIELD
"Living by Questions", Oprah