quotations about questions
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
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
When Fashion hath once Established, what Folly or craft began, Custom makes it Sacred, and 'twill be thought impudence or madness, to contradict or question it.
JOHN LOCKE
First Treatise of Government
A good question is, of course, the key by which infinite answers can be educed.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation's Edge
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
Perhaps depression is caused by asking oneself too many unanswerable questions.
MIRIAM TOEWS
Swing Low
The power to question is the basis of all human progress.
INDIRA GANDHI
attributed, Misbehave: Speak Truth to Power
Are you going to answer my questions, or do I have to whack you with a stick until delicious candy surprises fall out?
MOLLY HARPER
Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs
Why are things beautiful? I don't know. That's a good question. Isn't it pleasing when you ask a question of a person, a teacher, or a speaker, and he or she says, That's a good question? Don't you feel good when that happens?
NICHOLSON BAKER
A Box of Matches
Some questions cannot be answered.
They become familiar weights in the hand,
round stones pulled from the pocket,
unyielding and cool.
JANE HIRSHFIELD
"Woman in Red Coat"
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
Questions are dangerous, for they have answers.
JACQUELINE CAREY
Kushiel's Dart
Animals are such agreeable friends -- they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
GEORGE ELIOT
Mr. Gilfil's Love Story
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
No man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.
CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ
attributed, The American Magazine, Volume 95, 1923
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
Hunting after arguments to make good one side of a question, and wholly to neglect and refuse those which favor the other side ... [is] willfully to misguide the understanding; and is so far from giving truth its due value, it wholly debases it.
JOHN LOCKE
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
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
A fundamental American question is, "What's the big idea?"
P. J. O'ROURKE
Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism
To be, or not to be, that is the question.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Hamlet