Quotes About Questioning

Supposedly we were generating excitement, or underscoring a memorable event. But according to a grunt, "We wanted to know why you fuckers wouldn't come down and give us a fucking ride.

For example, one dad had a habit of saying, "I can't afford it." The other dad forbade those words to be used. He insisted I ask, "How can I afford it?" One is a statement, and the other is a question. One lets you off the hook, and the other forces you to think.

Twain broke with the tradition of asking "Who Am I?" and its species-wide variant "Who Is Man?" on the grounds that a "who-question" is a leading question. It predisposes us to expect the answer to be a sentient being, not unlike ourselves, "whom" we're trying to characterize.

The barber's assistant asks if I am a Swede. An American? Not that either. A Russian? Well, then, what are you? I love to answer such nationalistically tinted questions with a steely silence, and to leave people who ask me about my patriotic feelings in the dark. Or I tell lies and say that I'm Danish. Some kinds of frankness are only hurtful and boring.

Fanaticism is ... compensation for doubt

Am I worthy of Juliet, I wondered, worthy as my father was of my mother?

I'm real, too. I just don't know, real what.

Have there been many recently who walk where I go now?" inquired the soldier. "No," said the captain of the guard. "There have not been many." And he stepped back into the shadows without saying any more.

He who asks may be a fool for five minutes. He who doesn't is a fool for a lifetime

And you know what? If there is a God, and it's that same God who's so eager to have temples built in honor of his greatness, and wars fought over him, and people dropping to their knees telling him what a wonderful, magnificent being he is? If this all-powerful, all-knowing creature for some reason just can't get by without my worship? Then let him give me some proof. Or at least get over himself if I decide to go out and get some.

They ask how the universe is arranged, philosophers, mathematicians, and they draw pretty pictures, impossibilities on the page. They save phenomena by telling one ugly lie after another, epicycles upon epicycles, and the fools care not. It is not enough, I tell you, to ask how the cosmos is designed. We must ask why.

It was almost a relief, no longer having to be extraordinary. To give up on existential questioning and simply abide.

Even now, I believe that to know how is useless if we do not know why. And there are too many who forbid us to ask.

And therefore, according as any one is more anxious in demanding a reason, by so much will he be the firmer in preserving his faith.9

The "Solve It" Question When taking the Solve It step, you should ask: What else can I do? Asking this over and over is the key to making progress. Repeatedly asking, What else can I do? forces you to drill down through any obstacles to find solutions, solutions that are often buried deep in the rich soil of innovation and creativity, solutions that almost always lurk below the surface of your easygoing, everyday, even routine way of thinking.

I am not a believer, not an atheist, not an agnostic. I am more content with questions than answers.

The great benefit of philosophy, which is also its great weakness, is that all its steps are taken in the spirit of doubt.

We must not think of this merely as a theological or metaphysical question. For

Was that a dark figure ducking behind a windmill tree? Or only the dance of shadows in my shadow-shifting eyes?

How come whatever it was that just spoke has your voice?

was. Is she ours? French? British?" For long seconds Caleb studied the incoming fleck. "Can't tell." "How many? We got the whole British

Whenever one asks "Why?" in science, one actually means "How?". "Why?" is not really a sensible question in science because it usually implies purpose and, as anyone who has been the parent of a small child knows, one can keep on asking "Why?" forever, no matter what the answer to the previous question. Ultimately, the only way to end the conversation seems to be to say "Because!

Larry Kudlow, the president's chief economic adviser, had been questioning the seriousness of the situation. He couldn't square the apocalyptic forecasts with the bouyant stock market. "Is all the money dumb?" he wondered. "Everyone's asleep at the switch? I just have a hard time believing that."*

Reacher said nothing. We can't fight thirty people. To which Reacher's natural response was: Why the hell not?