Quotes About Inquiry

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done.

Man or woman?" I asked. "Oh, man, of course. No woman would ever send a reply-paid telegram. She would have come.

straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the geese which you supplied to the Alpha.

Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death. I saw him at it with my own eyes.

Can't you make them stop?' I asked her that day, wondering if there was anything in this woman I could speak to, if she had ever run joyfully over grass, or had watched flowers, or known delight or love.

What are you looking for back there?" said Mama. "Yesterday's snow?

The great question that has never been answered , and which I have not yet been able to answer , despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul , is What does a woman want?

The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is 'What does a woman want?

The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say to him, "What are you going through?" —Simone Weil

Que sais-je?'—what do I know?

I have argued that philosophy doesn't begin in wonder or in the fact that things are, it begins in a realization that things are not what they might be. It begins with a sense of a lack, of something missing, and that provokes a series of questions.

I could not help but comment to my distinguished audience that every question asked about Sartre concerned his work, while all those asked about Beauvoir concerned her personal life.

There was still a question in her eyes-- one that she did not like to put into words.

All around me the world lies like an immense hypothesis that I no longer verify.

I know nothing, nothing. I not only have no answer to give, but I haven't even found a satisfactory way of propounding the questions.

Non avevo idee sovversive, anzi, non avevo affatto idee, su nulla; ma per tutto il giorno mi allenavo a riflettere, a comprendere, a criticare, e mi ponevo domande; cercavo con precisione la verità: questo scrupolo mi rendeva inadatta alle conversazioni mondane.

More and more, as I think about history, I am convinced that everything that is worth while in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever.

I am convinced that everything that is worth while in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever. But the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and silencing them forever.

More and more, as I think about history," he pondered, "I am convinced that everything that is worth while in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever. But the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and of silencing them forever." *

Isn't there perhaps something the matter with you and me? (May I join you in the honor of having something the matter?)" "(Yes, thanks.) No, I think it's the town.

She was credulous, perhaps; a born hero-worshipper; yet she did question and examine unceasingly.

Thus she triumphed through the class, which was a typical Blodgett contest between a dreary teacher and unwilling children of twenty, won by the teacher because his opponents had to answer his questions, while their treacherous queries he could counter by demanding, Have you looked that up in the library? Well then, suppose you do!

I am convinced that everything that is worth while in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever. But the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and of silencing them forever.

but still we may as well learn all there is to be learned.