Quotes About Inquiry

You must be careful when you ask people whether they're happy; it's a question that can upset them a great deal.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

The first rule in questioning any witness is: Never ask a question if you are not sure what the answer will be. - Brice Mack

Clever people seem not to feel the natural pleasure of bewilderment, and are always answering questions when the chief relish of a life is to go on asking them.

I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.

But those stories inspire observations and experiments that do help us sort out what's going on. The science fiction novelist Isaac Asimov reportedly once said, "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny.

What we observe is not nature in itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning. —Werner Heisenberg (1958)

The credo of experimental science remains that an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. If we fail to find a capacity in a given species, our first thought ought to be "Did we overlook something?" And the second should be "Did our test fit the species?

Oh my body, make of me a man who always questions!

ô mon corps, fait toujours de moi un homme qui s'interroge.

My final prayer: O my body, make of me always a man who questions!" - Frantz Fanon, "Black Skin, White Masks

Socrates "was asked why seawater had become salty. He replied: If you can indicate to me the use that will come to you from knowing the answer to this question, I shall give you the reason." And Diogenes, "seeing a youth with a lamp, said to him: Do you know where this - fire comes from? The youth replied: If you can tell me where it goes to, I shall tell you where it comes from, thus effectively silencing Diogenes, something nobody else had been able to do.

Saying, I do not know,' constitutes one half of knowledge" is both a Prophetical tradition and a saying found in Graeco-Arabic wisdom literature. The phrase most widely recommended for use was lâ adrî "I do not know." Aristotle was described as saying that he was so fond of using it that he used it also in cases where he possessed the required knowledge.

A man remains knowing as long as he searches for knowledge and continues to study. When he thinks he knows, he has become ignorant.

As became a young sinner, Sam [Mark Twain] had a special interest in Satan. He asked his Sunday school teacher questions about Eve in the garden, wondering "if he had ever heard of another woman who, being approached by a serpent, would not excuse herself and break for the nearest timber." Twain recalled, "He did not answer my question, but rebuked me for inquiring into matters above my age and comprehension.

Research is of considerable importance in certain fields, such as science and history.

Who was I to dare to talk to him? In which of Europe's ghettos had my ancestor been huddled when Frederick von Hohenstaufen gave Anno von Hohenfels his bejewelled hand?

It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle.

A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity to any people.

The Skeptic's mistake lies in thinking that we should tie our hands behind our backs just because we will not be able to reach rock-hard conclusions.

It is like a voyage of discovery into unknown lands, seeking not for new territory but for new knowledge. It should appeal to those with a good sense of adventure.

If a man have a strong faith he can indulge in the luxury of skepticism.

To me Zen is a communal practice of individual deep inquiry.