Quotes About Inquiry

What is the matter?" asked the passenger, then, with mildly quavering speech. "Who wants me? Is it Jerry?

Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies.

I hope your mamma is quite well?" This unexpected inquiry put me into such a difficulty that I began saying in the absurdest way that if there had been any such person I had no doubt that she would have been quite well and would have been very much obliged and would have sent her compliments, when the nurse came to my rescue.

Otra vez preguntándote cosas! —dijo Tom. —Mis pensamientos son tan indómitos, que todo lo miran asombrados —contestóle, la hermana.

Whether Jesus rose or not isn't affected by the brutality, chauvinism, or downright tediousness of his followers through the ages. It's a matter of mere history: the fact or fallacy of the resurrection is in the same class of alleged facts as the contention that the battle of Agincourt was fought in 1415, or that I caught the 0856 train this morning. And so it is subject to the same sort of historical inquiry.

And my experience with public libraries is that the first volume of the book I inquire for is out, unless I happen to want the second, when that is out.

Reason. If you follow it far enough, it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason.

A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.

I moustache you a question, but I'll shave it for later.

We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that a savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.

Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of our science...

In Washington, the Hoover Board of Inquiry found that negligence on the part of the two officers had caused the ship's destruction. In its summary, the board dismissed the possibility of arson: "Considerable testimony to the effect that explosions disconnected gas lines, infers this to be the cause. But in running down possibilities of malicious acts, nothing definite was revealed.

Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

As some of our more uncouth agents are prone to say, we want to know how many times he wipes his ass when he shits.

Religions do not teach doubt.

Certainty is the lot of those who do not ask questions.

Was that you or the duck?

If we want young people to develop the habits of thinking for themselves, using their imagination, being open to new ideas, saying when they don't understand, and exploring real challenges together, then they have to see their teachers doing the same thing.

The inner voice always had the hard questions.

If you ask a question, you can't stop there. You must keep going. You can't stop there: World will wave; will be facetious, angry. You can't stop there. You have to keep on going.

Heresies are experiments in man's unsatisfied search for truth.

On two occasions I have been asked,—"Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

Then there are revolutions. A new science arises out of one that has reached a dead end. Often a revolution has an interdisciplinary character—its central discoveries often come from people straying outside the normal bounds of their specialties. The problems that obsess these theorists are not recognized as legitimate lines of inquiry.

Gently I pointed out that it should be "sheep," and though he was so tired that he could hardly keep his eyes open, he launched into an interrogation as to why the singular should be the same as the plural and wanted to know all the other English words which had this peculiarity.