Quotes About Inquiry

The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest, but if it is judged worthy by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the understanding of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine I have written my work not as an essay with which to win the applause of the moment but as a possession for all time.

Son, are you happy? I don't mean to pry, but do you dream of Heaven? Have you ever wanted to die?

Every time a blast happens, people ask, 'But why would someone do this?' Weirdly, it hasn't been answered well anywhere - neither in fiction nor non-fiction.

None of us should assume stuff.

When you go through those hard times, that's when you ask those questions that normally you wouldn't. If you win, you don't ask questions. You don't worry about it.

Novelists should be like scientists, dissecting the cadaver.

Novelists can ask - they can ask for anything - but their books are their answers in advance.

I write novels because there is something I don't understand in reality.

Goodness, I know nothing about nuclear energy.

How can a question be answered that asks a lifetime of questions?

Mi resi conto, allora, che l'unico vero collaudo della forza – del tono muscolare, per così dire – della sanità mentale è la capacità di sostenere l'urto di un interrogativo dietro l'altro senza che vi sia neanche l'ombra di una risposta.

As inquiry, the Warren Commission's work resembles a dead whale decomposing on a beach. Yet, one does not have to view the work in this fashion. For two generations of Americans, the Warren Commission's twenty-six volumes of Hearings and Exhibits have become a species of Talmudic text begging for commentary and further elucidation. To

In this box are all the words I know…Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you may ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones yet to come are made with these words. With them there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is to use them well and in the right places.

Do you think it will rain? Milo: But I thought you were the Weather Man? No, I'm the Whether man, for it is more important to know whether there will be weather, whether than what the weather will be.

In this box are all the words I know,' he said. 'Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you may ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones yet to come are made from these words. With them, there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is use them well and in the right places.

T)he most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between.

The meanest girl who dances and dresses becomes something higher when her children look up into her face and ask her questions. It is the only education we have and which they cannot take from us

A scientist doesn't know all the answers. Nobody does, not even teachers. But a scientist keeps on trying to find the answers.

Llegué a la conclusión de que el lugar al que llamaban escuela en realidad no respondía a las preguntas verdaderamente importantes, sino que simplemente ayudaba a que las asumiéramos como parte integrante de la realidad de la vida, Por eso, hasta los años de instituto, tuve buen cuidado en levantar el dedo y permanecer en el lado cómo y tranquilo de la línea

cuando a uno se le contagiaba el mal de la ciencia, resultaba tan imposible escapar de él como de la peste...

No single] explanation will ever contain the final answer for all time, for all hearers. There is always, ALWAYS more to learn.

You deplore what I did, but you still want to know the results of my research.

I've thought of all the questions, said Father. That only means you've stopped trying to think of new ones.

See how ignorant you are? You don't even know why you need to know the things you don't know yet.