Quotes About Inquiry

The second-sweetest set of three words in English is 'I don't know.'

Live the questions now.

I think the foundation of everything in my life is wonder.

And books which told me everything about the wasp, except why.

It is a gift to be able to kill doubt with doubt.

Every answer asks a more beautiful question

He had that hungry mind, constantly turning things over, looking not for answers but for understanding.

But nothing in India is identifiable, the mere asking of a question causes it to disappear and merge into something else.

What the foul fiend is the meaning of all this?

And if we also ask, 'And how exactly did that happen?' we will be asking about history. Not just a story, but our story, the story that we call the history of the world. Shall we begin?

The Greeks said that to marvel is the beginning of knowledge and where we cease to marvel we may be in danger of ceasing to know.

Absolute certainty is no more attainable in metaphysics than it is in any other field of rational inquiry and it is unfair to criticize metaphysics for failing to deliver what no other discipline - not even mathematics - is expected to deliver.

Mother, who toom?

One doesn't ask plain questions. There aren't such things.

And before it was over, Tracy did get the answers he wanted, and a few he didn't. But it seemed to him that was just the nature of answers.

I had a philosophy instructor at the U of I say that the only question that mattered in all of philosophy was Verlaine's "Why are we born to suffer and die?

There was no religion in my life growing up. Did God invent us or did we invent God?

So then there was the Greek, Socrates, he was great... He invented questioning. Before Socrates, no questioning. Everyone sort of went, ''Yeah, I suppose so.

Nell Painter spoke to the heart of the matter. "It's all about the questions we ask," she said. "The questions have changed. I mean, the questions always change. That's why we keep writing history.

Ultimately the purpose of Humble Inquiry is to build relationships that lead to trust which, in turn, leads to better communication and collaboration.

The time when Humble Inquiry is often most needed is when we observe something that makes us angry or anxious. It is at those times that we need to slow down, to ask ourselves and others "What's really going on?" in order to check out the facts. Then we ask ourselves how valid our reactions are before we make a judgment and leap into action.

Humble Inquiry is the fine art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not already know the answer, of building a relationship based on curiosity and interest in the other person.

Finally, in Chapter 7, I provide some suggestions for how we can increase our ability and desire to engage in more Humble Inquiry.

How Does Asking Build Relationships?