QUESTION QUOTES II
quotations about questions
Indeed, the only truly serious questions are ones that even a child can formulate. Only the most naive of questions are truly serious. They are the questions with no answers. A question with no answer is a barrier that cannot be breached. In other words, it is questions with no answers that set the limit of human possibilities, describe the boundaries of human existence.
MILAN KUNDERA
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
One mind can think only of its own questions; it rarely surprises itself.
ORSON SCOTT CARD
Ender's Shadow
Suppose that you decide to have the entire "curriculum" consist of questions. These questions would have to be worth seeking answers to not only from your point of view but, more importantly, from the point of view of the students. In order to get still closer to reality, add the requirement that the questions must help the students to develop and internalize concepts that will help them to survive in the rapidly changing world of the present and future.
NEIL POSTMAN & CHARLES WEINGARTNER
Teaching as a Subversive Activity
As human beings, don't we need questions without answers as well as questions with answers, questions that we might someday answer and questions that we can never answer?
ALAN LIGHTMAN
"Does God exist?", Salon, October 2, 2011
The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.
NEIL POSTMAN & CHARLES WEINGARTNER
Teaching as a Subversive Activity
Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
ANONYMOUS
Fools may ask questions, but it takes wise men to answer them.
GEORGE DENISON PRENTICE
Prenticeana
Philosophical questions are not by their nature insoluble. They are, indeed, radically different from scientific questions, because they concern the implications and other interrelations of ideas, not the order of physical events; their answers are interpretations instead of factual reports, and their function is to increase not our knowledge of nature, but our understanding of what we know.
SUSANNE LANGER
Feeling and Form
Ask not a foolish question in public.
STILPO
attributed, Day's Collacon
I wish I had an answer to that because I'm tired of answering that question.
YOGI BERRA
attributed, The Yogi Book
Old questions are not answered--they only go out of fashion.
DONALD SCHÖN
attributed, Governing Health: The Politics of Health Policy
There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension.
JOHN STEINBECK
East of Eden
A man becomes learned by asking questions.
AHMED VESIK
attributed, Day's Collacon
Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
She Stoops to Conquer
If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?
SCOTT ADAMS
attributed, Laugh Off: The Comedy Showdown Between Real Life and the Pros
The answer is a mirror of the question.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON
The Butlerian Jihad
To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.
ANNE RICE
The Vampire Lestat
Everything in this world can volunteer some reply, what takes up time is posing the questions.
JOSÉ SARAMAGO
Baltasar and Blimunda
Never surrender a good question for a mere answer.
JANE HIRSHFIELD
"Living by Questions", Oprah
The ignorant start questions which have been already answered thousands of years ago by the wise.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
attributed, Day's Collacon