quotations about questions
Remember, an easy question can have an easy answer. But a hard question must have a hard answer. And for the hardest questions of all, there may be no answer -- except faith.
CHARLES SHEFFIELD
Brother to Dragons
To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Left Hand of Darkness
Why are things beautiful? I don't know. That's a good question. Isn't it pleasing when you ask a question of a person, a teacher, or a speaker, and he or she says, That's a good question? Don't you feel good when that happens?
NICHOLSON BAKER
A Box of Matches
Men certainly have a way of keeping women in suspense, and an unwillingness to answer questions even when we ask them.
ELIZA LESLIE
The Escorted Lady
Let a man be never ashamed to put a question to a teacher when something is not well understood.
RABBI ELIAZAR
attributed, Day's Collacon
No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Our Theatres in the Nineties
Are you going to answer my questions, or do I have to whack you with a stick until delicious candy surprises fall out?
MOLLY HARPER
Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs
A good question is, of course, the key by which infinite answers can be educed.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation's Edge
It's the questions we ask, the journey we take to get to where we are going that is more important than the actual answer.
CHARLES DE LINT
"Paperjack", Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection
Perhaps depression is caused by asking oneself too many unanswerable questions.
MIRIAM TOEWS
Swing Low
A good question can send you on a long journey in rain and cold. It can terrify, bringing you straight into your own fears, whether of heights or of loss or of all the mysteries that never go away--our own vulnerability, the heart's utter exposure, the capriciousness and fragility of events, of relationships, of existence.
JANE HIRSHFIELD
"Living by Questions", Oprah
Animals are such agreeable friends -- they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
GEORGE ELIOT
Mr. Gilfil's Love Story
No man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.
CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ
attributed, The American Magazine, Volume 95, 1923
There are these four ways of answering questions. Which four? There are questions that should be answered categorically [straightforwardly yes, no, this, that]. There are questions that should be answered with an analytical (qualified) answer [defining or redefining the terms]. There are questions that should be answered with a counter-question. There are questions that should be put aside. These are the four ways of answering questions.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA
Sutta Pitaka
Some questions cannot be answered.
They become familiar weights in the hand,
round stones pulled from the pocket,
unyielding and cool.
JANE HIRSHFIELD
"Woman in Red Coat"
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787
A fundamental American question is, "What's the big idea?"
P. J. O'ROURKE
Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism
The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.
JOHN FOWLES
The Magus
There are questions so indiscreet, that they deserve neither truth nor falsehood in reply.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
To be, or not to be, that is the question.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Hamlet