quotations about questions
It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.
EUGÈNE IONESCO
Découvertes
If I had it to do again, I'd ask more questions and interrupt fewer answers.
ROBERT BRAULT
attributed, "Daily Enlightenments", April 28, 2014
The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.
JOHN FOWLES
The Magus
When I lay these questions before God I get no answer. But a rather special sort of 'No answer.' It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze. As though He shook His head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, "Peace, child; you don't understand."
C. S. LEWIS
A Grief Observed
Life is filled with unanswered questions, but it is the courage to seek those answers that continues to give meaning to life.
J. D. STROUBE
Caged by Damnation
There are questions so indiscreet, that they deserve neither truth nor falsehood in reply.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
My God, I have come with
the seeds of questions.
I planted them, and they never flowered.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
"Abandoned"
Broken words came first, then half-uttered questions and answers, followed by sighs, tears, and groans.
VOLTAIRE
Candide
Crowds of questions stream through me like lines of people exiting a soccer ground or a concert. They push and shove and trip. Some make their way around. Some remain in their seats, waiting for their opportunity.
MARKUS ZUSAK
I Am the Messenger
He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.
VOLTAIRE
A Philosophical Dictionary
A sudden, bold, and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man, and lay him open. Like to him that, having changed his name, and walking in Paul's, another suddenly came behind him, and called him by his true name, whereat straightways he looked back.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Cunning", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
Questions are great, but only if you know the answers. If you ask questions and the answers surprise you, you look silly.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Burnt Offerings
There are as many types of questions as components in the information.
JACQUES BERTIN
Semiology of Graphics
The questions most furiously discussed are those which have in them a basis of truth, and yet a large admixture of errors. We inconsiderately take hold of, and mistakingly support or oppose them, as either wholly true or wholly false.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
In times of darkness and direness, a good question can become a safety rope between you and your own sense of selfhood: A person who asks a question is not wholly undone by events. She is there to face them, to meet them. If you're asking a question, you still believe in a future.
JANE HIRSHFIELD
"Living by Questions", Oprah
A wise question is partial knowledge.
FRANCIS BACON
attributed, Day's Collacon
An empowered life begins with serious personal questions about oneself. Those answers bare the seeds of success.
STEVE MARABOLI
Unapologetically You
Well, my head's full of questions
My temp'rature's risin' fast
Well, I'm lookin' for some answers
But I don't know who to ask
BOB DYLAN
"Mixed-Up Confusion"
With faith there are no questions; without faith there are no answers.
CHOFETZ CHAIM
attributed, Northern California Jewish Bulletin, Volume 138, 1989
To ask the hard question is simple,
The simple act of the confused will.
W. H. AUDEN
"To Ask the Hard Question is Simple", Poems