He who asks questions, cannot avoid the answers.
—African Proverb
It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) German Lutheran Pastor, Theologian
A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.
—Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American Writer of Fantasy Novels
The one who asks questions doesn’t lose his way
—African Proverb
Better to ask twice than to lose your way once.
—Danish Proverb
If there is something to gain and nothing to lose by asking, by all means ask!
—W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American Self-help Guru, Entrepreneur
Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.
—Unknown
Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Any man who knows all the answers most likely misunderstood the questions
—Unknown
Beware of the man who knows the answer before he understands the question.
—Unknown
An educated man is one who has finally discovered that there are some questions to which nobody has the answer.
—Unknown
Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
For every why he had a wherefore.
—Samuel Butler
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers.
—Robert Half
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
—Chinese Proverb
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the question themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
Good questions outrank easy answers.
—Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) American Economist
No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions.
—Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923) German-born American Mathematician, Engineer
The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.
—Claude Levi-Strauss (1908–2009) French Social Anthropologist, Philosopher
Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Man will not live without answers to his questions.
—Hans Morgenthau (1904–80) German-American Political Scientist
To be or not to be that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the stings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing them, end them.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
If you want a wise answer, ask a reasonable question.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
In the words of Max DePree: “Management has a lot to do with answers. But leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is: ‘Who do we intend to be?’ Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but ‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree (1924–2017) American Businessman
Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.
—Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970) American Writer, Critic, Naturalist
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