I asked the zebra,
Are you black with white strips?.
Or white with black strips?.
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?.
Or are you bad with good habits?.
Are you noisy with quiet times?.
Or are you quiet with noisy times?.
Are you happy with sad days?.
Or are you sad with happy days?.
Are you neat with some sloppy ways?.
Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?.
And on and on and on and on
And on and on he went.
I’ll never ask a zebra
About stripes
Again.
—Shel Silverstein (1930–99) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Short story Author, Playwright, Author, Songwriter
He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
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
Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers.
—Robert Half
As long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost and science can never regress.
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–67) American Nuclear Physicist
Someday, in the moment of death, your whole life will pass before you. In a few fractions of a second–because time no longer applies–you will see many incidents from your life in order to learn. You will review your life with two questions in your consciousness: Could I have shown a little more courage in these moments? Could I have shown a little more love? You will see where you let fear stop you from expressing who you are, how you feel, or what you need. You will see whether you were able to expand into these moments, just a little, to show love, or whether you contracted.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions.
—Sam Keen
It is not what happens to us that determines our character, our experience, our karma, and our destiny – but how we relate to what happens.
—Lama Surya Das (b.1950) American Buddhist Scholar, Teacher
In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.
—Joan Borysenko
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions.
—Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923) German-born American Mathematician, Engineer
The man who questions opinion is wise; the man who quarrels with fact is a fool.
—Frank A. Garbutt (1869–1938) American Inventor, Movie Pioneer
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
If you want a wise answer, ask a reasonable question.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Man will not live without answers to his questions.
—Hans Morgenthau (1904–80) German-American Political Scientist
A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
—Pierre-Marc-Gaston, duc de Levis
You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
—Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006) Egyptian Novelist
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: “What are you doing for others?”
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–72) American Jewish Rabbi
Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very, very long time.
—Chinese Proverb
Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
If you spend more time asking appropriate questions rather than giving answers or opinions, your listening skills will increase.
—Brian Koslow
Don’t wait until you die to learn the warrior’s way. Do it now, each night, just before you drift off to sleep. As you review your day, consider these two questions of courage and love. Learn from each day, so that each day you can show a little more courage and a little more love. Then, as incidents occur, you may rise to the occasion and look back at the end of your life and feel good about the way you lived.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
The power to question is the basis of all human progress.
—Indira Gandhi (1917–84) Indian Head of State
Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
One who never asks either knows everything or nothing.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Our jobs determine to a large extent what our lives are like. Is what you do for a living making you ill? Does it keep you from becoming a more fully realized person? Do you feel ashamed of what you have to do at work? All too often, the answer to such questions is yes. Yet it does not have to be like that. Work can be one of the most joyful, most fulfilling aspects of life. Whether it will be or not depends on the actions we collectively take.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
I had six honest serving men. They taught me all I knew. Their names were: Where, What, When, Why, How and Who.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
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
We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
Good questions outrank easy answers.
—Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) American Economist
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
—Chinese Proverb
If we are ever in doubt about what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done.
—John Lubbock (1834–1913) English Politician, Biologist
Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist