# Question

A question is a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or the request made using such an expression. The information requested may be provided in the form of an answer.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · See also · External links

## A

* Scientific research is the art of asking the right question in the right way.
** Laura Archera Huxley You are not the Target (1963) chapter 7: "QUESTIONS AND HOW TO ASK THEM"
* Often a question, the first one, is not the real question at all but a substitute which our unconscious self has artfully framed to protect our superficial comfort from being disturbed by a deeper, more troubling doubt.
** Laura Archera Huxley You are not the Target (1963) chapter 7: "QUESTIONS AND HOW TO ASK THEM"
* Whether if soul did not exist time would exist or not, is a question that may fairly be asked; for if there cannot be someone to count there cannot be anything that can be counted, so that evidently there cannot be number; for number is either what has been, or what can be, counted.
** Aristotle in: Martin C. Dillon Merleau-Ponty Vivant: The History of Albany's Rapp Road Community, SUNY Press, 1991, p. 31
* The nature of really good questions and really good paradoxes and things that are worth spending a lifetime thinking about in this subject are simple.
** Nima Arkani-Hamed: (4 December 2017)"PSW 2384 The Doom of Space Time: Why It Must Dissolve Into More Fundamental Structures, Arkani-Hamed". YouTube. (47:59 of 2:07:09)

## B

* Literature is the question minus the answer.
** Roland Barthes, as quoted by the AP Literature test, 2004
* How many questions arise in this place! Constantly the question comes up: Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil? . . . We must continue to cry out humbly yet insistently to God: Rouse yourself! Do not forget mankind, your creature!
** Benedict XVI, These were the words of Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the former concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland, on May 28, 2006. At the site where the Nazis killed hundreds of thousands of Jews and others. Cited in The Watchtower magazine, 5/15, 2007.
* There are as many types of questions as components in the information.
** Jacques Bertin, Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 10
* In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.
** Napoleon Bonaparte in: Paul Chan, Rachel Cooper Constructing Futures: Industry leaders and futures thinking in construction, John Wiley & Sons, 8 December 2010, p. 105
* 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, as quoted in: Ṭhānissaro (Bhikkhu.) (2004) Handful of leaves. Vol. 3, p. 80

## C

* The value of students' questions has been emphasized by several authors (e.g. Biddulph, Symington, & Osborne, 1986; Fisher, 1990; Penick, Crow, & Bonnsteter, 1996). Questions raised by students activate their prior knowledge, focus their learning efforts, and help them elaborate on their knowledge (Schmidt, 1993). The act of ‘composing questions’ focuses the attention of students on content, main ideas, and checking if content is understood (Rosenshine, Meister, & Chapman, 1996). The ability to ask good thinking questions is also an important component of scientific literacy, where the goal of making individuals critical consumers of scientific knowledge (Millar & Osborne, 1998) requires such a facility.
** Christine Chin & Jonathan Osborne, “Students' questions: a potential resource for teaching and learning science”, Studies in Science Education, pp. 1-39, (Published online: 18 Feb 2008).
* It is the fundamental duty of the citizen to resist and to restrain the violence of the state. Those who choose to disregard this responsibility can justly be accused of complicity in war crimes, which is itself designated as ‘a crime under international law’ in the principles of the Charter of Nuremberg.
** Noam Chomsky preface to Bertrand Russell War Crimes Tribunal on Vietnam, 1971
* If physics is too difficult for the physicists, the nonphysicist may wonder whether he should try at all to grasp its complexities and ambiguities. It is undeniably an effort, but probably one worth making, for the basic questions are important and the new experimental results are often fascinating.
** Edward Condon Physics, in What is Science?: Twelve Eminent Scientists and Philosophers Explain Their Various Fields to the Layman, by James Roy Newman, published by Simon and Schuster (1955), p. 102

## D

* Questions are always a little more trustworthy than answers.
** Mark Doty, The Art of Description, 2010

## E

* A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?
** Albert Einstein in: Neil Gibson Welcome to My World, AuthorHouse, 19 June 2013, p. 226

## F

* O my body, make of me always a man who questions!
** Frantz Fanon, concluding sentence of Black Skin, White Masks (1952)

## G

* The power to question is the basis of all human progress.
** Indira Gandhi, in Dawn Nicole Martin Misbehave: Speak Truth to Power, First Books, 1 April 2011, p. 51
* Since when has the world of computer software design been about what people want? This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.
** Bill Gates in: Esmonde Holowaty Unleash the Billionaire Within: Learn the Mastermind Principles for Acquiring Wealth Beyond Imagination, AuthorHouse, 2011, p. 298
* 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, (1969) Chapter 11 “Soliloquies in Mishnory” (p. 151)

## H

* Most people have an intrinsic desire to be liked by others. Being liked by others influences interpersonal attraction, relationship development, and other important outcomes such as acceptance and inclusion in groups. Because the content of a conversation can significantly influence the extent to which the participants like each other afterwards, it is important to examine conversation as a process that influences attraction and relationship development. The effect of conversational content on interpersonal liking has been demonstrated across a wide array of conversational strategies, ranging from other-focused behaviors, such as giving a compliment or acknowledging another person’s ideas, to self-focused behaviors, such as talking about oneself. However, to our best knowledge, no prior research has investigated whether and how asking questions may influence liking.
** Karen Huang, Michael Yeomans, Alison Wood Brooks, Julia Minson, and Francesca Gino; “It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask: Question-Asking Increases Liking”, Harvard University, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2017, Vol. 113, No. 3, p. 431.
* People spend most of their time during conversations talking about their own viewpoints and tend to self-promote when meeting people for the first time. In contrast, high question-askers—those that probe for information from others—are perceived as more responsive and are better liked. Although most people do not anticipate the benefits of question-asking and do not ask enough questions, people would do well to learn that it doesn’t hurt to ask.
** Karen Huang, Michael Yeomans, Alison Wood Brooks, Julia Minson, and Francesca Gino; “It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask: Question-Asking Increases Liking”, Harvard University, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2017, Vol. 113, No. 3, p. 444
* There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life's point of no return.
** Dag Hammarskjold in: Patrick J. Kilcarr, Patricia O. Quinn Voices from Fatherhood: Fathers, Sons, and ADHD, Psychology Press, 1997, p. 158
* Since the world has existed, there has been injustice. But it is one world, the more so as it becomes smaller, more accessible. There is just no question that there is more obligation that those who have should give to those who have nothing.
** Audrey Hepburn in: McCall's, Volume 116, McCall Publishing Company, 1988, p. 733

## I

* It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.
** Eugene Ionesco in Chris Clarke-Epstein, 78 Important Questions Every Leader Should Ask and Answer, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 1 January 2002, p. 14

## J

* The only stupid question is the one that is not asked.
** Hull, E., K. Jackson, et al. (2005). Requirements engineering, Springer.
* Philosophy means to be on the way. Its questions are more essential than its answers, and every answer becomes a new question.
** Karl Jaspers, Way to Wisdom, R. Mannheim, trans. (New Haven: 1951), p. 12
* Our questions and answers are in part determined by the historical tradition in which we find ourselves.
** Karl Jaspers, On My Philosopy (1941), as published in Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre (1956) edited by Walter Kaufmann.
* 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 blind-folded fear.
** Thomas Jefferson in: Al Gore The Assault on Reason: How the Politics of Blind Faith Subvert Wise Decision-Making, Bloomsbury Publishing, 5 July 2012, p. 45
* If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?
** Thomas Jefferson in: Lawrence S. Kaplan Thomas Jefferson: Westward the Course of Empire, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1 November 1998, p. 198
* Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
** Thomas Jefferson in:The Annual Register, Or, A View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year, J. Dodsley, 1813, p. 352

## K

* Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'
** Martin Luther King, Jr. in: James H. Toner Morals Under the Gun: The Cardinal Virtues, Military Ethics, and American Society, University Press of Kentucky, p. 11
* The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?
** Martin Luther King, Jr. in: Samuel Wells Christian Ethics: An Introductory Reader, John Wiley & Sons, 10 May 2010, p. 217

## L

* 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, ch. 1, Scribner (1953)
* I wish that objections to questions as leading, might be a little better considered before they are made. It is necessary, to a certain extent, to lead the mind of the witness to the subject of inquiry. If questions are asked, to which the answer "Yes" or "No" would be conclusive, they would certainly be objectionable, but in general no objections are more frivolous than those which are made to questions as leading ones.
** Lord Ellenborough, Nicholls v. Dowding and another (1815), 1 Stark. 81.
* Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
** C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed, Part 4 (1961).

## M

* My friend, I ask you a plain civil question; will you give me a plain, civil answer?
** Commodore Marlin to Sam Slick in Sam Slick's wise saws and modern instances: or, What he said, did, or invented, Volumen 1 (1853) by Thomas Chandler Haliburton, p. 185, Hurst and Blackett.

## N

* To stand in the midst of … this whole marvelous uncertainty and rich ambiguity in existence without questioning, without trembling with the craving and the rapture of such questioning, … that is what I feel to be contemptible, and this is the feeling for which I look first in everybody. Some folly keeps persuading me that every human has this feeling just because he is human.
** Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, W. Kauffman, trans., § 2
* When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory.
** Friedrich Nietzsche in: William Safire, Leonard Safir Words of Wisdom, Simon and Schuster, 15-Apr-1990, p. 237

## O

* A fundamental American question is, 'What's the big idea?'
** P. J. O'Rourke in: Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism, Grove Press, 2005, p. 5

## P

* In how many minds should I go crazy? whom should I ask?
** Suman Pokhrel, Before Making Decision
* Without asking anybody’s advice, I turned myself insane.
** Suman Pokhrel, Before Making Decision
* If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.
** Thomas Pynchon (1973) Gravity's Rainbow, Viking Press, p. 251; in relation to Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, the Reichstag Fire, and subsequent March elections.

## R

* ... a question that has been on papyrus or in print for at least three thousand years: why is the world as it is and who or what made it that way? Universal and timeless questions have universal and timeless appeal.
** Tim Radford, (8 July 2011)"Review: Dreams of a Final Theory by Steven Weinberg". The Guardian. (See Steven Weinberg.)
* Cognition is autonomous; it refuses to have any answers foisted on it from the outside. Yet it suffers without protest having certain questions prescribed to it from the outside (and it is here that my heresy regarding the unwritten law of the university originates). Not every question seems to me worth asking. Scientific curiosity and omnivorous aesthetic appetite mean equally little to me today, though I was once under the spell of both, particularly the latter. Now I only inquire when I find myself inquired of. Inquired of, that is, by men rather than by scholars. There is a man in each scholar, a man who inquires and stands in need of answers. I am anxious to answer the scholar qua man but not the representative of a certain discipline, that insatiable, ever inquisitive phantom which like a vampire drains whom it possesses of his humanity.
** Franz Rosenzweig, in Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought (1961/1998), p. 97
* Marriages don't last. When I meet a guy, the first question I ask myself is: is this the man I want my children to spend their weekends with?
** Rita Rudner in: John C. Mayoue Southern Divorce: Why Family Breakups Have Fractured the South and How to Cope with It, PSG Books, 30 October 2004, p. 122
* In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
** Bertrand Russell in: Dorothy Strachan Making Questions Work: A Guide to How and What to Ask for Facilitators, Consultants, Managers, Coaches, and Educators, John Wiley & Sons, 6 January 2011, p. 159

## S

* Old questions are not answered—they only go out of fashion.
** Donald Schön (1971, 42) cited in: William G. Weissert, ‎Carol S. Weissert (2012) Governing Health: The Politics of Health Policy. p. 296
* Positive feelings come from being honest about yourself and accepting your personality, and physical characteristics, warts and all; and, from belonging to a family that accepts you without question.
** Willard Scott in: Willard Scott's The joy of living, Thorndike Press, 1983, p. 19
* No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.
** Attrributed to George Bernard Shaw by Andrew Finlayson in Questions That Work: How to Ask Questions That Will Help You Succeed in Any Business Situation, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2001, p. 239
* To be, or not to be, that is the question.
** William Shakespeare in: David L. Stice The Nousenoumena Questions, Xlibris Corporation, 12 May 2010, p. 138
* It is unethical to hurt someone because we have been told to do so. We are required by decency to ask both the complainant and the accused how they understand the situation. And this, I truly believe, requires an in-person discussion. Asking hard questions and creating an environment in which complexities can be faced is, after all, what a real friend does.
** Sarah Schulman, Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2016. ISBN 9781551526447.
* Never, ever decide that you know who someone is, what they did, their objective, context or goal, how they feel or what they know, until you ask them. And not asking means a direct investment in not understanding the truth.
** Sarah Schulman, Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2016. ISBN 9781551526447.
* If a man loves the labour of his trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the gods have called him.
** Robert Louis Stevenson in: John Philip Henderson The Small Business Self-Starter Handbook: How to Manage Pitfalls of a Small Business Start-up, iUniverse, 23-Mar-2009, p. 213

## T

* It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
** Henry David Thoreau in: Jeffrey S Cramer The Quotable Thoreau, Princeton University Press, 11 April 2011, p. 466

## V

* What is in question is a kind of book reviewing which seems to be more and more popular: the loose putting down of opinions as though they were facts, and the treating of facts as though they were opinions.
** Gore Vidal in: M.I. Seka Life Lessons of Wisdom & Motivation - Volume IV: Insightful, Enlightened and Inspirational quotations and proverbs, Providential Press, 28 February 2014, p. 37
* He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.
** Attributed to Voltaire, in Quotes by Voltaire, Quotations Book, p. 19

## W

* The most important question in the world is, 'Why is the child crying?'
** Alice Walker in: Daniel Freeman, Jason Freeman Know Your Mind: Everyday Emotional and Psychological Problems and How to Overcome Them, Pan Macmillan, 9 May 2011, p. 137
* Why is the world so beautiful? is a question that we all ought to be embracing.
** Robin Wall Kimmerer Interview on On Being podcast (2022)
* If you really limit me to one question, it would be: Why is the world the way it is?
** Steven Weinberg in: Steven Weinberg Final Interview. Knowing Science® Registered Trademark, YouTube (August 20, 2021). (quote at 15:23 of 15:51; interview by William Banko)
* Art is naturally concerned with man in his existential aspect, not in his scientific aspect. For the scientist, questions about man's stature and significance, suffering and power, are not really scientific questions; consequently he is inclined to regard art as an inferior recreation. Unfortunately, the artist has come to accept the scientist's view of himself. The result, I contend, is that art in the twentieth century — literary art in particular — has ceased to take itself seriously as the primary instrument of existential philosophy. It has ceased to regard itself as an instrument for probing questions of human significance. Art is the science of human destiny. Science is the attempt to discern the order that underlies the chaos of nature; art is the attempt to discern the order that underlies the chaos of man. At its best, it evokes unifying emotions; it makes the reader see the world momentarily as a unity.
** Colin Wilson in The Strength To Dream, p. 214 (1961)

## See also

* Answer
* Curiosity
* Problem