“I have a very simple question to people … who seem to suffer from excessive narcissism: please name three other persons who are smarter and more capable than you, in the field you work in. (In most cases they are utterly unable to answer that question honestly.)”

—  Ingo Molnar

A comment http://lwn.net/Articles/447204/ at LWN.net in 2011.

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Linux kernel programmer

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“I have a very simple question to people … who seem to suffer from excessive narcissism: please name three other persons who are smarter and more capable than you, in the field you work in.”

Ingo Molnar Linux kernel programmer

In most cases they are utterly unable to answer that question honestly.
A comment http://lwn.net/Articles/447204/ at LWN.net in 2011.

“Who do you love?
It's a question anyone should be able to answer. A question that defines a life, creates a future, guides most minutes of one's days. Simple, elegant encompassing.
Who do you love?”

Lisa Gardner (1956) American author
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“Why can’t you ever answer a simple question? (Wulf)
Ask me a simple question and you will get a simple answer. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Kiss of the Night

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“Indeed, if we set our hearts to answer but one very famous question, I am certain that all these questions and doubts will vanish from the horizon, and you will look unto their place to find them gone. This indignant question is a question that the whole world asks, namely, “What is the meaning of my life?” In other words, these numbered years of our life that cost us so heavily and the numerous pains and torments that we suffer for them, to complete them to the fullest, who is it that enjoys them?”

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Assorted Themes, On the Meaning of Life

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“We should ask three basic questions of any system we encounter. The first question is, “If I am perfect at this practice, what can I expect to achieve?” Once you have heard the answer to this question, you may decide that you do not care to proceed any further, or you may find that the goal is exactly what you have always wanted. The second question is, “What are the means for attaining the goal?” The answer to this question enables you to decide whether you are willing to pay the price to get there. The third question to ask is, “Who has already reached the goal and how do they live their lives?” We should carefully scrutinize those who have supposedly reached the goal to discover their true situation in life. If we feel aligned with the answers to all three questions, then we can “go for it.””

Bhakti Tirtha Swami (1950–2005) American Hindu writer

If we do not, then we should look somewhere else.
Source: Books, Spiritual Warrior, Volume III: Solace for the Heart in Difficult Times (Hari-Nama Press, 2000), Chapter 8 - How To Strengthen Ourselves

“In some cases 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 book The Book of Three

Source: The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968), Book I: The Book of Three (1964), Chapter 1
Context: "Why?" Dallben interrupted. "In some cases," he said, "we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself."

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“You should have disagreements with your leaders and your colleagues, but if it becomes immediately a question of questioning people's motives, and if immediately you decide that somebody who sees a whole new situation differently than you must be a bad person and somehow twisted inside, we are not going to get very far in forming a more perfect union.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

Statement http://www.ur.ku.edu/News/04N/MayNews/May28/transcript.html (May 21, 2004)
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Jiddu Krishnamurti photo

“You may have power, position, but at the end of it — what? Please, this is a serious question that you must ask yourself. Another cannot answer this question for you.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

Source: 1980s, That Benediction is Where You Are (1985), p. 63
Context: Are we wasting our lives? By that word “wasting” we mean dissipating our energy in various ways, dissipating it in specialized professions. Are we wasting our whole existence, our life? If you are rich, you may say, “Yes, I have accumulated a lot of money, it has been a great pleasure.” Or if you have a certain talent, that talent is a danger to a religious life. Talent is a gift, a faculty, an aptitude in a particular direction, which is specialization. Specialization is a fragmentary process. So you must ask yourself whether you are wasting your life. You may be rich, you may have all kinds of faculties, you may be a specialist, a great scientist or a businessman, but at the end of your life has all that been a waste? All the travail, all the sorrow, all the tremendous anxiety, insecurity, the foolish illusions that man has collected, all his gods, all his saints and so on — have all that been a waste? You may have power, position, but at the end of it — what? Please, this is a serious question that you must ask yourself. Another cannot answer this question for you.

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“If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?”

Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer

Contributions of Jane Wagner
Source: Many Moons

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“If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?”

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