Quotes about doubt
A collection of quotes on the topic of question, questioner, doing, can.
Best quotes about doubt

„It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.“
http://books.google.com/books?id=EcKZ8bbMLDMC&q=%22It+is+not+fair+to+ask+of+others+what+you+are+not+willing+to+do+yourself%22&pg=PA64#v=onepage
http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1946&_f=md000366
15 June 1946
My Day (1935–1962)

„It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.“
— Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955
Variant: It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.

„Ignorance never settles a question.“
— Benjamin Disraeli British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister 1804 - 1881
Source: Speech in the House of Commons (14 May 1866)

„The important thing is not to stop questioning.“
— Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955
Old Man's Advice to Youth: "Never Lose a Holy Curiosity," http://books.google.com/books?id=dlYEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=Life%2C%202%20May%201955&pg=PA61#v=onepage&q=Life,%202%20May%201955&f=false LIFE magazine (2 May 1955) statement to William Miller, p. 64.
1950s
Context: The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity. … Don't stop to marvel.

„Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.“
— Orson Welles American actor, director, writer and producer 1915 - 1985

„I don't know the question, but sex is definitely the answer.“
— Woody Allen American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician 1935

„The question is not what you look at, but what you see.“
— Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist 1817 - 1862
Variant: It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

„Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?“
— Martin Luther King, Jr. American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement 1929 - 1968

„You ask me what forces me to speak? a strange thing; my conscience.“
— Victor Hugo, book Les Misérables
Source: Les Misérables
All quotes about doubt
Total 5345 quotes question, filter:


— Charles Bukowski American writer 1920 - 1994
Variant: The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

— Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009
HIStory: Past, Present & Future, Book I (1995)

— Charles Bukowski American writer 1920 - 1994
"The Meaning of Life: The Big Picture", Life Magazine (December 1988)
Interviews

„If you ever need anything please don't hesitate to ask someone else first.“
— Kurt Cobain American musician and artist 1967 - 1994

„It's not only the question, but the way you try to solve it.“
— Maryam Mirzakhani Iranian mathematician 1977 - 2017
Interview with Research Fellow Maryam Mirzakhani | january 2008

— Pink (singer) American singer-songwriter 1979
Dear Mr. President, featuring the Indigo Girls, written by Pink and Billy Mann
Song lyrics, I'm Not Dead (2006)

— Malala Yousafzai Pakistani children's education activist 1997
Nobel Peace Prize Lecture (December 10, 2014)

„The Socialists ask what is our program? Our program is to smash the heads of the Socialists.“
— Benito Mussolini Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequent Republican… 1883 - 1945
Article in Popolo d'Italia, quoted in "A History of Terrorism" (2001) by Walter Laqueur, p. 71
Undated

„Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.
… live in the question.“
— Rainer Maria Rilke, book Letters to a Young Poet
Source: Letters to a Young Poet

„Why are there beings at all, and why not rather nothing? That is the question.“
— Martin Heidegger, book Introduction to Metaphysics
Warum ist überhaupt Seiendes und nicht vielmehr Nichts? Das ist die Frage.
What is Metaphysics? (1929), p. 110
Cf. Gottfried Leibniz, De rerum originatione radicali (1697)ː "cur aliquid potius extiterit quam nihil."
Source: Introduction to Metaphysics

„If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.“
— Louis Armstrong American jazz trumpeter, composer and singer 1901 - 1971

„Fashion is architecture. It is a matter of proportions.“
— Coco Chanel French fashion designer 1883 - 1971
As quoted in Coco Chanel : Her Life, Her Secrets (1971) by Marcel Haedrich

— Hermann Göring German politician and military leader 1893 - 1946
To Leon Goldensohn (21 May 1946)
The Nuremberg Interviews (2004)

„I never stole in my childhood, so there was no question of apologising to my father.“
— Nathuram Godse Assassin of Mahatma Gandhi 1910 - 1949
Godse referring to Gandhi's autobiographical story, where Gandhi stole a piece of gold from his father's watch and later on apologised to his father
Excerpts from the play Mee Nathuram Godse boltoy

„Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.“
— Erich Fromm German social psychologist and psychoanalyst 1900 - 1980

— Werner Heisenberg German theoretical physicist 1901 - 1976
This has also appeared in the alternate form: "What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning."
Physics and Philosophy (1958)
Variant: What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
Source: Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science

— Johnny Depp American actor, film producer, and musician 1963
Variant: If there's any message, it is ultimately that it's okay to be different; that it's good to be different, that we should question ourselves before we pass judgment on someone who looks different, behaves different, talks different, is a different color.

„Think for yourself and question authority.“
— Timothy Leary American psychologist 1920 - 1996
Timothy Leary's track on Sound Bites from the Counter Culture (1989)

„You will never know what the meaning of Jazz is if ask what it means.“
— Louis Armstrong American jazz trumpeter, composer and singer 1901 - 1971

„I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer“
— Douglas Adams English writer and humorist 1952 - 2001

„I was never aware of any other option but to question everything.“
— Noam Chomsky american linguist, philosopher and activist 1928

— Jordan Peterson Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology 1962
Bible Series V: Cain and Abel: The Hostile Brothers
Concepts

„Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.“
— Voltaire French writer, historian, and philosopher 1694 - 1778
Il est encore plus facile de juger de l'esprit d'un homme par ses questions que par ses réponses. (It is easier to judge the mind of a man by his questions rather than his answers) — Pierre-Marc-Gaston, duc de Lévis (1764-1830), Maximes et réflexions sur différents sujets de morale et de politique (Paris, 1808): Maxim xviii
Misattributed

„There are years that ask questions and years that answer.“
— Zora Neale Hurston, book Their Eyes Were Watching God
Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Ch. 3, p. 21.

„Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.“
— Jack London American author, journalist, and social activist 1876 - 1916
As quoted in Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior (1991) by Dan Millman, p. 78
Life’s not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well.
As quoted in "They Came to Write in Hawai‘i" by Joseph Theroux, in Spirit of Aloha (March/April 2007)

„The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.“
— Thomas Sowell American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author 1930

„Life is largely a matter of expectation.“
— Homér Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey

„Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.“
— Dr. Seuss American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books 1904 - 1991
Variant: Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

„What's dry?' 'Good question. Next question!“
— Tamora Pierce American writer of fantasy novels for children 1954

„O my body, make of me always a man who questions!“
— Frantz Fanon, book Black Skin, White Masks
Variant: Oh my body, make of me a man who always questions!
Source: Black Skin, White Masks

„The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions.“
— Claude Lévi-Strauss French anthropologist and ethnologist 1908 - 2009

„A lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth.“
— Gabriel García Márquez Colombian writer 1927 - 2014
[The Autumn of the Patriarch, 2006 [1976], HarperCollins, 978-0-06-088286-0, 254] translated from El Ontoño del Patriarica (1975) by Gregory Rabassa

— Bertrand Russell logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist 1872 - 1970
Often paraphrased as "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
Compare: "One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision." B. Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World (1951). Compare also: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." W. B. Yeats, The Second Coming (1919).
See also: Dunning-Kruger effect, Historical Antecedents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect#Historical_antecedents.
1930s, Mortals and Others (1931-35)

„The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.“
— Ayn Rand Russian-American novelist and philosopher 1905 - 1982

— Margaret Mead American anthropologist 1901 - 1978
Attributed in American Quotations (1992) by Gorton Carruth and Eugene H. Ehrlich, p. 149
1990s

„Don't you ever get tired of asking questions?'
'Never. They're mother's milk to me.“
— Tamora Pierce, book First Test
Source: First Test

— Temple Grandin USA-american doctor of animal science, author, and autism activist 1947
Source: Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism

— T. B. Joshua Nigerian Christian leader 1963
On temptation - "'ATTRIBUTING THE SATELLITES SUCCESS TO ME IS BLASPHEMY' – T.B. JOSHUA" http://www.modernghana.com/print/247180/1/attributing-the-satellites-success-to-me-is-blasph.html Modern Ghana (November 4 2009)

— Bertolt Brecht German poet, playwright, theatre director 1898 - 1956
"The Popular and the Realistic" (written 1938, published 1958), as translated in Brecht on Theatre (1964) edited and translated by John Willett.

— Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov Bulgarian philosopher 1900 - 1986
The Yoga of Nutrition, Editions Prosveta, 2012 ebook edition, pp. 24 https://books.google.it/books?id=jnoVCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT24-25.

— Anna Kingsford English physician, activist and feminist 1846 - 1888
Addresses and Essays on Vegetarianism (1912); quoted in Awe for the Tiger, Love for the Lamb by Rod Preece (Routledge, 2002), p. 344 https://books.google.it/books?id=Mf6TAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA344.

— Augustin Louis Cauchy French mathematician (1789–1857) 1789 - 1857
Sur un nouveau genre de calcul, 1826.

— Alhazen Arab physicist, mathematician and astronomer 965 - 1039
Alhazen, quoted in “Muslim Journeys.” Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013. Also in Ibn al-Haytham Brief life of an Arab mathematician: died circa 1040 (September-October 2003) http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/09/ibn-al-haytham-html

— Chris Colfer actor, singer, book author 1990
-Chris Colfer on how he came up with the idea of TLOS
Interview Quotes, Random Quotes

— Yuval Noah Harari, book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

— Adolf Hitler Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party 1889 - 1945
Speech from the Sixth Nazi Party Congress, Nuremberg (September 8th, 1934), quoted in Hitler: speeches and proclamations, 1932-1945 - Volume 2 - Page 533 https://books.google.com/books?id=a9dVAAAAYAAJ&q=What+a+man+sacrifices+in+struggling+for+his+Volk,+a+woman+sacrifices+in+struggling+to+preserve+this+Volk+in+individual+cases&dq=What+a+man+sacrifices+in+struggling+for+his+Volk,+a+woman+sacrifices+in+struggling+to+preserve+this+Volk+in+individual+cases&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8id_w8-TWAhXIRSYKHSn5CV0Q6AEILDAB
1930s

— Robert Oppenheimer American theoretical physicist and professor of physics 1904 - 1967
Oppenheimer testifying in his defense in his 1954 security hearings, discussing the American reaction to the first successful Russian test of an atomic bomb and the debate whether to develop the "super" hydrogen bombs with vastly higher explosive power; from volume II of the Oppenheimer hearing transcripts http://www.osti.gov/includes/opennet/includes/Oppenheimer%20hearings/Vol%20II%20Oppenheimer.pdf, pg 95/266 (emphasis added)

„Question is, are you bozos smart enough to feel stupid?“
— Eminem American rapper and actor 1972
"Berzerk"
2010s, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)

„These questions replace our original, "Can machines think?"“
— Alan Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence
Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)
Context: "Can machines think?"... The new form of the problem can be described in terms of a game which we call the 'imitation game." It is played with three people, a man (A), a woman (B), and an interrogator (C) who may be of either sex. The interrogator stays in a room apart front the other two. The object of the game for the interrogator is to determine which of the other two is the man and which is the woman. He knows them by labels X and Y, and at the end of the game he says either "X is A and Y is B" or "X is B and Y is A." The interrogator is allowed to put questions to A and B... We now ask the question, "What will happen when a machine takes the part of A in this game?" Will the interrogator decide wrongly as often when the game is played like this as he does when the game is played between a man and a woman? These questions replace our original, "Can machines think?"

— Joanne K. Rowling British novelist, author of the Harry Potter series 1965
J. K. Rowling, as quoted in Harry Potter's Bookshelf : The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures (2009) by John Granger <!-- also partly in Biography Today : Profiles of People of Interest to Young Readers Vol. 17, Issue 1 (2008), p. 142 -->
2000s
Context: I think most of us if you were asked to name a very evil regime would think of Nazi Germany. … I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the Wizarding world. So you have to the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is a great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves on nothing else, they can pride themselves on perceived purity. … The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it's one of the reasons that some people don't like the books, but I think that it's a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.

— Nikola Tesla Serbian American inventor 1856 - 1943
"Experiments With Alternate Currents Of High Potential And High Frequency" (February 1892)
Context: Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe. This idea is not novel. Men have been led to it long ago by instinct or reason; it has been expressed in many ways, and in many places, in the history of old and new. We find it in the delightful myth of Antaeus, who derives power from the earth; we find it among the subtle speculations of one of your splendid mathematicians and in many hints and statements of thinkers of the present time. Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic! If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic — and this we know it is, for certain — then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature.
— Paul Twitchell American writer 1909 - 1971

— Alfred Freddy Krupa Croatian contemporary painter, master draughtsman, book artist and art teacher, the pioneer of the New Ink Art movement 1971
Overcoming a Personal Holocaust, Alfred Freddy Krupa (in the article by Ante Vranković), Life As A Human (Canada), 2019
2010s

— Nikita Khrushchev First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1894 - 1971
Remark made at Kremlin New Year's Eve reception, December 31, 1956. Quoted in Khrushchev by Edward Crankshaw. ISBN 9781448205059

— Yuzuru Hanyu Japanese figure skater (1994-) 1994
Translation source: Yuzuru Hanyu – World Championships 2021 ‘Day After’ Interview https://axelwithwings.com/2021/03/30/eng-translation-yuzuru-hanyu-world-championships-2021-day-after-interview-210328/ by Axel with Wings, published 28 March 2021. (Retrieved 31 March 2021)
Other quotes, 2021
Original: (ja) なんか限界だなって感じはないです。ただ、この限界だなって思うかもしれない時期をどうやって乗り越えていくか。
Source: Part 1 of the final interview at Worlds 2021 in Stockholm, as quoted in an article https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2021/03/28/kiji/20210328s00079000616000c.html by Nippon Sports (Sponichi), published 28 March 2021. (Retrieved 31 March 2021)
„Don't ask the question, unless you are truly prepared for every possible anwser for it.“
To many people tend to ask questions that the possible answers to that question might cause anger, hurt, disappointment or displays a weakness that they never were aware of until they got the one answer they weren't prepared for. If you haven't considered that then you might want to refrain from asking it.

„“People only ask questions when they're ready to hear the answers.”“
— John Irving, book The Cider House Rules
Variant: People only ask questions when they're ready to hear the answers.
Source: The Cider House Rules

„Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions.“
— Edgar Cayce Purported clairvoyant healer and psychic 1877 - 1945

— Pierre Joseph Proudhon French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and socialist 1809 - 1865
Source: Proudhon: What Is Property?

„The power to question is the basis of all human progress.“
— Indíra Gándhí Indian politician and Prime Minister 1917 - 1984

— Emile Zola French writer (1840-1902) 1840 - 1902
As quoted in Writers on Writing (1986) by Jon Winokur.
Variant: If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.

Source: Pet Sematary (1983)
Context: It's probably wrong to believe there can be any limit to the horror which the human mind can experience. On the contrary, it seems that some exponential effect begins to obtain as deeper and deeper darkness falls - as little as one may like to support the idea that when the nightmare grows black enough, horror spawns horror, one coincidental evil begets other, often more deliberate evils, until finally blackness seems to cover everything. And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity. That such events have their own Rube Goldberg absurdity goes almost without saying. At some point, it all starts to become rather funny. That may be the point at which sanity begins either to save itself or to buckle and break down; that point at which one's sense of humor begins to reassert itself.

— Stephen Hawking, book A Brief History of Time
Source: A Brief History of Time (1988), Ch. 12
Context: Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
— Sabrina Ward Harrison Canadian writer 1975
Source: Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself