Quotes about doubt
page 10

“The greatest question of our time is not communism vs. individualism, not Europe vs. America, not even the East vs. the West; it is whether men can bear to live without God.”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

Men, God, Communication, Time

“I met an old lady once, almost a hundred years old, and she told me, there are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who's in charge?”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

History, Love

“How vast was a human being's capacity for suffering. The only thing you could do was stand in awe of it. It wasn't a question of survival at all. It was the fullness of it, how much could you hold, how much could you care.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Suffering

“Let whoever is in charge keep this simple question in her head (not, how can I always do this right thing myself, but) how can I provide for this right thing to be always done?”

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Source: Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What It Is Not

“Oh, here’s a clever one. Do you remember this question from the first test? It reads, ‘What’s wrong with this statement?’ And do you know what Constance wrote in reply? She wrote, ‘What’s wrong with you?”

Trenton Lee Stewart The Mysterious Benedict Society

Source: The Mysterious Benedict Society

Reading

“It’s frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: The Sweetest Thing

“All novels… are concerned with the enigma of the self. As soon as you create an imaginary being, a character, you are automatically confronted by the question: what is the self? How can it be grasped?”

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature

Source: The Art of the Novel

“use questions to raise questions”

Os Guinness (1941) American writer

Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion

“The two of you are getting downright chatty, aren't you, Ms. Lane? When did you last see him? what else did he tell you?
I'm asking the questions tonight.
If an illusion of control comforts you, Ms. Lane, by all means, cling to it.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

“Science fiction is very well suited to asking philosophical questions; questions about the nature of reality, what it means to be human, how do we know the things that we think we know.”

Ted Chiang (1967) American science fiction writer

Nature, Thinking, Reality, Science

“If you ask me a question I don't know, I'm not going to answer.”

Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American baseball player, manager, coach

What Time Is It? You Mean Now?: Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All, Simon and Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0743244532, p. 101.
Yogiisms

“To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.”

W.E.B. Du Bois book The Souls of Black Folk

Source: The Souls of Black Folk

Feeling, Problem

“What do I want?
The answer to that question does not exist.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

“This is one of the two great labyrinths into which human minds are drawn: the question of free will versus predestination.”

Neal Stephenson book Quicksilver

Source: Quicksilver

“You ask a lot of questions, don't you?"
"My brother always says curiosity is my besetting sin.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“The great question in life is the suffering we cause, and the most ingenious metaphysics do not justify the man who has broken the heart that loved him.”

Benjamin Constant Adolphe

Source: Adolphe

Love, Life, Suffering, Heart

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Hoid
Source: The Way of Kings (2010)

Thinking

“adj.
It has always been my habit, ever since junior high school, to ask that question:
“What are you thinking?”
It is always an act of desperation, and I keep on asking, even though I know it will never work the way I want it to.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

School, Way, Thinking

“Sometimes, questions are more hurtful than insults.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

The First Phone Call from Heaven

Hurt

“I don't get it,' Caroline said, bemused. 'She's the only one with wings. Why is that?'
There were so many questions in life. You couldn't ever have all the answers. But I knew this one.
It's so she can fly,' I said. Then I started to run.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Life, Flying

“When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted friendship - when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

God, Friendship, Disappointment, Suffering

“I'm not making a problem out of a personal question; I make of a personal question an absence of a problem.”

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher

Problem, Personality

“When you live a life without questions, you're unprepared for the questions when they come.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnWholly

Life

“Why do people always expect authors to answer questions? I am an author because I want to ask questions. If I had answers, I'd be a politician.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

As quoted in The Writer's Quotation Book : A Literary Companion (1980) by James Charlton, p. 44

People

“I took the world into me, rearranged it, and sent it back out as a question: "Do you like me?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Variant: We stopped laughing, I took the world into me, rearranged it, and sent it back out as a question: "Do you like me?
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

World

“Dip a slice of bread in batter. That's September: yellow, gold, soft and sticky. Fry the bread. Now you have October: chewier, drier, streaked with browns. The day in question fell somewhere in the middle of the french toast process.”

Tom Robbins Skinny Legs and All

Source: Skinny Legs and All

“Women were brought up to believe that men were the answer. They weren't. They weren't even one of the questions.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: A History of the World in 10½ Chapters

Women, Men

“All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers, is contained in the dog. If one could but realize this knowledge, if one could but bring it into the light of day, if we dogs would but own that we know infinitely more than we admit to ourselves!”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

"Investigations of a Dog"
The Complete Stories (1971)
Source: The Great Wall of China and Other Stories

Dogs, Knowledge, Light

“I think people understand things different when they get older. It’s not a question of getting soft, or seeing things in the gray areas instead of black and white. I really believe I’m just understanding things different. Better.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

People, Understanding, Thinking

“In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

People

“Which brings me to the question of why we always 'fall' in love. One falls down steps, off ladders, into rivers and down mountains. If love is so wonderful, why don't we soar in love or climb in love?”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Love, Mountain

“Question: If there were two of you which one would win?”

Douglas Coupland (1961) Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and graphic designer

“To the dumb question "Why me?" the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: Why not?”

Christopher Hitchens Mortality

I.
Source: 2010s, 2011, Mortality (2012)

“You must be careful when you ask people whether they’re happy; it’s a question that can upset them a great deal.”

François Lelord (1953) French writer

People, Happiness

“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

“Love, too, was just a question of time”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Love, Time

“There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.”

Carl Sagan book The Demon-Haunted World

Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

World, Understanding, Cry

“Ideology knows the answer before the question has been asked.

Principles are something different: a set of values that have to be adapted to circumstances but not compromised away.”

George Packer (1960) American journalist and writer

“Maybe I was naïve to think that silence was implicit complacence, instead of a festering question. Maybe I was silly to believe that friends owed each other anything.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Thinking, Silence

“I've been burdened by questions I've asked myself a thousand times since the last time we were together.
Why did I do it? And would I do it again?
It was I, you see, who ended it.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Time

“You don’t learn unless you question.”

Warren Berger (1958) American writer

A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas

Learning

“Someone has to ask you a question," George continues meaningly, "before you can answer it. But it's so seldom you find anyone who'll ask the right questions. Most people aren't that much interested….”

Christopher Isherwood book A Single Man

Source: A Single Man

People

“Don't spend your precious time asking "Why isn't the world a better place?" It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is "How can I make it better?" To that there is an answer.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

World, Time

“Because the question for me was always whether that shape we see in our lives was there from the beginning or whether these random events are only called a pattern after the fact. Because otherwise we are nothing.”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Source: All The Pretty Horses: All The Pretty Horses

“Your test had cheese meteor questions?”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

United We Spy

“It is a remarkable question- Do all the wonderful things happen when we are not aware of them?”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

“Here’s a question every angry man and woman needs to consider: How long are you going to allow people you don’t even like — people who are no longer in your life, maybe even people who aren’t even alive anymore — to control your life? How long?”

Andy Stanley (1958) American Christian minister

Source: Enemies of the Heart: Breaking Free from the Four Emotions That Control You

Life, People

“Bromidic though it may sound, some questions don't have answers, which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn.”

Katharine Graham (1917–2001) American publisher

Quoted by Jane Howard in The Power That Didn't Corrupt http://books.google.com/books?id=MNSxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Bromidic+though+it+may+sound+some+questions+don-t+have+answers+which+is+a+terribly+difficult+lesson+to+learn%22, Ms. magazine (October 1974)

Learning

“There are many great authors of the past who have survived centuries of oblivion and neglect, but it is still an open question whether they will be able to survive an entertaining version of what they have to say.”

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist

Past

“Questioning the ostensibly unquestionable premises of our way of life is arguably the most urgent of services we owe our fellow humans and ourselves.”

Zygmunt Bauman book Globalizace: důsledky pro člověka

Source: Globalization: The Human Consequences

Life, Way

“Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open.”

Laura Bush (1946) First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009

As quoted in The 21st Century Elementary Library Media Program (2009) by Carl A. Harvey, p. 3

Children, World, Learning

“If there's something you really want to believe, that's what you should question the most.”

Penn Jillette (1955) American magician

“He found himself still with too many questions and not enough answers.”

Stephen King book The Long Walk

Source: The Long Walk

“I’m asking the questions tonight.” One day I was going to write a book: How to Dictate to a Dictator
and Evade an Evader, subtitled How to Handle Jericho Barrons.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

Books

“The simplest questions are the most profound.
Where were you born?
Where is your home?
Where are you going?
What are you doing?
Think about these once in awhile, and watch your answers change.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)

Home, Thinking, Change

“As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise human science is at a loss.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Decision, Science, Loss

“The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is is another question.”

James Joyce book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Source: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Beauty

“Is Tyson okay?' I asked.
The question seemed to take my dad by surprise. 'He's fine. Doing much better than I expected. Though 'peanut butter' is a strange battle cry.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Cry

“He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“Know all the Questions, but not the Answers
Look for the Different, instead of the Same
Never Walk where there's room for Running
Don't do anything that can't be a Game”

Zilpha Keatley Snyder book The Changeling

Source: The Changeling

Game

“She'd never seen a monster like that before, had never heard of one in all the Lore. When she grappled with the question of what it was, her sharply honed scientifical mind deduced one answer: manbearpig.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Demon from the Dark

“Any questions?"
"Ya why do your drawings suck so bad?”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach, Volume 01

Drawing

“It answers the question that was tormenting you: my love, you are not 'one thing in my life' - not even the most important - because my life no longer belongs to me because… you are always me.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Love, Life

“The minute I knew I was in love was the minute when there was no question about it.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

Love

“The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Art

“A question with no answer is a barrier that cannot be breached. In other words, it is questions with no answers that set the limits of human possibilities, describe the boundaries of human existence.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“People who are crazy rarely question whether they're crazy.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

People

“Death: Do you never stop questioning?
Antonius Block: No. I never stop.”

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish filmmaker

Source: The Seventh Seal

Death

“Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Source: The Bob Dylan Scrapbook: 1956-1966

Death, Money, Soul, Forgiveness

“all I feel sure of are questions.”

Anthony Doerr (1973) American writer

About Grace

Feeling

“There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

World, Problem

“If anyone else asked that question, O He Who Is Terrible and Great, I would have said they were an ignorant fool; in you it is a sign of the disarming simplicity which is the fount of all virtue.”

Jonathan Stroud book The Amulet of Samarkand

Source: The Amulet of Samarkand

Fools

“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Dave Barry Turns 40 (1990)

History, Beer

“And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible question, and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him is the real death, that to die with him the only life?”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Source: The Magnificent Defeat (1966)

Life, Death, God, Truth

“Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Source: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

Smile, Universe

“Come on, let's get you a drink. How's your love life, anyway?

Oh God. Why can't married people understand that this is no longer a polite question to ask? We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, "How's your marriage going? Still have sex?”

Helen Fielding book Bridget Jones's Diary

Source: Bridget Jones's Diary

Love, Life, God, Marriage

“I find relief from the questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything. I remind myself it is sufficient to know what I know, and that what I know, may not always be true.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“The 1143-year-long war hand begun on false pretenses and only because the two races were unable to communicate.

Once they could talk, the first question was 'Why did you start this thing?' and the answer was 'Me?”

Joe Haldeman book The Forever War

Source: The Forever War

War, Communication, Falseness

“We did that often, asking each other questions whose answers we already knew. Perhaps it was so that we would not ask the other questions, the ones whose answers we did not want to know.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Purple Hibiscus

Source: Purple Hibiscus

“Rule One, boy: shoot first then ask questions
Rulw Two, Double tap just for good measure. Better safe then sorry. -Bubba”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Boy

“mr youse needn't be so spry
concernin questions arty

each has his tastes but as for i
i likes a certain party

gimme the he-man's solid bliss
for youse ideas i'll match youse

a pretty girl who naked is
is worth a million statues”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Girl, Idea

“Nicholas this is one of those 'yes' or 'no' questions again. You seem to have a problem with those. Did you or did you not kill a woman - Jo”

Lynsay Sands Canadian writer

Source: The Renegade Hunter

Problem

“Enjoy the questions and forget the answers.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Forgetting

“Belief?"
"Yes," Sazed said. "Tell me, Mistress. What is it that you believe?"
Vin frowned. "What kind of question is that?"
"The most important kind, I think.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Thinking

“So this, I believe, is the central question upon which all creative living hinges: Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?”

Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Courage

“Teach her to question language. Language is the repository of our prejudices, our beliefs, our assumptions.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Source: Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“… but to remain historically accurate, I would have had to leave out an important question that I felt needed to be addressed, which is, 'What if Jesus had known kung fu?”

Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

“[A]nother important difference between tourist and traveler is that the former accepts his own civilization without question; not so the traveler, who compares it with the others, and rejects those elements he finds not to his liking.”

Paul Bowles book The Sheltering Sky

Source: The Sheltering Sky

Travel

“We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species.”

Desmond Morris (1928) English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter

“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. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, I've Been to the Mountaintop (1968)
Context: I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the day of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?".

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