Quotes about doubt
page 53

“The main question is: When will Jesus inherit the Kingdom of his father?”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“The mystery of knowledge is that once you know, you won't have anything more to ask. Thus, closing the door to ask more exciting questions.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Knowledge

“Any minority’s right to be different must be respected, but the right of the majority must not be questioned.
..
Without the values at the core of Christianity and other world religions, without moral norms that have been shaped over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

19 September 2013 during his speech at the Valdai forum
2013

People, World, Religion

“The questions I want to ask will revolve around humans, connection, relationships, family, and stories - what are the stories we tell ourselves and each other?”

Lulu Wang (1983) Asian-American filmmaker

As quoted in "The Farewell director Lulu Wang on being caught between worlds" in Fader (16 August 2019) https://www.thefader.com/2019/08/16/the-farewell-director-lulu-wang-interview

Family

“In pure theosophy there is no question of wishing to remove from God His mysteries by means of unveilings and specifications; for however acute our discernments, the divine mystery remains complete by reason of the Infinitude of the Real.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2014, In the Face of the Absolute, World Wisdom, 99, 978-1-936597-41-3]
God, Outline

God

“That anything should exist at all does seem to me a matter for the deepest awe. But whether other people feel this sort of awe, and whether they or I ought to is another question. I think we ought to.”

J. J. C. Smart (1920–2012) Australian philosopher and academic

The Existence of God, Church Quarterly Review, 156(319): 194 (1955).
Other quotes

People, Thinking, Feeling

“The reason why there are hardly ever completely knock-down arguments, except between very like minded philosophers, is that philosophers, unlike chemists or geologists, are licensed to question everything, including methodology.”

J. J. C. Smart (1920–2012) Australian philosopher and academic

Ockhamist Comments on Strawson, in Anthony Freeman (ed.), Consciousness and its Place in Nature: Does Physicalism Entail Panpsychism?, Exteter, 2006, pp. 158-159
Other quotes

“I regard utility as the ultimate appeal on all ethical questions; but it must be utility in the largest sense, grounded on the permanent interests of man as a progressive being.”

John Stuart Mill book On Liberty

Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. 1: Introductory

Sense

“Sometimes the government has to answer questions with ambiguous language.”

Jason Kenney (1968) Canadian politician and 18th Premier of Alberta

In an interview with Macleans https://www.macleans.ca/politics/jason-kenney-on-life-after-ottawa-and-uniting-albertas-right/ (28 September 2016) 2010s

“It underscores yet again the fact that what we call personality is to a considerable degree a question of brain chemistry.”

Matt Ridley book Genome

Source: Genome (1999), Chapter 11 “Personality” (p. 172)

Personality

“ALL religions have preserved the remembrance of a primitive book, written in hieroglyphs by the sages of the earliest epoch of the world. [...] The tradition in question rests altogether on the one dogma of Magic: the visible is for us the proportional measure of the invisible.”

Eliphas Levi (1810–1875) French writer

Miscellaneous Quotes On the Subjects of Magic and Magicians
Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, H.L. Mencken (Translator), The Anti-Christ, Chicago, Sharp Press, 1999, p. 144.</

Books, World, Religion

“The secret of science is to ask the right question, and it is the choice of problem more than anything else that marks the man of genius in the scientific world.”

Henry Tizard (1885–1959) British chemist

Undated attributed quote

Problem, Secret, World, Science

“When the People march in one direction, it only hurts to ask awkward questions.”

Bruce Sterling book Islands in the Net

Source: Islands in the Net (1988), Chapter 4 (p. 109)

Hurt, People

“When I close my eyes, a strange thought comes to my mind. Who am I, what is my existence, this question comes again and again in my mind, I start looking for answers to my questions, time starts passing through me, then somewhere a golden ray starts appearing, when I see that ray I feel relaxed, slowly my eyes open, when I start getting answers to my questions.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Appearance, Time, Feeling

“Philosophy — in every field of inquiry — is what you have to do until you figure out what questions you should have been asking in the first place.”

Daniel Dennett (1942) American philosopher

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (2013)

“Solace, haven, fear, all of these are words which have created moods that one has learned to accept without ever questioning their value.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Tales of Power" (Chapter 10)

Learning, Fear, Mood

“There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: Does this path have a heart?”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from The Teachings of Don Juan (Chapter 4)

Heart

“It is the nature of science that answers automatically pose new and more subtle questions.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

The Wellsprings of Life (1960), p. 141
General sources

Science, Nature

“Partition, split of the nationalist movement didn’t happen over ideology or geography. It happened on one key question – is religion the determinant of our nationhood.”

Shashi Tharoor (1956) Indian politician, diplomat, author

2020s

Religion

“The limitation of the story to a single sequence and the essentially ad hoc nature of causal attributions call into question the whole procedure of using stories as evidence, and of thinking that they establish causality or patterns of reasons.”

Robyn Dawes (1936–2010) American psychologist

Source: Everyday Irrationality: How Pseudo-Scientists, Lunatics, and the Rest of Us Systematically Fail to Think Rationally (2001), Chapter 7, “Good Stories” (p. 113)

Nature, Thinking

“There were things to do, people to see, questions to ask. Books to read.”

Genevieve Cogman (1972) novelist and game designer

Source: The Burning Page (2016), Chapter 27 (p. 354)

Reading, People, Books

“Now first of all I would like to talk about the question of different ideologies and social systems. We have to admit that among our Asian and African countries, we do have different ideologies and different social systems. But this does not prevent us from seeking common ground and being united.”

Zhou Enlai (1898–1976) 1st Premier of the People's Republic of China

Supplementary Speech at the Plenary Session of the Asian African-Conference (19 April 1955)

Country

“To the oft-repeated question "If Jesus resurrected His physical body why is He not visible here among us?" we would say that Jesus overcame the sins that caused our original fall from the perfect body of the Adamic man to the diseased and dying body in which the race is now existing.”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Mysteries Of John (1946)

Perfection, Disease

“There's just one person who's allowed to ask, or answer, rhetorical questions in my courtroom -- and that's me! Understand? No, don't answer! There you go again.”

Judith Sheindlin (1942) American lawyer, judge, television personality, and author

Source: Quotes From Judge Judy Cases, Dress, Stand, and/or Speak Properly

Understanding, Personality

“The nation has come to the end of its psychological endurance. Many people are beginning to despair. Now it is not days but hours that separate us from a national catastrophe. Honesty compels one to ask the question: Did things have to come to this?”

Wojciech Jaruzelski (1923–2014) Polish military officer and politician

Source: Excerpts of Martial law speech (14 December 1981)

People, Despair

“The day will come when all nations amidst which the Jews are dwelling will have to raise the question of their wholesale expulsion, a question which will be one of life or death, good health or chronic disease, peaceful existence or perpetual social fever.”

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Hungarian romantic composer and virtuoso pianist

Source: As quoted in Col. E. N. Sanctuary’s Are These Things So?, p. 278.

Health, Disease, Peace, Life

“Did that sound like a rhetorical question? It wasn't. I want you to answer it, capisce? Now, THAT was a rhetorical question! See the difference?”

Judith Sheindlin (1942) American lawyer, judge, television personality, and author

Source: Quotes From Judge Judy Cases, Dress, Stand, and/or Speak Properly

“In discussing tradition, we are not discussing arbitrary rules and conventions. We are discussing answers that have been discovered to enduring questions.”

Roger Scruton book How to Be a Conservative

Source: How to Be a Conservative (2014), p. 21

“When you run into the enemy, you’ve got to attack, no question about it.”

John D. Bulkeley (1911–1996) United States Navy Medal of Honor recipient

Source: "‘Sea Wolf’ Bulkeley’s European Theater Exploits Heroic" in Naval History" https://www.navalhistory.org/2015/03/19/sea-wolf-bulkeleys-european-theater-exploits-heroic (1944)

“Looking at the hundred or so scores I have done you might question the choices, but in a lot of ways this business is about relationships.”

Harry Gregson-Williams (1961) British composer

Source: Composer Harry Gregson-Williams discusses Disney’s Mulan https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2020/09/exclusive-interview-composer-harry-gregson-williams-discusses-disneys-mulan/ (September 12, 2020)

Business, Way

“I am on a quest to make movies that question the established norm in Nigeria because I don’t think there should be an established norm, I think that it should be that we’re making all sorts of films telling authentic African stories.”

Ego Boyo (1968) Nigerian actress and movie producer

Source: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2020/11/12/ego-boyo-i-want-to-make-movies-that-question-the-established-norm-in-nigeria/ Boyo talks about her movie, making grounds in the industry.

Thinking

“... the phenomenon of serial entrepreneurship would seem to call into question our tendency to explain success as the product of chance.”

Peter Thiel book Zero to One

Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=Owc2nQEACAAJ&pg=PA59 p. 59
Zero to One (2014)

Chance, Success

“My own answer to the contrarian question is that most people think the future of the world will be defined by globalization, but the truth is that technology matters more. ... In a world of scarce resources, globalization without new technology is unsustainable.”

Peter Thiel book Zero to One

Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=Owc2nQEACAAJ&pg=PA8 pp. 8–9
Zero to One (2014)

Future, People, Truth, Thinking

“During filming, it never occurred to me that I was going to be a part of either film. I was always trying to cut my voice out by having subjects include my question in their answers.”

Nanfu Wang (1985) director and filmmaker

Source: "Hot Docs 2017 Interview: Nanfu Wang on “I Am Another You”" in Roger Ebert https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/hot-docs-2017-interview-nanfu-wang-on-i-am-another-you (3 May 2017)

Parting

“You can't question a people's history and you can't insult the Algerians.”

Abdelmadjid Tebboune (1945) Algerian politician, current President of Algeria

Source: Abdelmadjid Tebboune (2021) cited in: " "You Can’t Question a People’s History and You Can’t Insult the Algerians" https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/algerian-president-abdelmadjid-tebboune-you-can-t-question-a-people-s-history-and-you-can-t-insult-the-algerians-a-44033dcb-53b4-4660-8e24-44aff8756c2e" in SPIEGEL International, 9 November 2021.

People, History

“The question of who strikes first in a war is on the same level as who strikes first in a boxing contest.”

Francis Parker Yockey (1917–1960) American writer

Source: Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics (1948)

War, Box

“In geophysical circles, the question is not so much why the sea is salty, but why it remains just as salty as it is, no more, no less.”

Shawna Vogel science writer

Naked Earth: the New Geophysics (1995)

Sea

“We have no idea what waits for us out there. We did not choose this situation, and whatever manner of creature or accident has stranded us here did not take much notice of our welfare. I would say nice moral questions are beside the point, and that pragmatism is the order of the day.”

Arthur C. Clarke A Time Odyssey

Source: 2000s and posthumous publications, A Time Odyssey, Time's Eye (2003), Chapter 21, “Return to Jamrud” (p. 181)

Idea, Waiting

“Besides the ‘how many?’ question, Empedocles seems to be answering two other ancient questions: ‘How did the world come to be as it now is?’ and ‘How did it come to have the creatures that it now has?’. [...] His answers are subtle and intricate.”

Catherine Rowett (1956) Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (born 1956)

Source: Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 1 : Lost words, forgotten worlds

World

“Jesus is without question the most eloquent man who ever lived. Those who heard Him said, 'Never a man spoke like this Man.'”

Ray Comfort (1949) New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist

The most eloquent of philosophers sits at His feet and marvels at both His words and His life. To those who disagree, I would simply challenge you to read the Gospel of John, and see for yourself. Never did any man speak like this Man.
Source: You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think (2009)

“We are then able to answer in some manner the question, "Why have we no great men?" We have no great men chiefly because we are always looking for them. We are connoisseurs of greatness, and connoisseurs can never be great; we are fastidious, that is, we are small. When Diogenes went about with a lantern looking for an honest man, I am afraid he had very little time to be honest himself. And when anybody goes about on his hands and knees looking for a great man to worship, he is making sure that one man at any rate shall not be great.”

G. K. Chesterton Charles Dickens

Source: Charles Dickens (1906), Ch 1 : "The Dickens Period"

Time, Men

“This book must... touch... deep and difficult questions about birth and death... life and its inception... sexuality and gender, about distribution of power.”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Source: Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes (1990), Approaching Abortion Anew

Death, Books, Life, Birth

“The question whether individuals may insist on being heard by rulemakers, for whom they already (directly or indirectly) voted, has bedeviled administrative law since the turn of the century.”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Constitutional Choices (1985), The Nature of the Enterprise, The Futile Search for Legitimacy

Law

“[A]ttempts to treat constitutional doctrine neutrally elide important questions and obscure available answers.”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

American Constitutional Law (1978), Preface to the First Edition

“Who are our enemies and who are our friends? This is the first and foremost question of a revolution and it is also the first and foremost question of the great Cultural Revolution.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

1967
Directives Regarding the Cultural Revolution (1966-1972)

“I like my creations to be thought-provoking and not have a narrative. Creating mystery and questions are key elements in my work.”

John Jude Palencar (1957) American artist

Source: Beauty and mystery: An interview with John Jude Palencar https://vadamagazine.com/entertainment/arts/john-jude-palencar (27 November, 2015)

“For once his years of teaching experience stood him in good stead; he was an old hand at sounding knowledgeable while dodging surprise questions from smart-breeched scholars.”

Margaret Ball (1515–1584) Lady Mayoress of Dublic and Catholic martyr

Source: Lost in Translation (1995), Chapter 8 (p. 150)

Knowledge

“I felt the question was stupid so I didn't answer.”

Dan Fante (1944–2015) American writer

Source: Novels, Spitting off Tall Buildings (1996), Ch.6 - p.33 [Page numbers per the Canongate Books Ltd. 2001 UK paperback edition]

Stupidity

“The reality is; there is something which exist but what that something is; remains a question. Either because we are not capable to reveal it yet or because with time and movement it changes itself and has no truth in it. But what’s the reason for its existence without having or revealing any truth, that’s the evidence we need to find.”

Zaman Ali (1993) Pakistani philosopher

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11085116-the-reality-is-there-is-something-which-exist-but-what

Truth, Change, Time, Reality

“To know and have it all is about individuality because each one has the right not to live under the mercy of anyone with more power. So, for freedom and protection, one desires to know and have it all, but the questions remain.”

Zaman Ali (1993) Pakistani philosopher

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11104151-to-know-and-have-it-all-is-about-individuality-because

Freedom

“Where is the road to Arcady,
Where is the path that leads to peace,
Where shall I find the bliss to be,
Where shall the weary wanderings cease?
These are the questions that come to me -
Where is the road to Arcady?”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Arcady, first stanza.
The Passing Throng (1923)

Peace

“One minute you say you will
and the next you won't,
One minute you want me
and the next you don't,
You're turning me upside down,
Giving me the runaround,
Don't think that I don't know -
I do,
Don't think that I won't go.
You watch me:
It isn't out of question”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"Out of the Question" (song) Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Out of the Question" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV2E3q9rUXA (song on YouTube) Song lyrics Source: (+ Performed live, 2017.On YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oHVxoA5688

Thinking

“I wish to say that the right to life is not a religious question, but rather a moral and juridical one, and that is a commandment from God.”

Cristina Lizardo (1959) Dominican Republic academic

Source: Dominicans rally against abortion https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/10559/dominicans-rally-against-abortion (3 October 2007)

God, Life

“What do I want my boy to be?
Oft is the question asked of me,
And oft I ask it of myself -
What corner, niche or post or shelf
In the great hall of life would I
Select for him to occupy?
Statesman or writer, poet, sage
Or toiler for a weekly wage,
Artist or artisan? Oh, what
Is to become his future lot?
For him I do not dare to plan;
I only hope he'll be a man.I leave it free for him to choose
The tools of life which he shall use,
Brush, pen or chisel, lathe or wrench,
The desk of commerce or the bench,
And pray that when he makes his choice
In each day's task he shall rejoice.
I know somewhere there is a need
For him to labor and succeed;
Somewhere, if he be clean and true,
Loyal and honest through and through,
He shall be fit for any clan,
And so I hope he'll be a man.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: When Day is Done (1921), A Father's Wish, stanzas 1 and 2.

Boy, Life, Future, Hope

“Strange thoughts come to the man alone;
'Tis then, if ever, he talks with God,
And views himself as a single clod
In the soil of life where the souls are grown.
'Tis then he questions the why and where,
The start and end of his years and days,
And what is blame and what is praise,
And what is ugly and what is fair.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: The Path to Home (1919), p.145 - Alone, stanza 1.

God, Soul, Life

“The dialectic between the social situation of the believer and Scripture and the traditions of the Church is the place to begin the investigation of the question, Who is Jesus Christ for us today? Social context, Scripture, and tradition operate together to enable the people of God to move actively and reflectively with Christ in the struggle of freedom.”

James H. Cone (1938–2018) American theologian

Source: God of the Oppressed (1975, 1997), p. 115 (1975 edition)

God, Freedom, People, Christ

“[T]he woman's right to decide for herself... is now subject to regulation, and possibly even prohibition, by our elected representatives. ...Even as the public agenda is stretched to address... questions as the right to die, no issue threatens to divide us politically in... as powerful a way as the abortion issue...”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Source: Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes (1990), Approaching Abortion Anew

Way

“I do not intend to ask whether Christianity is “true” or “false,” or to establish, for example, the former hypothesis. Rather, what will be in question here is what Christianity considers as truth – what kind of truth it offers to people, what it endeavors to communicate to them, not as a theoretical and indifferent truth but as the essential truth that by some mysterious affinity is suitable for them, to the point that it alone is capable of assuring them salvation. We are trying to understand the form of truth that circumscribes the domain of Christianity, the milieu in which it spreads, the air that it breaths, one might say – because there are many sorts of truths, many ways of being true or false. And we are also perhaps trying to get away from the concept of truth that dominates modern thought and that, as much in and of itself as in its multiple implications, determines the world in which we live.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

Books on Religion and Christianity, I am the Truth. Toward a philosophy of Christianity (1996)
Source: Michel Henry, I am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 1

Communication, Falseness, Understanding, Indifference

“I want to reflect on one question: What are you doing to shape the minds and consciences of our young people today.”

Gilbert Garcera (1959) Roman Catholic archbishop

Source: Philippine archbishop goes undercover to check on parishes https://www.ucanews.com/news/philippine-archbishop-goes-undercover-to-check-on-parishes/79297 (24 May 2017)

People

“We have our gurus, we admire them – and with good reason. But they become in the end a source of laziness because we just accept them and we know the little we know of them without feeling the need either to pursue their work very thoroughly, or the need to question it.”

Ranulph Glanville (1946–2014) British cyberneticist (1946-2014)

Source: Ranulph Glanville, cited in Mick Ashby. " Time for Ethical Systems and Third Order Cyernetics https://vimeo.com/511633171," at ISSS, 6th februari 2021.

Feeling

“So one of the questions I think Jesus is going to ask us on judgment day is not have we lived a good life, and not just have we lived the Gospel, he's going to ask us "Who have you made a disciple of in My name?" So that becomes the question for me and for you, who am I discipling right now?”

Louis Frederick Kihneman (1952) American prelate of the Catholic Church (born 1952)

Source: Make disciples of all men https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9rEbitrSPM (July 18, 2020)

Thinking, Life

“It takes a lot of people to hold civilization together; some of us are only here to ask the right questions.”

Larry Niven book N-Space

Foreword: Playgrounds for the Mind (p. 32)
Short fiction, N-Space (1990)

People

“Good journalism questions the land of a thousand taboos even at the risk of uncanny and disturbing findings.”

Marco Respinti (1964)

Source: "China’s Human Harvest and Illegal Organ Trade: Publish or Perish?" https://bitterwinter.org/a-universal-declaration-on-combating-and-preventing-forced-organ-harvesting/

“The oracle-glass was maddeningly literal, capable of answering only the question one asked, rather than that which one wanted answered.”

Michael Swanwick (1950) American science fiction author

Source: Short fiction, King Dragon (2003), p. 6

“When I get asked the question, "When did you know you wanted to be a priest?," many times I say "This morning." Every day you have to wake up and say, “God, what are you calling me to do today?” The layers of lived experience is what brings us to an appreciation for what we’re called to do in that moment.”

Louis Tylka (1970) American Catholic bishop (born 1970)

Bishop Tylka shares hopes for ordination, explains motto in Catholic Post interview https://thecatholicpost.com/2020/07/16/bishop-tylka-shares-hopes-for-ordination-explains-motto-in-catholic-post-interview/ (16 July 2020)

God, Time

“Sometimes, thinking just didn’t do any good, didn’t provide any answers. Because for some questions—such as the arbitrariness of life and death during wartime—there weren’t any answers.”

Charles E. Gannon (1960) American novelist

Source: Trial by Fire (2014), Chapter 27 (p. 402)

Thinking, Life, Death

“It is in everyone’s best interest to realize and remember that the default human way is to believe first and ask questions never. We become better thinkers by recognizing how poor we are at thinking.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

Thinking, Way

“The question is have we met our match?”

David Suzuki (1936) Canadian popular scientist and environmental activist

Fox Tales https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/fox-tales (NOW STREAMING ON CBC GEM) 2018

“Of all the questions we can ask ourselves the most important is: how is one best to live?”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), “Introduction” (p. xi)

“If “media” is the plural of “medium” the question is: how many of them are fraudulent?”

John Brunner book The Jagged Orbit

Source: The Jagged Orbit (1969), Chapter 17 (p. 57; chapter title)

“Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

1800s, First Inaugural Address (1801)

History, Angels

“Immigration was, and is, an issue. In my constituency it has for years been question number one, into which discussion of every other political topic—housing, health, benefits, employment—promptly turned.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

'Tories in the Wilderness', The Sunday Telegraph (18 October 1964), quoted in Paul Corthorn, Enoch Powell: Politics and Ideas in Modern Britain (2019), p. 79
1960s

Housing, Health

“Let us be practical and ask the question: How do we love our enemies?”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)

Love

“In the political debate we often ask ourselves the question of our identity. But our identity is never built on narrow-mindedness, or on first names or crampedness.”

Emmanuel Macron (1977) 25th President of the French Republic

Macron lashes out at Zemmour: “Our identity is not built on narrow-mindedness" https://palnws.be/2021/09/macron-haalt-uit-naar-zemmour-onze-identiteit-is-niet-gebouwd-op-bekrompenheid/ 2017, 2021

“Where now? Who now? When now? Unquestioning. I, say I. Unbelieving. Questions, hypotheses, call them that. Keep going, going on, call that going, call that on.”

Samuel Beckett book The Unnamable

The Unnamable (1954)

“To require that all of these must be reducible to a single version is to make the mistake of supposing that 'Which are the real objects?' is a question that makes sense independently of our choice of concepts.”

Hilary Putnam (1926–2016) American philosopher

Lecture I: Is There Still Anything to Say about Reality and Truth?
The Many Faces of Realism (1987)

Sense

“In the madrassa, questions were not welcome; they were considered impertinent.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1969) Dutch feminist, author

Source: 2010s, Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (2010), Chapter 13, “Violence and the Closing of the Muslim Mind” (p. 186)

“I do not question the sincerity or the good intentions of those who feel that way.”

Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow (1887–1952) British politician, agriculturalist and colonial administrator (1887-1952)

10 January 1940, Speech at Orient Club, Bombay, also quoted in Speeches and Statements of the Marquess of Linlithgow, p. 229.

Sincerity, Way, Feeling

“The Socialists, and I am still one, although an exasperated one, never brought forward the question of irredentism, but left it to the Republicans. We are in favour of a national war. But there are also reasons, purely socialist in character, which spur us on towards intervention.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

“Mussolini the ‘Man of the War’” speech delivered at the Mazza, Parma (13 December 1914) p. 15
1920s, Mussolini as Revealed in his Political Speeches (November 1914—August 1923) (1923)

War

“You conceive of science as nothing more than answers to questions?
As a system for generating answers.
And what is the purpose of that?
...To know.
And what will you do with your knowledge?
...Find out more.
But why?
I don’t know. It’s the way I am.”

Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars

Source: Green Mars (1993), Chapter 8, “Social Engineering” (p. 401)

Knowledge, Way, Science

“Whether you deserve something was never in question. You deserve it all. That is given in your very existence. The universe wants you to succeed and wants you to experience abundance, freedom and joy. It is simply not the kind of universe that treats you as if you are incapable of creating those things yourself. And this means that it loves you more than you want it to sometimes!”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Source: tealswan.com/quotes

Freedom, Universe, Joy, Love

“The real question that now divides the country and which truly divides the House of Commons, is church or no church. People talk of the war in Spain, and the Canada question. But all that is of little moment. The real question is church or no church.”

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) British soldier and statesman

Statement (1838), quoted in John Morley, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. I (1903), p. 155

Housing, Country, War, People

“Thus, it will be necessary to try and defeat the enemy in field battles. And, excuse me, with whom, and with what?! If so far not even the partial mobilisation has been carried out?! No one is giving clear answers to these questions. Simply because there aren't any.”

Igor Girkin (1970) Russian citizen from Moscow who played a significant role in the War in Donbass

"'It's meaningless to hope for victory': Top Russian ex-spy turned influencer warns Putin's offensive in Eastern Ukraine is going 'very bad', troops will suffer 'huge losses' while their leadership leaves 'much to be desired'" https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10836379/Ukraine-war-Ex-Russian-commander-says-meaningless-hope-victory-Donbas.html, Daily Mail, 20 May 2022 About the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

“The entire military is loyal to the nation, loyal to the constitution and executes orders in accordance with the law. This must not be questioned.”

Fang Mao-hung (1963)

Source: Fang Mao-hung (2021) cited in " ‘Begonia’ map on military insignia must go: legislator http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201810300006.aspx" on Taipei Times, 14 December 2021.

Law