Quotes about answer
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“Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German writer, artist, and politician

Men, Question

“Ask yourself the secret of your success. Listen to your answer, and practice it.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Secret, Success

“Your friend is your needs answered.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

“The smallest flower is a thought, a life answering to some feature of the Great Whole, of whom they have a persistent intuition.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

Life, Flowers

“A man may fulfil the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) United States Supreme Court justice

Question

“Intuition is the supra-logic that cuts out all the routine processes of thought and leaps straight from the problem to the answer.”

Robert Graves (1895–1985) English poet and novelist

Problem

“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.”

William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer

Question, Learning, Waiting, Peaceful

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

People, Question, Success

“Science is empirical: knowing the answer is nothing. Testing your knowledge means everything.”

Lawrence M. Krauss (1954) American physicist

"A Universe From Nothing" by Lawrence Krauss, AAI 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo#t=23m40s (23:40-23:48)

Knowledge, Science

“I look inside myself and ask, do I feel like a man, or a woman, and the answer is that I feel like shit.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints Source: Non-Binary Genders https://aardvark-lily-k2lz.squarespace.com/transcripts/archives/non-binary-genders, published 2016-09-30

Feeling

“Theorists always know the answer, they just sometimes right.”

Lawrence M. Krauss (1954) American physicist

"A Universe From Nothing" by Lawrence Krauss, AAI 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo#t=22m52s (22:52-22:55)

“First of all one has to answer the question of why the painful experiences that man must undergo are called "trials."”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

We would reply that these experiences are trials in relation to our faith, which indicates that with regard to troubling or painful experiences we have duties resulting from our human vocation; in other words, we must prove our faith in relation to God and in relation to ourselves. In relation to God, by our intelligence, our sense of the absolute, and thus our sense of relativities and proportions; and in relation to ourselves, by our character, our resignation to destiny, our gratitude. There are in fact two ways to overcome the traces that evil, or more precisely suffering, leaves in the soul: these are, firstly, our awareness of the Sovereign Good, which coincides with our hope to the extent that this awareness penetrates us; and secondly, our acceptance of what, in religious language, is called the "will of God"; and assuredly it is a great victory over oneself to accept a destiny because it is God's will and for no other reason.
[2003, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, World Wisdom, 215, 978-0-94153227-3]
Spiritual life, Trials

Pain, Question

“Peace and prosperity were possible only if people stopped asking new questions and accepted the available answers.”

John Twelve Hawks book The Traveler

Source: Fourth Realm Trilogy (2005-2009), The Traveler (2005), Ch. 2

People, Peace, Question

“When I lay these questions before God I get no answer. But a rather special sort of 'No answer.”

Clive Staples Lewis book A Grief Observed

It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze. As though He shook His head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, 'Peace, child; you don't understand.'
A Grief Observed (1961)

God, Question

“The next gentleman who has endeavored to answer what I have said, is the Rev. Samuel Robinson. This he has done in his sermon entitled “Ghosts against God or Ingersoll against Honesty.””

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

I presume he imagines himself to be the defendant in both cases.
My Reviewers Reviewed (lecture from June 27, 1877, San Francisco, CA)

God

“Silence, is one of the most incisive answers.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Il silenzio, è una delle risposte più incisive.
Source: prevale.net

Silence

“I am sure I speak for all my sisters when I say that we prefer to be known as directors, not just as women directors. To the eternal question that I am plagued with — what is the main disadvantage of being a woman director — my answer is: being endlessly harangued with this very question”

Sai Paranjpye (1938) Indian film director

FirstPost article by Chintan Girish Modi - Originally an excerpt from Sai Paranjpye's English Autobiography titled "A Patchwork Quilt: A Collage of My Creative Life", published by HarperCollins India - In A Patchwork Quilt, renowned filmmaker Sai Paranjpye reflects on her creative practice, flaws, and failures https://www.firstpost.com/art-and-culture/in-a-patchwork-quilt-renowned-filmmaker-sai-paranjpye-reflects-on-her-creative-practice-flaws-and-failures-9087461.html - 8 December 2020 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210901095737/https://www.firstpost.com/art-and-culture/in-a-patchwork-quilt-renowned-filmmaker-sai-paranjpye-reflects-on-her-creative-practice-flaws-and-failures-9087461.html Quotes from Sai Paranjpye

Women, Question, Sister

“I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong… I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell.”

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist

Source: Curious Character

Way, Feeling, Thinking, Universe

“When they are asked the question by a journalist, a country, a friend, an enemy or anybody, "What is the real purpose of the taliban movement?" the answer to them all is that the taliban's mission and purpose is to implement the sharia on this land of Allah. That is their answer, true purpose and their mission from the beginning.”

Mohammed Omar (1959–2013) Founder and former leader of the Taliban

Appeal to the ulama of Afghanistan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNAR3CZhUKo, 2 April 1996

Question, Country

“Friends are admiring my age and health, and asking me the secret to live to such an age in good health. I usually answer them frankly: I have never paid attention to my health and age.”

Peter Chung Hoan Ting (1928) Malaysian catholic priest

Archbishop Emeritus Peter Chung celebrates his 90th birthday http://www.heraldmalaysia.com/news/archbishop-emeritus-peter-chung-celebrates-his-90th-birthday/44331/1 (September 21, 2018)

Health, Secret, Age

“To the limits of my capabilities, I have tried to find a possibility of evolution as an answer to all life. But, it simply will not work without intelligent intervention.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

WotansVolk
Focus Fourteen

Life, Intelligence

“The criminal code is not an effective instrument
an administrative system that is flexible and efficient
The blunt instrument of imprisoning someone, putting them through a rigorous criminal trial, is probably not the right answer for enforcing rules against hate speech online in every instance.”

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (1984) Canadian politician and lawyer (born 1984)

16 May 2019 https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/as-canadian-mps-weigh-how-to-police-online-hate-one-proposes-new-body-to-give-tickets-or-warnings-to-offenders

Hate

“If eval() is the answer, you're almost certainly asking the wrong question.”

Rasmus Lerdorf (1968) Danish programmer and creator of PHP

PHP.net: eval http://php.net/eval, Anonymous comment, 2004 PHP in a Nutshell https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/php-in-a/0596100671/re47.html by Paul Hudson, 2005

Question

“...I learned a Slow Medicine lesson: how individual medicine was. It wasn't true that one size fits all, that everyone or no one should have that treatment or this pill. Rather, the right answer had to do with style, with who you were, who the patient was.”

Victoria Sweet Physician

Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing (2017)

Learning

“If all the prayers have been answered successfully, then a madman's prayer can easily destroy the entire universe in a flash of a second.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Universe

“Science doesn't stop when it comes up with a nice answer. It looks for more data. It comes up with new ideas. It's willing to admit it's wrong.”

Guy Consolmagno (1952) American Jesuit, Catholic Priest, research astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory.

[From MIT to Specola Vaticana: Guy Consolmagno at TEDxViadellaConcialiazione, April 24, 2013, TEDx Talks, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmU2gDbP_Tk] (quote at 6:38 of 17:52)

Idea, Science

“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

Question

“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

Feeling, Question, Appearance, Time

“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

Question, Nature, Science

“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, Question, Personality

“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

Question

“If one political party believes "heads we win, tails you cheated," if one political party believes that when you lose an election, the answer isn't to win more votes, but rather to try to prevent the other side from voting, then we have serious and existential threats to our democracy on our hands.”

Chuck Schumer (1950) U.S. Senator from the State of New York

interview reported on March 20, 2021 Source: GOP warns HR 1 could be 'absolutely devastating for Republicans', Karson, Kendall and Meg Cunningham, 20 March 2021, abcnews.go.com, ABC News, 20 March 2021 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gop-warns-hr-absolutely-devastating-republicans/story?id=76555647,

Democracy, Cheating

“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

Question

“I never answer my telephone unless it rings.”

Brother Theodore (1906–2001) German-American monologuist and comedian

[Brother Theodore Complete Collection on Letterman, 1982-89, Don Giller, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj5fVnHWUl4]

“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)

People, Truth, World, Question

“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)

Question, Parting

“There really is a need for you to rise and be part of the solution, be part of the answer.”

Obianuju Ekeocha (1979) Nigerian biomedical scientist

Parting

“Abortion is never the answer.”

Obianuju Ekeocha (1979) Nigerian biomedical scientist

“Was it better to die in the illusion of sunshine and warmth or face death in a cold darkness of reality? Was it better to die in happy ignorance or terrified knowledge? The answer, if you’re a Londoner, is that it’s better not to die at all.”

Ben Aaronovitch book Whispers Under Ground

Source: Whispers Under Ground (2012), Chapter 21, “Oxford Circus” (p. 224)

Death, Happiness, Knowledge, Reality

“I soon got a job as a fire-watcher at the Royal Naval Dockyard, the main employer in Plymouth. If anybody asked how many people worked there, the answer was always the same: about ten per cent.”

John Cooper Clarke (1951) English performance poet

Source: I Wanna Be Yours (2020), p. 218.

People

“Disagreement is not oppression. Argument is not assault. Words – even provocative or repugnant ones – are not violence. The answer to speech we do not like is more speech.”

Douglas Murray (1979) British political commentator and far-right activist

Source: The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity (2019)

“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, Question

“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"

Men, Question, Time

“Few desire to know the truth of what is happening in our state’s abortion clinics. All of the outrage, all of the noise is directed at one thing: silencing the uncomfortable truth. It’s either willful ignorance or a decision to partner with the abortion industry. When I started in public office, I was intellectually pro-life, but now I have come to see that the life issue is truly the issue of our time. The depth of evil that exists to protect this lie prevents the states from protecting children. How we determine the answer to this issue is what will determine where our nation will end up. Unless the truth prevails, abortion will destroy us as a nation.”

Phill Kline (1959) American politician

Source: Ask the Attorney: An Interview with Former Kansas Attorney General and Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline http://lifelegalgiving.com/ask-the-attorney-an-interview-with-former-kansas-attorney-general-and-johnson-county-district-attorney-phill-kline/ (1 August 2009)

Life, Children, Truth, Lie

“[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

Question

“I look inside myself and I ask, "Do I feel like a man or a woman?" And the answer is... I feel happy.”

Abigail Thorn (1993) British actress and YouTuber

Source: Identity: A Trans Coming Out Story: Philosophy Tube ★ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AITRzvm0Xtg, 30.01.2021

Happiness, Feeling

“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, Question

“Will 2022 be easier? I do not know the answer to this. But I know that together we will make it.”

Alar Karis (1958) President of Estonia

Source: Alar Karis (2022) cited in: " President Alar Karis: I know we can do it together https://news.err.ee/1608453332/president-alar-karis-i-know-we-can-do-it-together" in ERR, 2 January 2022.

“If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

Understanding, Problem

“I still don’t know how to define or answer what is the meaning behind life and death. And I don’t think I will be able to define them in the future either. It’s difficult. What I can do, is to live my life, which is only given to me once, without regret until it runs its course. That’s I think the best I can do, at the present.”

Gong Yoo (1979) South Korean actor

Source: "Gong Yoo talks life, death and 20 years in the business" in Korea JoongAng Daily https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2021/04/19/entertainment/movies/Gong-Yoo-actor-interview/20210419145803689.html (19 April 2021)

Life, Death, Thinking, Future

“Where is a self-revelation of this sort achieved? In Life, as its essence, since Life is nothing other than that which reveals itself – not something that might have an added property of self-revealing, but the very fact of self-revealing, self-revelation as such. Everywhere that something like a self-revelation is produced there is Life. Everywhere there is Life, this self-revelation is produced. If, then, the Revelation of God is a self-revelation that owes nothing to the truth of the world, and if we ask where such a self-revelation is achieved, the answer is unequivocal: in Life and in Life alone. Therefore we are in the presence of the first fundamental equation of Christianity: God is Life – he is the essence of Life, or if one prefers, the essence of Life is God. Saying this we already know what God is, but we do not know it through the effect of some knowledge or learning – we do not know it through thought, against the background of the truth of the world. Rather we know it, and we can know it, only in and through Life itself. We can know the essence of God only in God. But this observation is premature.”

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. 27-28

Life, God, Truth, World

“Sometimes the obvious answer is the true answer.”

Genevieve Cogman (1972) novelist and game designer

Source: The Mortal Word (2018), Chapter 8 (p. 111)

“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

Question

“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)

Life, Death, Question, Thinking

“An army of one answers to none.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

“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)

Angels, History, Question

“I have long felt that the way to keep children out of trouble is to keep them interested in things. Lecturing to children is no answer to delinquency. Preaching won't keep youngsters out of trouble, but keeping their minds occupied will.”

Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman

1963, Deeds Rather Than Words (1963)

Children, Way

“Jesus hears us, and in His own good time will give an answer.”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

Matthew XV: 21–28, p. 182
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St. Matthew (1856)

Time

“People often ask me what it’s like to live with bodyguards. The short answer is that it’s better than being dead.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1969) Dutch feminist, author

Source: 2010s, Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (2010), Chapter 9, “America” (p. 113)

People, Dead

“Hope for the best. Expect the worst.
The world's a stage. We're unrehearsed.
No way of knowing which way it's going.
Take your chances, there are no answers.
Hope for the best. Expect the worst.”

Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer

Chorus
The Twelve Chairs (1970)

World, Hope, Way, Chance

“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)

Way, Question, Knowledge, Science

“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

Question

“Focus on the impacts and not the odds of humanity. This is when you have good time with the natures. Natures only have focus of rewarding. It is ever a nice time to spend with natures with one heart. Because, it doesn’t understand too much questions to answer humans, rather, there are good in giving direct and accurate results as put before them. This doesn’t mean, natures are ignorance of things, but that, there are not partial – straight things and straight things only.”

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach (1995)

Understanding, Question, Nature, Time

“Seeking to add more meaning to life? The answer is creating more values.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Life

“In the treaty councils the commissioners have claimed that our country had been sold to the Government. Suppose a white man should come to me and say, "Joseph, I like your horses, and I want to buy them." I say to him, "No, my horses suit me, I will not sell them." Then he goes to my neighbor, and says to him: "Joseph has some good horses. I want to buy them, but he refuses to sell." My neighbor answers, "Pay me the money, and I will sell you Joseph's horses." The white man returns to me and says, "Joseph, I have bought your horses, and you must let me have them." If we sold our lands to the Government, this is the way they were bought.”

Chief Joseph (1840–1904) Nez Percé Chieftain

Arguing against the right of the US Government to force his people to leave their lands (1876)

Money, Way, Horse, Country

“Asking is legitimate, answering is courtesy, but also education and fairness. To send "Affanculo" instead, sometimes it's dutifull.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Domandare è lecito, rispondere è cortesia, ma anche educazione e correttezza. Mandare "Affanculo" invece, a volte è doveroso.
Source: prevale.net

Education