Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer
"Cowboy Librarians" (13 December 1997)
A Prairie Home Companion
Source: Dusty and Lefty: The Lives of the Cowboys
Quotes about questioner page 12
Brennan Manning book The Ragamuffin Gospel
p. 168 https://books.google.com/books?id=sUTZCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11&dq=%22My+deepest+awareness+of+myself+is+that+I+am+deeply+loved+by+Jesus+Christ+and+I+have+done+nothing+to+earn+it+or+deserve+it.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7yeaQ9ZTkAhUOnFkKHUBmB1sQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=%22My%20deepest%20awareness%20of%20myself%20is%20that%20I%20am%20deeply%20loved%20by%20Jesus%20Christ%20and%20I%20have%20done%20nothing%20to%20earn%20it%20or%20deserve%20it.%22&f=false <br class="br">1990s, The Ragamuffin Gospel (1990) <br class="br">Source: The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out
“In our creation, God asked a question and in our truly living; God answers the question.”
Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author
Source: New Seeds of Contemplation
“I'm not questioning your bravery. I'm questioning your intelligence.”
Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World
Locke & Key, Vol. 3: Crown of Shadows
Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985) American speculative fiction writer
His explanation of the meaning of a small symbol he used when writing his signature, as quoted in an interview with David Duncan (with an image of his signature) http://www.physics.emory.edu/~weeks/misc/duncan.html. <br class="br">Variant: Ask the next question. And the one after that. <br class="br">Context: It means "Ask the next question." Ask the next question, and the one that follows that, and the one that follows that. It's the symbol of everything humanity has ever created, and is the reason it has been created. This guy is sitting in a cave and he says, "Why can't man fly?" Well, that's the question. The answer may not help him, but the question now has been asked.<br>The next question is what? How? And so all through the ages, people have been trying to find out the answer to that question. We've found the answer, and we do fly. This is true of every accomplishment, whether it's technology or literature, poetry, political systems or anything else. That is it. Ask the next question. And the one after that.
“He prefers not to ruin things with any more questions. What it is is what it is.”
Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author
Source: I Am the Messenger
“A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author
“I asked myself childish questions and proceeded to answer them.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Vincent Van Gogh book The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
1880s, 1880, Letter to Theo (Cuesmes, July 1880)
Source: The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
Context: So please don't think that I am renouncing anything, I am reasonably faithful in my unfaithfulness and though I have changed, I am the same, and what preys on my mind is simply this one question: what am I good for, could I not be of service or use in some way, how can I become more knowledgeable and study some subject or other in depth? That is what keeps preying on my mind, you see, and then one feels imprisoned by poverty, barred from taking part in this or that project and all sorts of necessities are out of one's reach. As a result one cannot rid oneself of melancholy, one feels emptiness where there might have been friendship and sublime and genuine affection, and one feels dreadful disappointment gnawing at one's spiritual energy, fate seems to stand in the way of affection or one feels a wave of disgust welling up inside. And then one says “How long, my God!”
“Sometimes questions are more important than answers.”
Nancy Willard (1936–2017) American writer
Julie Garwood (1946) American writer
Source: The Wedding
“If you don't ask the right question, every answer seems wrong”
Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist
Ved Mehta (1934) Indian writer
Source: All for Love
“Never question another man's motive. His wisdom, yes, but not his motives.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)
Clifford Geertz book The Interpretation of Cultures
Source: The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), p. 29
B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) American behaviorist
Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis (1969).
Source: Contingencies Of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis
Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest
Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
“Morality, too, is a question of time.”
Gabriel García Márquez book Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores
“The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions.”
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist
“science should be question driven, not methodology driven.”
V.S. Ramachandran book The Tell-Tale Brain
The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human
Kresley Cole American writer
Source: Dark Desires After Dusk
“and the question is, which one is really “you”
Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad
Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad
Anne Bishop (1955) American fiction writer
Source: Daughter of the Blood
“At this particular moment, there’s just no question about it.”
David Levithan (1972) American author and editor
How They Met, and Other Stories
“Answer all the questions that I'm too afraid to ask”
Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer
Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher
Source: The History of Sexuality, Volume 2: The Use of Pleasure
Sigmund Freud book The Future of an Illusion
Variant: Where questions of religion are concerned, people are guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty and intellectual misdemeanor.
Source: 1920s, The Future of an Illusion (1927), Ch. 6
“Emotional Channeling Technique #1: Ask Courageous Questions”
101 Best Ways to Land a Job in Troubled Times
“Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.”
E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet
“Sometimes people think you’re smart if you question the status quo, if nothing else.”
Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…
Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker
Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind
“Answerless questions can destroy. Move on.”
David Levithan book Every Day
Every Day
Variant: Answerless questions can destroy you.
Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film
"American Rhetoric: Joss Whedon - Equality Now Address" (15 May 2006) http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/josswhedonequalitynow.htm
Jacob Bronowski The Ascent of Man
Episode 11: "Knowledge or Certainty"
Source: The Ascent of Man (1973)
Context: The symbol of the University is the iron statue outside the Rathskeller of a barefoot goose girl that every student kisses at graduation. The University is a Mecca to which students come with something less than perfect faith. It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known but to question it.
“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst
Source: Love, Sexuality and Matriarchy: About Gender
