Questioning Quotes

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”
― Bertrand Russell

“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“It's a fact—everyone is ignorant in some way or another.

Ignorance is our deepest secret.

And it is one of the scariest things out there, because those of us who are most ignorant are also the ones who often don't know it or don't want to admit it.

Here is a quick test:

If you have never changed your mind about some fundamental tenet of your belief, if you have never questioned the basics, and if you have no wish to do so, then you are likely ignorant.

Before it is too late, go out there and find someone who, in your opinion, believes, assumes, or considers certain things very strongly and very differently from you, and just have a basic honest conversation.

It will do both of you good.”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“I've never regretted it. Questioned it? Sure. But never regretted."

"Is there a difference?" I ask.

"Absolutely. Regret is counterproductive. It's looking back on a past that you can't change. Questioning things as they occur can prevent regret in the future. I questioned a lot about my relationship with your father. People make spontaneous decisions based off of their hearts all the time. There's so much more to relationships than just love.”
― Colleen Hoover, Slammed

“The most subversive people are those who ask questions.”
― Jostein Gaarder, Sophie’s World

“There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do. How do you explain that? What happened to that love? What happened to it, is what I'd like to know. I wish someone could tell me.”
― Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

“That's not a real answer.'
Says who?'
Says me. I mean real fear, like of failure, of death, of regret. Like that. Something that keeps you awake nights, questioning your very existence.'
Clowns.”
― Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever

“He explained to me with great insistence that every question posessed a power that did not lie in the answer.”
― Elie Wiesel, Night

“The first ingredient to being wrong is to claim that you are right. Geniuses have a knack for raising new questions. Hence by the public they are either admired for their creativity or, even more commonly so, detested for disturbing the daily peace of mind.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“Never question another man's motive. His wisdom, yes, but not his motives.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Regret is counterproductive. It's looking back on a past that you can't change. Questioning things as they occur can prevent regret in the future.”
― Colleen Hoover, Slammed

“Doubt is a question mark; faith is an exclamation point. The most compelling, believable, realistic stories have included them both.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“My mother and father were always pushing me away from secondhand answers—even the answers they themselves believed. I don’t know that I have ever found any satisfactory answers of my own. But every time I ask it, the question is refined. That is the best of what the old heads meant when they spoke of being “politically conscious”—as much a series of actions as a state of being, a constant questioning, questioning as ritual, questioning as exploration rather than the search for certainty.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

“Remain in wonder if you want the mysteries to open up for you. Mysteries never open up for those who go on questioning. Questioners sooner or later end up in a library. Questioners sooner or later end up with scriptures, because scriptures are full of answers.
And answers are dangerous, they kill your wonder.”
― Osho

“A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more
than he.”
― Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

“The business of philosophy is to teach man to live in uncertainty... not to reassure him, but to upset him.”
― Lev Shestov, All Things are Possible

“Regardless of your faith, you can never escape uncertainty.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“What is life for? he asks himself. What is my life for?”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“Believe what you like, but don't believe everything you read without questioning it.”
― Pauline Baynes, Questionable Creatures: A Bestiary

“I mean talk. Never forget that God is your friend. And like all friends, He longs to hear what's been happening in your life. Good or bad, whether it's been full of sorrow or anger, and even when you're questioning why terrible things have to happen. So I talk with
him.”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Last Song

“As a writer of philosophy, it's good to ask oneself, 'Will I still believe this a week from now, or months, or even years?”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“Curiosity takes ignorance seriously, and is confident enough to admit when it does not know. It is aware of not knowing, and it sets out to do something about it”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“I can just close my eyes and let myself fall into oblivion. Maybe I'll hit the exact same rocks and my blood will mingle with his and maybe there's some kind of life after death and he's waiting for me there with his hand outstretched just like mine.
But...
I don't want to die.
I try to twist my body backwards and pain shoots up my neck.
It's too late.
I chose life too late.”
― Cat Clarke, Undone

“Questioning anything within doubt,
will just bring mind to no certainty.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“Question everything that is popular, and seek answers in what is not.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“I'm always talking to God about whether or not he exists - that's how I know I'm a theist.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“Finding the right answer begins with the right question.”
― Frank Sonnenberg, Listen to Your Conscience: That's Why You Have One