Enquiry Quotes

“But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question.”
― Thomas Merton

“Does a man of sense run after every silly tale of hobgoblins or fairies, and canvass particularly the evidence? I never knew anyone, that examined and deliberated about nonsense who did not believe it before the end of his enquiries.”
― David Hume, The Letters of David Hume

“A dialogue is very important. It is a form of communication in which question and answer continue till a question is left without an answer. Thus the question is suspended between the two persons involved in this answer and question. It is like a bud with untouched blossoms . . . If the question is left totally untouched by thought, it then has its own answer because the questioner and answerer, as persons, have disappeared. This is a form of dialogue in which investigation reaches a certain point of intensity and depth, which then has a quality that thought can never reach.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti

“The assumption of an absolute determinism is the essential foundation of every scientific enquiry.”
― Max Planck, The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science, with a New Afterword

“I think it is always important to ask fundamental questions, but when we do ask a fundamental question, most of us are seeking an answer, and then the answer is invariably superficial because there is no yes or no answer to life. Life is a movement, an endless movement, and to inquire into this extraordinary thing called life, with all its innumerable aspects, one must ask fundamental questions and never be satisfied with answers, however satisfactory they may be, because the moment you have an answer, the mind has concluded, and conclusion is not life - it is merely a static state. So what is important is to ask the right question and never be satisfied with the answer, however clever, however logical, because the truth of the question lies beyond the conclusion, beyond the answer, beyond the verbal expression. The mind that asks a question and is merely satisfied with an explanation, a verbal statement, remains superficial. It is only the mind that asks a fundamental question and is capable of pursuing that question to the end - it is only such a mind that can find out what is truth.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti, Talks and Dialogues

“Do not ask questions until you have trained yourself not to know the answers.”
― Jack Gardner, Words Are Not Things

“And you require no answers", Foamfollower was laughing in his gladness, "You are sufficient to every question".”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

“I don't like books which give me the answers. I love books that give me the questions”
― Suzy Davies

“Every great man is an idol, an oracle of inquiry. Don't aspire to know the former, but aspire to know the diety in his soul.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson