Question Quotes

There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension.

Stupid people ask stupid questions. Clever people answer them.

Never apologise for the questions you asked; apologise for the ones you didn’t ask.

Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.

It was as if they would rather do the impossible, that is, stop my mouth with food – they did not do it, but they would have liked to do it – than endure my questions.[Also known as:]So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.[Es war, als wolle man lieber das Ungeheuerliche tun, mir den Mund mit Essen zustopfen – man tat es nicht, aber man wollte es – als meine Frage dulden.]

Ignorant people raise questions which were answered by the wise thousands of years ago.

For an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed. The riddle does not exist. If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered.[Zu einer Antwort, die man nicht aussprechen kann, kann man auch die Frage nicht aussprechen. Das Rätsel gibt es nicht. Wenn sich eine Frage überhaupt stellen lässt, so kann sie auch beantwortet werden.]

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.[Forschen Sie jetzt nicht nach den Antworten, die Ihnen nicht gegeben werden können, weil Sie sie nicht leben könnten. Und es handelt sich darum, alles zu leben. Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen. Vielleicht leben Sie dann allmählich, ohne es zu merken, eines fernen Tages in die Antwort hinein.]

Ask no questions, and you’ll be told no lies.

Ah, the old questions, the old answers, there’s nothing like them![Ah, les vieilles questions, les vieilles réponses, il n’y a que ça!]

A good question is, of course, the key by which infinite answers can be educed.