Quotable: More on Questions
by Miki Saxon
Questions were the topic of last week’s Quotable Quotes and I promised you more today.
The power of questions is recognized world wide; the Irish believe that “questioning is the door of knowledge,” while in India Indira Gandhi said, “The power to question is the basis of all human progress.”
Not everybody likes people who ask questions; as Dale Spender points out, “Openly questioning the way the world works and challenging the power of the powerful is not an activity customarily rewarded.”
On the other hand, Francis Bacon, Sr. said, “A prudent question is one half of wisdom.”
And according to Alice Wellington Rollins, “The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds it hard to answer.” I love that idea, probably because I had a couple of teachers like that.
As a person who loves conversation, I relate completely with James Nathan Miller’s thoughts on the subject, “There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the breath of life for a conversation.”
Questions may drive conversation, but as Anon points out, “There are two sides to every question, because, when there are no longer two sides it ceases to be a question.”
Answers often offer up wisdom, even innocuous ones, such as this from Garson Kanin, “A man ninety years old was asked to what he attributed his longevity. I reckon, he said, with a twinkle in his eye, it because most nights I went to bed and slept when I should have sat up and worried.”
Join me next week for another look at wisdom.
Image credit: immrchris on sxc.hu
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