1352) "How do you know so much about everything?" was asked of a very wise and intelligent man; and the answer was "By never being afraid or ashamed to ask questions as to anything of which I was ignorant."

John Abbott (attributed)
posted by Todd McMasters [IQM] (10/2/1995)

1353) If you do not ask the right questions, you do not get the right answers. A question asked in the right way often points to its own answer. Asking questions is the A-B-C of diagnosis. Only the inquiring mind solves problems.

Edward Hodnett (attributed)
posted by Todd McMasters [IQM] (10/2/1995)

1354) No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.

George Bernard Shaw (attributed)
posted by Todd McMasters [IQM] (10/2/1995)

[Note: This quote is also attributed to Karl Otto von Schonhausen Bismarck, from a "Declaration to the Prussian House of Delegates."]

1355) It's better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

James Thurber
"The Scotty Who Knew Too Much"
The New Yorker (2/18/1939) [WQ]
posted by Todd McMasters [IQM] (10/2/1995)

1356) An educated man is one who has finally discovered that there are some questions to which nobody has the answer.

unknown
posted by Todd McMasters [IQM] (10/2/1995)

1357) Brilliance is typically the act of an individual, but incredible stupidity can usually be traced to an organization.

Jon Louis Bentley
More Programming Pearls: Confessions of a Coder (1988)
posted by Gerard Gobillard [IQM] (10/4/1995)

1358) Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.

Arthur Schopenhauer
"Our Relations to Others" in
Essays [B16]
Kathy White, personal e-mail (10/5/1995)

1359) If in any discussion or conversation, another man shows more knowledge, greater love of truth, a sounder judgment, better understanding than we, or generally exhibits intellectual qualities which cast ours into the shade, we can at once annul his superiority and our own shallowness, and in our turn be superior to him, by being insulting and offensive. For rudeness is better than any argument; it totally eclipses intellect. If our opponent does not care for our mode of attack, and will not answer still more rudely [...] we are the victors and honor is on our side. Truth, knowledge, understanding, intellect, wit, must beat a retreat and leave the field to this almighty insolence.

Arthur Schopenhauer
"Position, or a Man’s Place
in the Estimation of Others"
The Wisdom of Life (1901)
posted by Chris West [ISQ] (10/4/1995)

1360) No plan can prevent a stupid person from doing the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time--but a good plan should keep a concentration from forming.

Charles E. Wilson (widely attributed)
former CEO of General Motors
and Secretary of Defense
posted by George Osner [ISQ] (10/4/1995)

[Note: Wilson was the man who is supposed to have said "What's good for General Motors is good for the country." In actuality, during hearings in the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation as Secretary of Defense, Wilson was asked if he would be able to make a decision adverse to the interests of General Motors. He responded:

"Yes, sir, I could. I cannot conceive of one because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too big. It goes with the welfare of the country." (1/15/1953) [WP] & [NGF]]

1361) The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize the ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty -- some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely certain.

Now, we scientists are used to this, and we take it for granted that it is perfectly consistent to be unsure -- that it is possible to live and not know. But I don't know whether everyone realizes that this is true. Our freedom to doubt was born of a struggle against authority in the early days of science. It was a very deep and strong struggle. Permit us to question -- to doubt, that's all -- not to be sure. And I think it is important that we do not forget the importance of this struggle and thus perhaps lose what we have gained. Here lies a responsibility to society.

Richard Feynman
"The Value of Science"
address, National Academy of Sciences (Autumn, 1955)
published in
What Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988)
quoted, in part, by Timothy Ferris in
"Astronomical Notebook: Minds and Matter"
The New Yorker (5/15/1995)

1362) If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?

Thomas Huxley
"On Elementary Instruction in Physiology" (1877) [WQ]
posted by George Osner [ISQ] (10/7/1995)