The Answer to the Great Question Of†Life, the Universe and Everything†Is†Forty-two.

-Adams, Douglas Noe«  l
  The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, ch.27.

What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  Essays, no.1,'Of  Truth'.

Women were brought up to believe that men were the answer. They weren't. They weren't even one of the questions.

-Barnes,Julian Patrick
  Staring  At  The Sun, pt.2.

A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Proverbs15:1.

Let yourspeech be alway withgrace, seasoned withsalt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Colossians 4:6.

If you try to give an on-the-one-hand-or-the-other- hand answer, only one of the hands tends to get quoted.

-Blinder, Alan
  On economic forecasting. In the  Wall Street  Journal, 23 Jun.

And I replied unto all these things which encompass the door of my flesh,'Ye have told me of my god, that ye are not he: tell me something of him'. And theycried all with a great voice,'He made us'.Myquestioning themwasmy mind's desire, and their Beauty was their answer.

-Bridges, Robert Seymour
  The Spirit of Man: The Confessions of St  Augustine.

That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question and you are on the way to a pertinent answer. 154

-Bronowski,Jacob
  The Ascent of Man, ch.4.

   Straightway I was 'ware So weeping, how a mystic shape did move Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair And a voice said in mastery while I strove† 'Guess now who holds thee!'ö'Death', I said, but there The silver answer rang† 'Not Death, but Love.'

-Browning, Elizabeth ne¤  e Barrett
  Poems,'Sonnets from the Portuguese', sonnet1.

Vous savez ce qu'est le charme: une manie'  re de s'entendre re¤  pondre oui sans avoir pose¤   aucune question claire. You know what charm is: a wayof getting theanswer yes without having asked any clear question.

-Camus, Albert
  La Chute (translated by Stuart Gilbert).

Sometimes you have to learn how to give the right answer to the wrong question.

-Christopher,Warren Minor
  On Syrian President Hafez  Assad's complaint that he had been put off by a hostile question in a news conference shared with President Clinton. In US News and World Report,19 Dec.

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.

-Colton, Charles Caleb
  Lacon, vol.1, no.322.

'Mary, what made you do it?' She looked him honestly inthe faceand gavetheanswer that became famous in Deptford: 'He was very civil, 'Masa. And he wanted it so badly.'

-Davies, Robertson
  Mrs. Dempster explains to her parson husband why she had sex with a tramp. Fifth Business, pt.1, ch.10.

The poet is the unsatisfied child who dares to ask the difficult question which arises from the schoolmaster's answer to his simple question, and then the still more difficult question which arises from that.

-Graves, Robert von Ranke
Recalled on his death,7 Dec1985.

If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of humanreasonöfor then we would know the mind of God.

-Hawking, StephenWilliam
  Referring to the question of why we and the universe exist.  A Brief History of  Time, ch.11.

   How culpable was he That last night when he broke Our tribe's complicity? 'Now you're supposed to be An educated man,' I hear him say.'Puzzle me The right answer to that one.'

-Heaney, SeamusJustin
  Field Work,'Casualty'. On a man killedbreaking the curfew.

Speak now, and I will answer; How shall I help you, say; Ere to the wind's twelve quarters I take my endless way. 415

-Housman, A(lfred) E(dward)
  A Shropshire Lad, no.32.

   Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

-Jong, Erica ne¤  e Mann
  How To SaveYour Own Life.

   There are many people who reach their conclusions about life like schoolboys; they cheat their master by copying the answer out of a book without having worked out the sum for themselves.

-Kierkegaard, So«  ren Aabye
   Journal entry (translated by Alexander Dru,1938).

Winds of the World, give answer! Theyare whimpering to and froö And what should they know of England who only England know?ö The poor little street-bred people that vapour and fume and brag.

-Kipling, (Joseph) Rudyard
  'The English Flag'.