We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question.

-Hopper, Grace Murray
Quoted in the OCLC Newsletter, no.167, Mar/ Apr1987.

A conjuring trick with bones only proves that it is as clever as a conjuring trick with bones† A resuscitated corpse might be a resuscitated corpse and might be the sign of something, butthere isstill the questionof what it is the symbol of.

-Jenkins, David Edward
  Of the Christian doctrine of Christ's physical resurrection. 'Poles  Apart', BBC radio broadcast, 4 Oct.

All forms of government fall when it comes up to the question of breadöbread for the family, something to eat.Bread to a manwith a family comes firstöbefore his union, before his citizenship, before his church affiliation. Bread!

-Lewis,John L(lewellyn)
  In the Saturday Evening Post,12 Oct.

The businessman dealing with a large political question is reallya painfulsight.It doesseemtomethat businessmen, with a fewexceptions, are worse when theycometo deal with politics than men of any other class.

-Lodge, Henry Cabot
  Letter to Theodore Roosevelt, 20 Oct.

Le style, pour l'e¤  crivain aussi bien que pour le peintre, est une question non de technique mais de vision. For the writer as well as for the painter, style is not a question of technique, but of vision.

-Proust, Marcel
' 1927  A la recherche du temps perdu,'LeTemps retrouve¤ ' .

Answering the question as to whether we are winningö that is a very difficult one.

-Rumsfeld, Donald
  Television interview, 27 Jun.

   I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this: Was it done with enjoymentö was the carver happy while he was about it?

-Ruskin,John
  Seven Lamps of Architecture,'The Lamp of Life', sect.24.

The question that isso clearly in many potential parents' minds: 'Why should we stunt our ambitions and impoverish our lives in order to be insulted and looked down upon in our old age?'

-Schumpeter,Joseph Alois
  Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, ch.14.

[Gladstone] spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question.Unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the question.

-J(ulian)
1066 and AllThat.

I amso far likethemidwifethat I cannot myself give birth to wisdom, and the common reproach is true, that, though I question others,I can myself bring nothing to light because there is no wisdom in me.

-Socrates
Quoted in Plato Theaetetus,150c (translated by F M Cornford).

For every philosopher, in every age, the first question must be:Just what is philosophy?

-Sparshott, Francis
  Looking for Philosophy,'Speculation and Reflection'.

Just before she died she asked,'What is the answer?' No answer came. She laughed and said,'In that case what is the question?' Then she died.

-Stein, Gertrude
Last words, as quoted in D Sutherland GertrudeStein (1951), ch.6.

'Pray, my dear,'quoth my mother,'have you not forgot to wind up the clock?'ö'Good Gö?'cried my father, making an exclamation, but taking care to moderate his voice at the same time,ö'Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly question?'

-Sterne, Laurence
ö67  Tristram Shandy, bk.1, ch.6.

A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.

-Stevenson, Adlai E(wing)
Attributed.

Asked by the chairmantheusual question: 'Iunderstand, Mr Strachey, that you have a conscientious objection to war?' hereplied (inhis curiousfalsettovoice),'Ohno, not at all, only to this war.'Better thanthiswashisreply tothe chairman's other stock question, which had previously never failed to embarrass the claimant.'Tell me, Mr Strachey, what would youdoif yousawa Germansoldier trying to violate your sister?' With an air of noble virtue: 'I would try to get between them.'

-Strachey, (Giles) Lytton
On his appearance before a military tribunal, in Robert Graves GoodbyeToAllThat (1929), ch.23.

The Red Cow was very respectable, shealways behaved like a perfect lady and she knew What was What. To her a thing was either black or whiteöthere was no question of it being grey or perhaps pink. People were good or they were badöthere was nothing in between. Dandelions were either sweet or souröthere were never any moderately nice ones.

-Travers, P(amela) L(yndon)
  Mary Poppins, ch.5.

It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution.

-Trollope, Anthony
  The Small House at Allington, ch.14.

It is the necessary nature of a political in this country to avoid, as long as it can be avoided, the consideration of any question which involves a great change† The best carriage horses are those which can most steadily hold back against the coach as it trundles down the hill.

-Trollope, Anthony
  Phineas Redux, ch.4.

I am very glad that I see Rome while it yet exists; before a great number of years are elapsed, I question whether it will be worth seeing. Between the ignorance and poverty of the present Romans, every thing is neglected and falling to decay.

-Walpole, Horace, 4th Earl of Orford
  Letter. Collected in P Cunningham (ed) The Letters of HoraceWalpole, Fourth Earl of Orford (1857^9).

Der Philosoph behandelt eine Frage wie eine Krankheit. The philosopher's treatment of a question is like the treatment of an illness.

-Wittgenstein, LudwigJosef Johann
  Philosophische Untersuchungen (Philosophical Investigations), section 255 (translated by G E M Anscombe).