Margaret Weis Quotes

In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

I think the appropriate kind of skepticism is this: you've got to be asking questions all the time, you've also got to make sure that you're doing so in the spirit of genuinely wanting to find the answers - and that also means being open. I battle with this: I know I tend to be very skeptical and as a result, I veer towards the dismissive. But being aware of the tendency, I like to challenge my own skepticism and make sure it's not just knee-jerk. You need to be skeptical towards yourself as well. When you're only skeptical outwards you've got an unbalanced skepticism.

We must ask ourselves these questions as often as we dare. How will the world change if we do not question it?

That's healthy and good for us that there are people who are prepared to question what we are doing.

The power to question is the basis of all human progress.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.

We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty.

I think you need to have a healthy sense of doubt because I think doubt leads to inquiry.

People don't care to read what they already think or what any people think - they know all that well enough. They want to know what they ought to think.

The few have said, Think! The many have said, Believe! The first doubt was the womb and cradle of progress, and from the first doubt, man has continued to advance.

We must strive for literacy and education that teach us to never quit questioning and probing at the assumptions of the day.

You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don't see things as clearly as you do. We have to guard carefully against it.

Listen to your beliefs, think about how you learned them, and realize that they are not genetic, nor are they the "only way." You are free to acquire new perspectives, to absorb new ideas, and to question everything you were taught to believe. As your mind opens to exploration and change, you'll feel a new lightness and more joy.

Those questions - when you think about a thought, when you're believing a thought or concept and you question it - you realize that it changes things. Every cell in your body is awake with inquiry.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

It's OK to have beliefs, just don't believe in them.

Think before you speak. Think before you judge. Think before you think you have a person all figured out.

One of the worst things anybody can do is assume. I think fools assume. If people have really got it together, they never assume anything. They believe, they work hard, and they prepare- but they don't assume.

I think that certainty is a closed door, It's the end of the conversation. Doubt is an open door.

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

You must stick to your conviction, but be ready to abandon your assumptions.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Uncertainty is a very good thing: it's the beginning of an investigation, and the investigation should never end.