David Antin Quotes

At the very smallest wheel of our reasoning it is possible for a handful of questions to break the bank of our answers.

All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.

Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know.

Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom … For through doubting we are led to inquire, and by inquiry we perceive the truth.

I know that science is very interested in answers, and I'm just happy with a good question.

I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

The basic drive behind real philosophy is curiosity about the world, not interest in the writings of philosophers.

There is no philosophy which is not founded upon knowledge of the phenomena, but to get any profit from this knowledge it is absolutely necessary to be a mathematician.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

Large skepticism leads to large understanding. Small skepticism leads to small understanding. No skepticism leads to no understanding.

I have always been much better at asking questions than knowing what the answers were.

I love to doubt as well as know.

We take art, and I love all that. But I also like science for some reason. I just like finding out why things happen.

The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.

Philosophy is the product of wonder.

We ascend the hill-tops of philosophy, not to gaze up at the ever-visible heavens, but to embrace in one grand view the human world beneath us.

My only weapon is the question.

I am generally fascinated by what are the big, challenging questions - that's behind my curiosity.

Always ask questions.

In philosophy you're never 100% sure. You're always undermining what you think you know. That's always been my philosophy and my intellectual ethos.

To ask larger questions is to risk getting things wrong. Not to ask them at all is to constrain the life of understanding

I am a philosopher, not a scientist, and we philosophers are better at questions than answers.

Men who are lovers of wisdom [i.e., philosophers] must be inquirers into many things.