Walter O'Brien Quotes

If you are giving a graduate course you don't try to impress the students with oratory, you try to challenge them, get them to question you.

I was 7 years old, and I challenged everything. I never accepted answers on face value.

We're all curious about a lot of things.

Albert grunted. "Do you know what happens to lads who ask too many questions?" Mort thought for a moment. "No," he said eventually, "what?" There was silence. Then Albert straightened up and said, "Damned if I know. Probably they get answers, and serve 'em right.

Which country is real, mine or the teacher's? My wish is that we might progressively lose our confidence in what we think we believe and the things we consider stable and secure, in order to remind ourselves of the infinite number of things still waiting to be discovered.

Most naughtiness arises because the children are bored and lack a relationship with the teacher.

But Doc had one mental habit he could not get over. When anyone asked a question, Doc thought he wanted to know the answer.

I love to ask people questions. I want to know everything about them, even things that may be seemingly socially inappropriate.

I wanted to ask a thousand questions, but there was no one to ask. Besides I knew that people only told lies to children-lies about everything from soup to Santa Claus.

O my body, make of me always a man who questions!

I often pose questions to myself and want the answers. The questions may be psychological or emotional. Or they may involve botany or [...] physiology. [...] I am very curious about strangers I observe - as in a bus line. I am very attached to finding out answers.

I ask a lot because I'm very curious - especially about ex-girlfriends. I'm pretty good at getting the answers, too.

What is "this drive"? It's the tendency to not simply accept things as they are but to want to think about them, to understand them. To not be content to simply feel sad but to ask what sadness means. To not just get a bus pass but to think about the economic reasons getting a bus pass makes sense. I call this tendency the intellectual.

The first questions are always to be asked, and the wisest doctor is gravelled by the inquisitiveness of a child.

Asking doesn't mean you lack wisdom - it's evidence of wisdom.

Those who do not stop asking silly questions become scientists.

A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an answer, he has other questions.

I ask people impertinent questions. Hopefully turning up pertinent answers.

I always say I write because I have lots of questions, not because I have any answers.

I was always getting in trouble because I was the class clown but I always made teacher laugh. I remember I thought I was going to fail that class but I ended up passing it and I really think it was only because I was good entertainment for her.

I am a teacher... The life I lead is the most agreeable I can imagine. [In the] classroom ... there await me a group of intelligent and curious young ... [people] who read the books assigned them with a sense of adventure and discovery, discuss them with zest, and listen appreciatively to explications I may offer. What makes the process most satisfying is the conviction that ... education is mankind's most important enterprise.

And I like people. I like to know what you're really up to. I'm a bit of a nosey busy body. Why do they do the things they do? Why are they prepared to do the things they do to get what they want? When? Where? Who?

My inspiration is really very simple: I'm struck by things that I want to know more about. I really do react just as a curious person: who is this person? What's the story behind this situation? Why do people like this or dislike this thing?

I have many questions, but no patience to think them through.

I got these questions always running through my head. So many things that I would like to understand.