"A wonderful area for speculative academic work is the unknowable. These days religious subjects are in disfavor, but there are still plenty of good topics. The nature of consciousness, the workings of the brain, the origin of aggression, the origin of language, the origin of life on earth, SETI and life on other worlds...this is all great stuff. Wonderful stuff. You can argue it interminably. But it can't be contradicted, because nobody knows the answer to any of these topics."

Inquiry, Consciousness, Science, Question, Knowledge

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"A wonderful area for speculative academic work is the unknowable. These days religious subjects are in disfavor, but there are still plenty of good topics. The nature of consciousness, the workings of the brain, the origin of aggression, the origin of language, the origin of life on earth, SETI and life on other worlds...this is all great stuff. Wonderful stuff. You can argue it interminably. But it can't be contradicted, because nobody knows the answer to any of these topics."

Exlpore more Inquiry quotes

"Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer?"

Yann Martel, Canadian Author

Inquiry, Paradox, Knowledge, Curiosity

"The most boring and unproductive question one can ask of any religion is whether or not it is true."

Alain de Botton, English Writer

Inquiry, Religion, Truth, Question

"A general cry of "What book? What book? Let us see this famous book!"

Diana Gabaldon, American Author

Inquiry, Curiosity, Authority, Knowledge

"Willingness to be puzzled is a valuable trait to cultivate, from childhood to advanced inquiry."

Noam Chomsky, American Activist

Inquiry, Curiosity, Wonder, Learning

"It isn't what you don't know that's the problem. It is what you're unwilling to ask."

Mensah Oteh, Nigerian Author

Inquiry, Question, Truth, Curiosity, Ego

"People seize to investigate the truth when things are been repeated constantly."

Sunday Adelaja, Nigerian Author

Inquiry, Truth, Repetition, Investigation, Awareness

"We may differ on many things, but what we respect is freeinquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.We do not hold our convictions dogmatically: the disagreement betweenProfessor Stephen Jay Gould and Professor Richard Dawkins,concerning "punctuated evolution and the unfilled gaps in post-Darwinian theory, is quite wide as well as quite deep, but we shallresolve it by evidence and reasoning and not by mutual excommunication."

Christopher Hitchens, American Author

Inquiry, Science, Debate, Evidence

"If God has the answer to every question, maybe my appreciation for God should be shaped more by the number of questions and less by the wisdom of the answers."

Craig D. Lounsbrough, American Author

Inquiry, Question, Faith, Truth, Wisdom

"What does that quote mean to you? Can you explain the concept behind it and not just repeat the pretty phrase to me?"

S. A. Tawks, British Author

Inquiry, Meaning, Understanding, Thought, Interpretation

"Progress is born of doubt and inquiry. The Church never doubts, never inquires. To doubt is heresy, to inquire is to admit that you do not know-the Church does neither."

Robert Green Ingersoll, American Lawyer

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Explore more quotes by Michael Crichton

"Although personally, I think cyberspace means the end of our species."

Future

"We have created a man with not one brain but two. This new brain is intended to control the biological brain. The patient's biological brain is the peripheral terminal - the only peripheral terminal - for the new computer. And therefore the patient's biological brain, indeed his whole body, has become a terminal for the new computer. We have created a man who is one single, large, complex computer terminal. The patient is a read-out device for the new computer, and is helpless to control the readout as a TV screen is helpless to control the information presented on it."

Science

"A hundred years from now, people will look back on us and laugh. They'll say, 'You know what people used to believe? They believed in photons and electrons. Can you imagine anything so silly?' They'll have a good laugh, because by then there will be newer better fantasies... And meanwhile, you feel the way the boat moves? That's the sea. That's real. You smell the salt in the air? You feel the sunlight on your skin? That's all real. Life is wonderful. It's a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isn't really anything else."

Existence

"Science is as corruptible a human activity as any other."

Science

"Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice."

Truth

"Praise not the day until evening has come, a woman until she is burnt, a sword until it is tried, a maiden until she is married, ice until it has been crossed, beer until it has been drunk."

Wisdom

"Sometimes I think everyone's an attorney."

Opinion

"For our own species, evolution occurs mostly through our behavior. We innovate new behavior to adapt."

Science

"They want to see their expectation... Entertainment has nothing to do reality. Entertainment is antithetical to reality."

Reality

"He did not want an affair with his boss. He did not even want a one-night stand. Because what always happened was that people found out, gossip at the water cooler, meaningful looks in the hallway. And sooner or later the spouses found out. It always happened. Slammed doors, divorce lawyers, child custody."

Relationship