QuoteProject
Questions are the important thing, answers are less important. Learning to ask a good question is the heart of intelligence. Learning the answer-well, answers are for students. Questions are for thinkers.
Roger Schank
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Asking the right questions is key to intelligence and critical thinking.

This quote emphasizes the importance of questioning over simply finding answers. It suggests that the ability to formulate insightful questions is what drives deeper understanding and intelligence, while answers tend to be more superficial, appealing to rote learning rather than thoughtful exploration.

Themes

QuestionsIntelligenceLearningThinkingEducation

In practice

Example use cases

In a classroom discussion about critical thinking, this quote can inspire students to focus on crafting good questions.

More from Roger Schank

Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.
Roger SchankRead

Similar quotes

The most accomplished way of using books is to serve them as some people do lords; learn their titles and then brag of their acquaintance.
Laurence SterneRead
If you want a free society, teach your children what oppression tastes like. Tell them how many miracles it takes to get from here to there. Above all, encourage them to ask questions. Teach them to think for themselves.
Jonathan SacksRead
Do not be an arrogant scholar, for scholarship cannot subsist with arrogance.
UmarRead
Our attitude towards ourselves should be 'to be satiable in learning' and towards others 'to be tireless in teaching.
Mao ZedongRead
I have learned more [from Balzac] than from all the professional historians, economists, and statisticians put together.
Friedrich EngelsRead
Keep your hands moving. Writing is rewriting.
August WilsonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.