My best teachers were not the ones who knew all the answers, but those who were deeply excited by questions they couldn't answer.
Brian GreeneRead
Sometimes attaining the deepest familiarity with a question is our best substitute for actually having the answer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Sometimes understanding a question deeply can be more valuable than having an answer.
This quote by Brian Greene suggests that the process of exploring and engaging with complex questions can provide insights and understanding that are more beneficial than simply arriving at a definitive answer. It highlights the value of inquiry and contemplation in the pursuit of knowledge.
Themes
UnderstandingQuestionsInquiryKnowledgeAnswers
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of truth.
More from Brian Greene
All quotes βAll mathematics is is a language that is well tuned, finely honed, to describe patterns; be it patterns in a star, which has five points that are regularly arranged, be it patterns in numbers like 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 that follow very regular progression.
Brian GreeneRead
According to inflation, the more than 100 billion galaxies, sparkling throughout space like heavenly diamonds, are nothing but quantum mechanics writ large across the sky. To me, this realization is one of the greatest wonders of the modern scientific age.
Brian GreeneRead
So: if you buy the notion that reality consists of the things in your freeze-frame mental image right now, and if you agree that your now is no more valid than the now of someone located far away in space who can move freely, then reality encompasses all of the events in spacetime.
Brian GreeneRead
Black holes, we all know, are these regions where if an object falls in, it can't get out, but the puzzle that many struggled with over the decades is, what happens to the information that an object contains when it falls into a black hole. Is it simply lost?
Brian GreeneRead
Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules... Mathematicians are more like classical composers.
Brian GreeneRead
Similar quotes
Far more than any other power, imagination is what sets human beings apart from every other species on earth.
Ken RobinsonRead
He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.
Andrew CarnegieRead
What difference would a clear vision of my principles, values, and ultimate objectives make in the way I spend my time?
Stephen CoveyRead
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Benjamin FranklinRead
If you have to be right, you put yourself in a hedged lane, but once you experience the power of not having to be right, you will feel like you are walking across open fields, the perspective wide and your feet free to take any turn.
John NaisbittRead
I've never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It's probably because they have forgotten their own.
Margaret AtwoodRead