Tough Questions Quotes

It seems an easy choice - sacrifice the tree for a human life - until one learns that three trees must be destroyed for each patient treated. Suddenly we must confront some tough questions. How important are the medical needs of future generations? ~ Al Gore

Whenever you're reporting, there's always something you can't say or write, but the questions, you always want to get as close to that line as possible. You want to ask the tough questions. ~ Michael Hastings

I don't think we've asked the right questions, the tough questions, at the right time, in Washington. ~ Jorge Ramos

The press really is not doing its job of holding the candidates' feet to the fire. The tough questions are not what are you in favor of, but how are you going to get it through Congress? ~ Michael Bloomberg

When I was at the CIA I asked my civilian advisory board to tackle some tough questions. Among the toughest: In a political culture that every day demands more transparency and more public accountability from every aspect of national life, could American intelligence continue to survive and succeed? That jury is still out. ~ Michael Hayden

God's comprehensive rule should ultimately stir faith, not frustration. I say ultimately because the biblical writers asked tough questions long before we did. They saw injustice and wondered about the purpose for the duration of evil. They were frustrated at times. They cried out to God, beat their chests, shed many tears, and endured much suffering. The sovereignty of God was not an abstract doctrine to faithful followers - it kept them hopeful, it helped them persevere, and it can do the same for Christians now. ~ Mitchell L. Chase

Have a lot of respect for the responsibility that journalists have to ask tough questions, to hold the administration accountable and to be advocates for the citizens of the United States. ~ Josh Earnest

Empowered Women 101: If he can't tell other women that he is happily married and acts in a way that suggests he isn't fully committed then he isn't happy. He is keeping his foot in the door for a better opportunity should it not work out with you. Real women don't need to investigate. They invest in their self confidence and worth by not allowing their man to disrespect them. They are not afraid to ask themselves the tough questions: Why am I letting this man humiliate me and value me less than others? Why have I allowed myself to become a doormat? ~ Shannon L. Alder

If you set as your goal to roll back the size of government, you have an obligation to answer the tough questions and show real courage, not just appeal to ideology. Treat the voters like adults. ~ Brian Baird

So the tough questions that have been asked of Sarah Palin thus far just have been about the fact that she doesn't know anything and isn't ready to be vice president. That's fair game and it has nothing to do with her gender. ~ Debbie Wasserman Schultz

They're trying to breed a nation of techno-peasants. Educated just enough to keep things going, but not enough to ask tough questions. They encourage any meme that downplays thoughtful analysis or encourages docility or self indulgence or uniformity. In what other society do people use "smart" and "wise" as insults? We tell people "don't get smart." Those who try, those who really like to learn, we call "nerds." Look at television or the press or the trivia that passes for political debate. When a candidate DOES try to talk about the issues, the newspapers talk about his sex life. Look at Saturday morning cartoon shows. Peasants, whether they're tilling fields or stuffing circuit boards, are easier to manipulate. Don't question; just believe. Turn off your computer and Trust the Force.

Or turn your computer on and treat it like the Oracle of Delphi.

That's right. They've made education superficial and specialized. Science classes for art majors? Forget it! And how many business or engineering students get a really good grounding in the humanities? When did universities become little more than white collar vocational schools? ~ Michael Flynn

I'm in the business, as a journalist, of asking tough questions. ~ David Gregory

Be an advocate for your loved ones in the hospital. Ask tough questions of your local hospital and health system about preparedness for the likeliest emergencies, and express your views on how medical resources should be allocated in case they ever fall short. ~ Sheri Fink

The Lord needs men and women who can talk with confidence about what they believe. Men and women who aren't afraid to wrestle with tough questions. Men and women who can talk to children, youth, and each other about everything from the Church's teachings about marriage to other issues that can cause confusion and threaten faith.

We of all people should be comfortable discussing any topic, any issue, any doctrine with anyone, because we can draw from a deep reservoir of revealed truth. We have so many places to turn for answers - to the Lord, to the scriptures, to prophets, seers, and revelators, and to a host of other inspired resources. ~ Sheri Dew

To me, Jeb Bush is hitting his stride. He was the most composed, the most endpoint, the most in control, I've seen him in an interview yet. And it's not because I wasn't asking him tough questions ~ Jeb Bush

The most important characteristic that has allowed me to succeed is confidence. I have always been comfortable in my own skin, and even when I was just starting out in my career, had the strength and self-assurance to ask tough questions and push for answers. ~ Heather Bresch

It really is disgusting when a guy in a ball cap with a high school education is the one asking the tough questions. ~ Michael Moore

Here's the teaching point, if you're teaching kids about intelligence and policy: Intelligence does not absolve policymakers of responsibility to ask tough questions, and it doesn't absolve them of having curiosity about the consequences of their actions. ~ George Tenet

As a presidential candidate, Mr. Trump is going to get tough questions from the press and has to answer them. ~ Randy Falco

I don't think a tough question is disrespectful. ~ Helen Thomas

As Secretary of State, we need someone with sound judgment, ask tough questions, and should not be willing to just read talking points. ~ John Barrasso

My activism is a result of my love. So whether it's trying to preserve the wilderness in Southern Utah or writing about an erotics of place, it is that same impulse - to try to make sense of the world, to try to preserve something that is beautiful, to ask the tough questions, the push the boundaries of what is acceptable. ~ Terry Tempest Williams

If we were created in God's image, then when God was a child he smushed fire ants with his fingertips and avoided tough questions. ~ Buddy Wakefield

When I'm looking for hot button answers to tough questions, I don't look to congressman or my mayor. I say, 'What would Miss U.S.A. have to say about this?' ~ Dane Cook

Secularism should not be equated with Stalinist dogmatism or with the bitter fruits of Western imperialism and runaway industrialisation. Yet it cannot shirk all responsibility for them, either. Secular movements and scientific institutions have mesmerised billions with promises to perfect humanity and to utilise the bounty of planet Earth for the benefit of our species. Such promises resulted not just in overcoming plagues and famines, but also in gulags and melting ice caps. You might well argue that this is all the fault of people misunderstanding and distorting the core secular ideals and the true facts of science. And you are absolutely right. But that is a common problem for all influential movements.
For example, Christianity has been responsible for great crimes such as the Inquisition, the Crusades, the oppression of native cultures across the world, and the disempowerment of women. A Christian might take offence at this and retort that all these crimes resulted from a complete misunderstanding of Christianity. Jesus preached only love, and the Inquisition was based on a horrific distortion of his teachings. We can sympathise with this claim, but it would be a mistake to let Christianity off the hook so easily. Christians appalled by the Inquisition and by the Crusades cannot just wash their hands of these atrocities – they should rather ask themselves some very tough questions. How exactly did their 'religion of love' allow itself to be distorted in such a way, ~ Yuval Noah Harari

Don't be afraid to face the facts, and never lose your ability to ask the questions: Why? and How? ~ Immanuel Velikovsky

The big, strong, tough guy goes to class, and he keeps getting tapped by the skinny, technical guy. It begins to change him. It makes him humble. That's what Jiu Jitsu does to you. It makes you humble. ~ Relson Gracie

The enchantment of being here at all, alive and aware, is a gift too often considered a problem.

Simply feeling the aliveness - the unique suchness - of each never-to-be-repeated moment outshines completely the desire for power, or pleasure, or meaning - outshines those desires in my world at least.

When actually engaged in this aliveness without trying to explain it (as if it ever could be explained), questions such as "What does it all mean?" or "Who am I?" never even arise. The aliveness is the meaning. ~ Robert Saltzman

And you you
bitch no irritating
questions re love and permanence only
an unrolling lifetime here
between your rocking thighs
and the semblance of motion ~ Al Purdy

If one has the answers to all the questions - that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble. ~ Pope Francis

On my fifth trip to France I limited myself to the words and phrases that people actually use. From the dog owners I learned "Lie down," "Shut up," and "Who shit on this carpet?" The couple across the road taught me to ask questions correctly, and the grocer taught me to count. Things began to come together, and I went from speaking like an evil baby to speaking like a hillbilly. "Is thems the thoughts of cows?" I'd ask the butcher, pointing to the calves' brains displayed in the front window. "I want me some lamb chop with handles on 'em. ~ David Sedaris

Thomas," the boss said. "How's your father doing?" "He's good, Sal." Always the family questions first. That was Sal Demenci's style. He could be about to whack someone and he'd ask how the guy's sister was doing in school. ~ Gary Ponzo

I like stupid questions," Rimmer said. "They allow one to feel intelligent for once. ~ David Lagercrantz

Some deaths were long, the decay so gradual the rotted end was nothing more than a sigh disappearing in the wind.
Others were quick, the abrupt cut of a life in mid-phrase leaving unanswered questions lingering like an unresolved harmony. ~ Emma Raveling

In the center of the movement, as the motor that swings it onto motion, sits the Leader. He is separated from the elite formation by an inner circle of the initiated who spread around him an aura of impenetrable mystery which corresponds to his "intangible preponderance." His position within this intimate circle depends upon his ability to spin intrigues among its members and upon his skill in constantly changing its personnel. He owes his rise to leadership to an extreme ability to handle inner-party struggles for power rather than to demagogic or bureaucratic-organizational qualities. He is distinguished from earlier types of dictators in that he hardly wins through simple violence. Hitler needed neither the SA nor the SS to secure his position as leader of the Nazi movement; on the contrary, Röhm, the chief of the SA and able to count upon its loyalty to his own person, was one of Hitler's inner-party enemies. Stalin won against Trotsky, who not only had a far greater mass appeal but, as chief of the Red Army, held in his hands the greatest power potential in Soviet Russia at the time. Not Stalin, but Trotsky, moreover, was the greatest organizational talent, the ablest bureaucrat of the Russian Revolution. On the other hand, both Hitler and Stalin were masters of detail and devoted themselves in the early stages of their careers almost entirely to questions of personnel, so that after a few years hardly any man of importance remained who did not owe his position to them. ~ Hannah Arendt

As students cross the threshold from outside to insider, they also cross the threshold from superficial learning motivated by grades to deep learning motivated by engagement with questions. Their transformation entails an awakening
even, perhaps, a falling in love. ~ John C. Bean

As a son of a man who pretended to be one thing for 33 years of my life and then was another thing, the questions of 'what is real' and 'what is not real' are very blurrily vivid to me. ~ Mike Mills

You can ask many questions but you cannot question everything. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Another way to show interest is to pretend you're conducting a job interview or review. Ask follow up questions, praise accomplishments and recognize efforts. A word of caution: this technique does not work as well with wealthy or powerful people. They are used to receiving praise and accolades and are more guarded about opening up to this technique. ~ Gabriel Aluisy

I'm an expert on the NewsHour and it isn't how I practice journalism. I am not involved in the story. I serve only as a reporter or someone asking questions. I am not the story. ~ Jim Lehrer

In China there was more emphasis on listening, on asking questions rather than holding forth, on putting others' needs first. In the United States, he feels, conversation is about how effective you are at turning your experiences into stories, whereas a Chinese person might be concerned with taking up too much of the other person's time with inconsequential information. ~ Susan Cain

I'm self-taught and emailed photographers I knew if I had questions I couldn't figure out from the manual or online. ~ Hanneli Mustaparta

She is smart. She is principled. She is tough, and she is ready. Hillary is the single most experienced and prepared person who has ever run for president. ~ Leon Panetta

Dads. It's time to tell our kids that we love them. Constantly. It's time to show our kids that we love them. Constantly. It's time to take joy in their twenty-thousand daily questions and their inability to do things as quickly as we'd like. It's time to take joy in their quirks and their ticks. It's time to take joy in their facial expressions and their mispronounced words. It's time to take joy in everything that our kids are. ~ Dan Pearce

My mother was the greatest example to me of anyone I've ever known. She didn't have an easy life. I adored her. She worked hard all her life, and she was the one who set my values. She was quite an amazing woman, although she wasn't tough at all. ~ Lauren Bacall

Never give up on someone. Sometimes the answers you are looking for are the same answers another person is looking for. Two people searching together are always better than one person alone. ~ Shannon L. Alder

All problems are divided into two classes, soluble questions, which are trivial and important questions which are insoluble. ~ Arnold Beichman

I'll tell you something about tough times. They just about kill you, but if you decide to keep working at them, you'll find your way through. ~ Joan Bauer

Our minds, bodies, feelings, relationships are all informed by our questions. What you ask is who you are. What you find depends on what you search for. And what shapes our lives are the questions we ask, refuse to ask, or never think of asking. ~ Sam Keen

People? They usually ask only stupid questions, forcing you to reply with equally stupid answers. For instance, they ask you what you do, not what you would have liked to do. They ask you what you own, not what you've lost. They ask about the woman you married, not about the one you love. About your name, but not if it suits you. They ask your age, but not how well you've lived those years. They ask about the city you live in, not about the city that lives in you. And they ask if you pray, not if you fear God.
So I've gotten used to answering these questions with silence. You know, when we shut up, we force others to reconsider their mistakes. ~ Ahlam Mosteghanemi

Plato used the dialogue format because the exchange of views, the posing and answering of questions, showed that understanding is a living, dynamic process. He distrusted writing because the settled character of the written word makes it look as if truth can be fixed and made to stand still. It is worth remembering that this greatest advocate of the objective reality of truth also believed that our access to that truth was sustained in reasoned discussion. ~ John Churchill, 1st Duke Of Marlborough

Without curiosity we failed to unearth the greatest potential inherent within each of us. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Life has been full of evil, and if you don't start asking the right questions, the evil is going to be the end of you. ~ Jessica Sorensen

I found that it was easier to think up questions than to ask them. ~ Anne Frank

Once when he [Demonax, a supposed Cynic sage] came upon two uncouth philosophers inquiring and wrangling with one another
one of them putting absurd questions, the other answering perfectly irrelevantly
he said Don't you think, my friends, that one of these guys is milking a he-goat and the other putting a sieve underneath it? ~ Lucian Of Samosata