Quotes: M. Scott Peck

"As I have said, the purpose of emptying ourselves is to make room for the new. The only reason to give up something is to gain something better. Peace is undeniably better than war. Thus we must ask, "Of what do we have to empty ourselves in order to gain peace?" What traditional attitudes and styles of behaviour must we lay aside? What outmoded viewpoints, policies, understandings, and resentments are we still carrying around? To what hidden opportunities must we be open and empty?"

–– M. Scott Peck (1936-2005), American psychiatrist and author 

Source: M. Scott Peck. The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace. New York: Touchstone, 1987; p. 225. 

via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, 57.

Questions

What are you grateful for right now? 

What brings you joy right now? 

What are you noticing right now? Do you see a pattern of what you are noticing?

Quotes: Sam Keen

"What shapes our lives are the questions we ask, refuse to ask, or never think to ask." 

–– Sam Keen (1931-2025), American author, academic and philosopher

via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 117. 

Quotes: Jostein Gaarder

"The most subversive people are those who ask questions." 

–– Jostein Gaarder (b. 1952), Norwegian author 

via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2014, p. 188.

Quotes: Renate Hiller

"When we are following someone else's pattern, she says, we are mostly stuck in our heads: thinking, counting, reading. When we are figuring out a design for ourselves, we are feeling, asking questions, observing, and making decisions, connecting to the process and the metamorphosis of the work on a deeper level." 

–– Renate Hiller, fibre artist and teacher

Source: Melanie Falick. Making a Life: Working by Hand and Discovering the Life You Are Meant to Live. New York: Artisan (a division of Workman Publishing Co., Inc.), 2019; p. 47. 

via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook I 2019-2020, 2020, p. 29.

Quotes: James Baldwin

"The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers." 

–– James Baldwin (1924-1987), American writer and activist 

via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook, 2017 a, p. 41. 

Quotes: Rainer Maria Rilke

"Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

–– Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist 

via: Sketchbook 27, 2015, p. 76. 

Quotes: Earl Gray Stevens

"Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions." 

–– Earl Gray Stevens 

via: Sketchbook 23, 2014, p. 134. 

Quotes: Freeman Thomas

"Good design begins with honesty, asking tough questions, collaboration and from trusting your intuition." 

–– Freeman Thomas (b. 1957), American automobile and industrial designer 

via: Sketchbook 16, 2011, p. 146

Creativity quotes: Sir Antony Rupert Jay

"The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a creative mind to spot wrong questions." 

–– Sir Antony Rupert Jay (1930-2016), English writer, broadcaster, and director

 via Commonplace Book 2006, p. 79.

Women's quotes: Michelle Obama

"Now I think it's one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child –– What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that's the end."

–– Michelle Obama, (b. 1964), American attorney, author, former First Lady of the United States (2009-2017), and first African-American to serve in this role   

Quotes 284: Friedrich Nietzsche

"We only hear questions that we are able to answer." 

–– Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German poet and philosopher  

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 32 

Quotes: Ai Weiwei

"Art is a tool to set up new questions." – Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) Chinese contemporary artist and activist

Quotes: Alan Watts

"Questions that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way." –– Alan Watts (1915-1973), British-born philosopher and writer. From The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.