"A man who lives never asks, "What is living?" and he has no theories about living. It is only the half-alive who talk about the purpose of life."

. . . he never did like to talk about it all that much
'It's my work,' he'd say, 'and I do it for pay

When Levin thought what he was and what he was living for, he could find no answer to the questions and was reduced to despair; but when he left off questioning himself about it, it seemed as though he knew both what he was and what he was living for, acting and living resolutely and without hesitation.

The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.

Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.

preferring actual ignorance to the appearance of it, he did not ask.

No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has doubts about it himself.

There are questions that you don't ask because you're afraid of the answers to them.

I never ask a man what his business is, for it never interests me. What I ask him about are his thoughts and dreams.

He worked, not like a man who works that he may live; but as one who is bent on doing nothing but work; having no regard for himself as a human being but only as a creator; moving about grey and unobtrusive among his fellows like an actor without his make-up, who counts for nothing as soon as he stops representing something else.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

Closed-minded people are more likely to make statements than ask questions.

He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.