“He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever.”
We may sometimes feel embarrassed when asking a question, as children or adults. It can be especially hard when we are with a large group of people, and we are the only ones with a question. Are we really the only ones that don’t understand? No, even statistics and the law of averages would show that many others are likely to have questions. But what if ours is a dumb question? As others have said in the past, there is no such thing.
Even if we ask a question to which the answer was just spoken and we missed it, at least we will at least find out that we need to be better listeners. Perhaps we were thinking of something else when we should have been listening. Remember to listen with every ounce of your body and mind. It is much easier to remember how many times a rock skipped across a still lake than across a rough ocean. Keep your mind a still lake while you listen.
The biggest secret about asking questions is often the people asking the most questions understand the subject matter very well, and they are asking questions to deepen their understanding even further. If we never ask questions, we will forever be troubled with not knowing or understanding as much as we could have. To not improve ourselves at the risk of pride is foolish. The short moment of courage required to ask a question will always be worth it.
Therefore, if we ask a question we may be a fool for a minute, but it is far worse to not ask the question.