Skip to content
quotesby

I'm for mystery, not interpretive answers. ... The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer, but they think they have. So they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.

Ken Kesey#11

CuriosityLearningMysteryThinking

About this quote

What does it mean?
Seeking mystery is more important than finding answers because answers stop thinking while mystery keeps you curious.
In plain terms
Curiosity and questions are better than final answers.
What can you take from it?
Keep asking questions instead of settling.

Where it applies

  • study
  • creative work

Putting it to work

  • ask open-ended questions

Questions to consider

  • Are you seeking answers or mysteries?
  • Why does mystery appeal to you?

Another view

Sometimes definitive answers are necessary for progress.

More from Ken Kesey

  1. This is just shit. It's happening. No blame. Happening and on the rise it would appear. What can we do to delay it? Probably zilch. To stop it? Likely less. Bu…

    Permalink to quote #10
  2. One of these days you're going to have a visitation. You're going to be walking down the street and across the street you're going to look ans see God standing…

    Permalink to quote #12
  3. I believe that with the advent of acid, we discovered a new way to think, and it has to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that peop…

    Permalink to quote #9

Related quotes

  1. Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness.

    John CageJohn Cage quote #12
  2. How does he do that?

    Orson Scott CardOrson Scott Card quote #477
  3. As the true object of education is not to render the pupil the mere copy of his preceptor, it is rather to be rejoiced in, than lamented, that various reading …

    William GodwinWilliam Godwin quote #1