Thought Provoking Questions

Random Thought Provoking Questions to Ask People 101 Thought Provoking questions to ask people, your friends or someone you know....

Do you have any regrets in life?

What do you think about capital punishment?

Is revenge sometimes justified?

What is the difference between existence and essence?

Which is a stronger emotion: anger or love?

can insanity bring on more creativity?

Why does religion cause so much war?

Why is your definition of true happiness different from anyone else's definition of true happiness?

If you had to move to a state besides the one you currently live in, where would you move?

Would you give your life to save someone else's?

What is your quirkiest habit and how long have you had it?

Give your 20 favorite songs. Why do you like each one.

What is your saddest memory.

What is your happiest memory.

What do you want to do for a career, and why.

If they were president, what would you do.

Thought Provoking Questions to Ask People

Why is ‘abbreviation’ such a long word?

Why are there seeds in seeded grapes, but no bones in a boned fillet?

When people go mental, why do they get physically violent?

Why do we never hear of people coming from ‘left west’ or ‘right east’?

What is an occasional table the rest of the time?

If you get a beer belly by drinking beer, do you get a pot belly by smoking pot?

Why is Friday 13th considered unlucky, considering that the Last Supper was on Thursday?

If you can enjoy yourself, why can’t you enjoy anyone else?

What would a burger of ham be called?

If dawn breaks, does dusk come together?

Why does ‘dyslexia’ have to be so hard to spell?

If you think you’re a hypochondriac, then are you one or not?

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

Does God believe that there are atheists?

Why is it so hard to let go? To go with the flow and not be in control of everything.

At what point are we good enough? When are we self-improved enough to accept ourselves?

What impact are you wanting to leave on the world?

What is your biggest best dream here and now?

Do news reporters wear pants behind the news desk?

Whuts the deal with Chicken McNuggets? What part of the chicken are these things from?

What does it mean to you to allow another person to fully love you?

What in life, is beautiful to you? Where do you find inspiration?

What are the three "nevers" of your life?

Can you describe your life with a six word sentence? Here's mine: My heart continually expands in joy.

Thought Provoking Questions to Ask Someone

Are marbles made of marble?

Isn't Disney World just a people's trap operated by a mouse?

Can you get cornered in a round room?

If it's zero degrees outside today and it's supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?

Why is it that when things get wet they get darker, even though water is clear?

How come you play at a recital, but recite at a play?

If a fork were made of gold would it still be considered silverware?

Why isn't chocolate considered a vegetable, since chocolate comes from cocoa beans, and all beans are a vegetable?

Why do you go "back and forth" to town if you really must go forth before you go back?

Why do companies offer you "free gifts?" Aren't gifts by definition free?

Why is a square meal served on round plates?

Why is the 0 on a phone after 1 and not before 1?

Which way does a compass point in space?

If you were a genie and a person asked you this wish, "I wish you would not grant me this wish", what would you do?

Why is it that it’s good to score under par in golf but its bad to be "under par" in any thing else?

Why do people say, "You can't have your cake and eat it too"? Why would someone get cake if they can't eat it?

Did Noah have woodpeckers on the ark? If he did, where did he keep them?

Why is "Charlie" short for "Charles" if they are both the same number of letters?

Why is snow white and ice clear? Aren't they just different forms of water?

Why is it called a TV set when there is only one?

If an atheist has to go to court, do they make him swear on the Bible?

If you were under house arrest and you lived in a mobile home, wouldn't you be able to go anywhere you want?

If our body temperature is normally 98.6 degrees, how come when it's 98 degrees outside, no one is comfortable?

Really Thought Provoking Questions

Can you cry under water?

What level of importance must a person have, before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on bigger suitcases?

Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up, like, every two hours?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Why do doctors, when they ask you to strip, leave the room or close the cubicle curtain while you change?

If ghosts go through walls, why don’t they fall through the floor?

Why isn’t evaporated milk a gas?

Why was it that in all different cultures the men always used to come first and never the women?

When you feel down, why do people ask what’s up?

In horse racing, why do they award the rider and not the horse?

If insects are so obsessed with bright lights, why don’t they fly off to the sun?

What happens if you die in your dream?

How are children supposed to take medicine if it’s meant to be kept out of their reach?

Why do people talk about ‘girlie’ things but never ‘boyie’ things?

If you sneezed on a computer, would it get a virus?

Can you dream of having a dream?

Why do we close doors and windows to reduce noise, considering that sound travels better through solids?

If Pinocchio said, “My nose is about to grow”, what would happen?

What did the designer of the drawing board go back to when his/her original design was a failure?

What sort of a vehicle did those huge 300kg tyres that are used in the World’s Strongest Man contests come off?

Why do we hang our clothes on a washing line and not a drying line?

Why do ‘a fat chance’ and ‘a slim chance’ mean the same thing?

Why does your nose run and your feet smell?

Thought Provoking Questions to Ponder

1. When several million want a given person or party in power, but can never elect them because only Democrats and Republicans will be elected by the other 90 million voters, can they believe that this is a representative government? Would a system that allowed them to send their own representatives to congress be more fair? Is there a way to devise a system which allows any million voters that agree on a candidate to have representation? (There are a couple million libertarians, for example, who never get represented.)

2. It is considered immoral for me to steal from my neighbor Joe in order to send my kids to school, or to paint a picture, or to subsidize my tobacco crop, so how can it be right for me to do it using the government as my agent? Is it moral just because enough of us vote to take Joe's money for something we want to do? Is this "mob rule" okay for any purpose, or only if it is a "good" purpose? If so, who decides what a "good" purpose is?

3. Hitler was elected to parliament, and the ancient Greek parliament, which was more representative than what we have today, voted to kill Socrates for teaching young men to think, so is Democracy the best we can do? If people vote to violate their own rights or those of others, is it okay, just because the majority wants it that way? (Another question: Why did we start calling our constitutional republic a democracy just because it votes for it's leaders?)

4. Since a moral rule like, "don't steal," can lead to immorality, as in not stealing to feed your child when that's the only option, is it possible we need a new way to define morality? Can morality be permanently codified in words, or should we use words only to point at what is beyond the definitions, and alter the definitions as often as we come to understand new things about the world and our role in it?

5. If the laws are recognizing more and more that animals shouldn't be treated cruelly, do animals have "rights," as children do? Children are dependent but with basic rights. If animals are the same, are their "owners" obligated to give them them proper food and medical care, and should they be prosecuted if they fail to provide it? Should they be forced to care for pets for life, with no option to have them killed when they become inconvenient?

6. Holy books instruct us to kill people for working on the wrong day (Exodus 31:15), or saying the wrong words (Leviticus 24:17) or because they're homosexual (Leviticus 20:13), and millions believe these are the words of God, so is it possible that religions inherently breed violence, or is it just some religions, or do they only do so if people really take their religions seriously? Most people would condemn a person who said these things, so why do they worship gods who say them? Religion gives us some of the most thought provoking questions.

Do you beleive you can be with someone, say nothing and walk away feeling like you have had the best conversation in your life?

If you could breathe water like sea mammals and still breathe air, where would you choose to live your life, on land or in the sea?

Thinking about colors of the rainbow, what color are you? Your friends? Your enemies?

If those English scientists create a black hole next month which begins eatting the earth from the inside out, where would you like to be when our world implodes? Who would you like to be with?

Why do people more commonly skip breakfast than any other meal, considering that this is the time when the stomach is emptiest?

If we believed that life wanted more than anything else to simply serve our hearts dersires , asking on a daily basis -how do you want to be loved today - how would you reply?

SInce the underlying message of most spiritual traditions is virtually identical, and calls for us to love and accept one another, why do you suppose so much violence and bloodshed seems to arise...

Isn't it interesting how the word "politics" is made up of the words "poli" meaning "many" in Latin, and "tics" as in "bloodsucking creatures"?

How come you pay an extra 25 cents to get something put on your hamburger but they don't take off the price if you get something taken off?

Thought Provoking Questions to Ask Friends

If a tree falls in the forest without anyone there, does it still make a sound? Do the other trees make fun of it?

If it's zero degrees outside today and it's supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes?

If pro is the opposite of con, is progress the opposite of congress?

If quitters never win, and winners never quit, who came up with, "Quit while you're ahead"?

If Superglue is so good why doesn't it stick to the inside of the tube?

If the folks at the psychic hotlines were really psychic, wouldn't they call you first?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?

If women ran the Pentagon, would missiles and submarines be shaped differently?

If you have a friend who works for the Psychic Friends Network, do you plan a surprise birthday party for them?

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success?

Thought Provoking Questions to Ask Anyone

How is the handicapped parking situation handled at the Special Olympics?

How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?

If a mute child swears, does his mother make him wash his hands with soap?

If a synchronized swimmer drowns, does her partner also have to drown?

If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

If an orange is orange, why isn't a lime called a green or a lemon called a yellow?

If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP?

How many people thought of the Post-It note before it was invented but just didn't have anything to jot it down on?

If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?

If a chronic liar tells you he is a chronic liar do you believe him?

If sour cream is past its expiration date is it good then?

Thought Provoking Exercises

All the answers are given in this page, but it will require some lateral and/or logical thinking to find them!

1. There is a man who lives on the top floor of a very tall building. Everyday he gets the elevator down to the ground floor to leave the building to go to work. Upon returning from work though, he can only travel half way up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way unless it's raining! Why?

This is probably the best known and most celebrated of all lateral thinking puzzles. It is a true classic. Although there are many possible solutions which fit the initial conditions, only the canonical answer is truly satisfying.

2. A man and his son are in a car accident. The father dies on the scene, but the child is rushed to the hospital. When he arrives the surgeon says, "I can't operate on this boy, he is my son!" How can this be?

3. A man is wearing black. Black shoes, socks, trousers, jumper, gloves and balaclava. He is walking down a black street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming towards him with its light off but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?

4. One day Kerry celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin brother, Terry, celebrated his birthday. How?

5. Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones? This is logical rather than lateral, but it is a good puzzle that can be solved by lateral thinking techniques. It is supposedly used by a very well-known software company as an interview question for prospective employees.

6. A man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. Why did the man not die?

7. A man died and went to Heaven. There were thousands of other people there. They were all naked and all looked as they did at the age of 21. He looked around to see if there was anyone he recognized. He saw a couple and he knew immediately that they were Adam and Eve. How did he know?

8. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. How could this be so?

9. A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says 'Thank you' and walks out.

This puzzle claims to be the best of the genre. It is simple in its statement, absolutely baffling and yet with a completely satisfying solution. Most people struggle very hard to solve this one yet they like the answer when they hear it or have the satisfaction of figuring it out.

10. A man without eyes sees plums on a tree. He neither takes plums nor leaves plums. How can this be?
This is a very special question for me; people who know me personally have already been provided with a huge clue.

11. Jack and Jill are found dead, lying on the floor in the living room of a house, in a puddle of water. How did they die?

12. A man is found dead in an empty field with a pack strapped to his back. How did he die?

13. A man is found hanging in a completely empty warehouse high off the ground. How did the man manage to hang himself.

14. A frog is dead in the centre of a pond, surrounded by ten feet of water on all directions. How can the frog get to land?

15. You have three lights in a box, each of which is connected to a switch outside the box. The box is closed. You need to figure out which switch to corresponds to which light and you can open the box only once (and you can't manipulate the switches after you open the box). How do you do this?

16. A pot of gold is on a square island surrounded by a chasm 10 metres wide and of infinite depth. You have two 9.8 metre poles. How do you get across to the pot of gold and get back with it.

17. Mel Colly stared through the dirty soot-smeared window on the 26th floor of the office tower. Overcome with depression he slid the window open and jumped through it. It was a sheer drop outside the building to the ground. Miraculously after he landed he was completely unhurt. Since there was nothing to cushion his fall or slow his descent, how could he have survived?

18. A man is hiking up a snowy mountain, he comes across a cabin. Inside the cabin is a small fire and two dead men. How did they die? (They did not burn to death.)

19. Three guys walk into a hotel, and they're going to split the cost of a room. The room is $30. They each kick in $10 and head up to their room. The manager gets wind of it and tells the clerk the room is only $25. He hands five $1 bills to the bell hop and tells him to go refund the guys' money. On the way up to the room, the bell hop gets to thinking, as bell hops are wont to do, and says to himself, "No way can three guys split $5, I'm going to help out." He stuffs $2 in his pocket, knocks on the door, gives each guy back a buck and heads back downstairs to the desk, glowing in the warmth of a job well done. So now each guy has paid $9. $9 times 3 is $27 plus the two the bell hop stole--only $29! Where is the other buck?