My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to.
Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school, “So? Did you learn anything today?”
But not my mother …
“Izzy,” she would say, “did you ask a good question today?”
That difference – asking good questions – made me become a scientist.
— Isidor Isaac Rabi, Nobel laureate

Found this gem on the 37 Signals blog