I can’t quite define my aversion to asking questions of strangers. From snatches of family battles which I have heard drifting up from railway stations and street corners, I gather that there are a great many men who share my dislike for it, as well as an equal number of women who … believe it to be the solution to most of this world’s problems.

Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist, columnist, actor, wit

Pluck and Luck, “Ask That Man” (1925)