It is better to debate a question without settling it, than to settle it without debate.

[Il vaut mieux remuer une question sans la décider, que la décider sans la remuer.]

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet

Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 8 “De la Famille et de la Société, etc. [On the Family and Society]” ¶ 71 (1850 ed.) [tr. Attwell (1896), ¶ 115]
    (Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

It is better to stir a question without deciding it, than to decide it without stirring it.
[tr. Calvert (1866), ch. 8]

It is better to turn over a question without deciding it, than to decide it without turning it over.
[tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 7, ¶ 61]

It is better to stir up a question without deciding it, than to decide it without stirring it up.
[tr. Collins (1928), ch. 7]

It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.
[Variant]