Guiding Questions for Frege's "The Thought: A Logical Inquiry"

1. What is a thought?

2. Comment on the following paragraph:

“It is also worthy of notice that the sentence "I smell the scent of violets" has just the same content as the sentence "it is true that I smell the scent of violets ". So it seems, then, that nothing is added to the thought by my ascribing to it the property of truth. And yet is it not a great result when the scientist after much hesitation and careful inquiry, can finally say "what I supposed is true"? The meaning of the word "true" seems to be altogether unique. May we not be dealing here with something which cannot, in the ordinary sense, be called a quality at all?”

3. Is a truth ascription needed to make an assertion? Is it useful to do so?