Explanation Quotes - Page 5

• It is the desire for explanations that are at once systematic and controllable by factual evidence that generates science; and it is the organization and classification of knowledge on the basis of explanatory principles that is the distinctive goal of the sciences.

  Ernest Nagel

  Knowledge, Science, Organization

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• Twenty years ago many chemists would have defended the theory of bond arms as a satisfactory explanation because they had become accustomed to thinking of it as unique and as ultimate.

  Henry Margenau

  Science, Unique, Thinking

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• Why it is that animals, instead of developing in a simple and straightforward way, undergo in the course of their growth a series of complicated changes, during which they often acquire organs which have no function, and which, after remaining visible for a short time, disappear without leaving a trace ... To the Darwinian, the explanation of such facts is obvious. The stage when the tadpole breathes by gills is a repetition of the stage when the ancestors of the frog had not advanced in the scale of development beyond a fish.

  Francis Maitland Balfour

  Science, Animal, Simple

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• Religion has run out of justifications. Thanks to the telescope and the microscope, it no longer offers an explanation of anything important. Where once it used to able, by its total command of a worldview, to prevent the emergence of rivals, it can now only impede and retard-or try to turn back-the measureable advances that we have made.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Running, Science, Important

  Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.268, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe---in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Random Chance, Facts, Pot

  Robert A. Heinlein (2014). “Stranger in a Strange Land”, p.150, Hachette UK

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• Without trying to clear up the degree of correctness of a qualification which no one, one must hope, will be asked to understand exactly, I will limit myself to a few words of explanation to cut short any misunderstandings.

  Gustave Courbet

  Cutting, Trying, Limits

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• As children we all possess a natural uninhabited curiosity, a hunger for explanations, which seems to die slowly as we age--suppressed, I suppose by the need not to appear ignorant.

  Mahlon Hoagland

  Children, Ignorant, Curiosity

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• It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Inspirational, Life

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• The green thumb is equable in the face of nature's uncertainties; he moves among her mysteries without feeling the need for control or explanations or once-and-for-all solutions. To garden well is to be happy amid the babble of the objective world, untroubled by its refusal to be reduced by our ideas of it, its indomitable rankness.

  Michael Pollan

  Moving, Garden, Ideas

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• It is almost impossible to write fiction about the Mormons, for the reason that Mormon institutions and Mormon society are so peculiar that they call for constant explanation.

  Wallace Stegner

  Writing, Peculiar, Fiction

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• Explanation is not half as strong as experience but experience is not half as strong as experience and understanding

  Mark Z. Danielewski

  Strong, Understanding, Half

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• The explanations for the things we do in life are many and complex. Supposedly mature adults should live by logic, listen to their reason. Think things out before they act. But maybe they never heard what Dr. London told me one, Freud said that for the little things in life we should react according to our reason. But for really big decisions, we should heed what our unconscious tells us.

  Erich Segal

  Thinking, Things In Life, Decision

  Erich Segal (1977). “Oliver's Story”

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• Oh, where is the Fairy Godmother of explanations when you need her?

  Allison Pearson

  Godmother, Needs, Fairy

  Allison Pearson (2004). “I don't know how she does it: the life of Kate Reddy, working mother”

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• We human beings build houses because we're alive but we write books because we're mortal. We live in groups because we're sociable but we read because we know we're alone. Reading offers a kind of companionship that takes no one's place but that no one can replace either. It offers no definitive explanation of our destiny but links us inextricably to life. Its tiny secret links remind us of how paradoxically happy we are to be alive while illuminating how tragically absurd life is.

  Daniel Pennac

  Book, Reading, Writing

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• Very well." He sat cross-legged on the floor of the cage. "You haven't run off so you want to talk. I will hear your explanation now." "Really, Your Majesty? So good of you to condescend. I'll try to use small words and go slow." "You're wasting my time. I know Jim betrayed me and you're covering for him. This is your chance to dazzle me wih your brillance or baffle me with your bullshit. You won't get another. When I get out, I won't be in the mood to listen.

  Ilona Andrews

  Running, Bullshit, Trying

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• How can we find spiritual meaning in a scientific worldview? Spirituality is a way of being in the world, a sense of one’s place in the cosmos, a relationship to that which extends beyond oneself. . . . Does scientific explanation of the world diminish its spiritual beauty? I think not. Science and spirituality are complementary, not conflicting; additive, not detractive. Anything that generates a sense of awe may be a source of spirituality. Science does this in spades. (158-159)

  Michael Shermer

  Spiritual, Thinking, Doe

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• Can you worship a God who isn't obligated to explain His actions to you? Could it be your arrogance that makes you think God owes you an explanation?

  Francis Chan

  God, Christian, Religious

  Francis Chan, Preston Sprinkle (2014). “The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply”, p.22, David C Cook

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• Call saw that everyone was looking at him, the hands and cowboys and townspeople alike. The anger had drained out of him, leaving him feeling tired. He didn't remember the fight, particularly, but people were looking at him as if they were stunned. He felt he should make some explanation, though it seemed to him a simple situation. "I hate a man that talks rude," he said. "I won't tolerate it.

  Larry McMurtry

  Hate, Tired, Fighting

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• "Sorry," she said, "I got out as fast as I could, but I had to stay and socialize. Protocol, you know." "Explain protocol," Nell said. This was how she always talked to the Primer. "At the place we’re going, you need to watch your manners. Don’t say 'explain this' or 'explain that.'" "Would it impose on your time unduly to provide me with a concise explanation of the term protocol?" Nell said. Again Rita made that nervous laugh and looked at Nell with an expression that looked like poorly concealed alarm.

  Neal Stephenson

  Sorry, Expression, Laughing

  "The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". Book by Neal Stephenson, February 1995.

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• She was the sort of person for whom fear was the natural response to that beyond explanation.

  Kate Morton

  Fear, Natural, Response

  Kate Morton (2009). “The Forgotten Garden”, p.116, Simon and Schuster

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• Jackson has devised a game called "Real or Not Real" to help Peeta. He mentions something he thinks happened, and they tell him if it's true or imagined, usually followed by a brief explanation.

  Suzanne Collins

  Real, Thinking, Games

  Suzanne Collins (2010). “Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3)”, p.272, Scholastic Inc.

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• I hated waiting. If I had one particular complaint, it was that my life seemed composed entirely of expectation. I expected — an arrival, an explanation, an apology. There had never been one, a fact I could have accepted, were it not true that, just when I had got used to the limits and dimensions of one moment, I was expelled into the next and made to wonder again if any shapes hid in its shadows.

  Marilynne Robinson

  Apology, Expectations, Waiting

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• "Katniss?" He drops my hand and I take a step, as if to catch my balance. "It was all for the Games," Peeta says. "How you acted." "Not all of it," I say, tightly holding onto my flowers. "Then how much? No, forget that. I guess the real question is what's going to be left when we get home?" he says. "I don't know. The closer we get to District Twelve, the more confused I get," I say. He waits, for further explanation, but none's forthcoming. "Well, let me know when you work it out," he says, and the pain in his voice is palpable.

  Suzanne Collins

  Pain, Confused, Real

  "The Hunger Games". Book by Suzanne Collins, September 14, 2008.

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• With our human limitations we're not always able to understand the explanations.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Able, Humans, Limitation

  Madeleine L'Engle (2013). “A Wrinkle in Time Trilogy”, p.33, Macmillan

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• If you eliminate all possible explanations, then the impossible is the answer.

  J.R. Ward

  Answers, Impossible, Ifs

  J.R. Ward (2007). “Lover Unbound: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood”, p.153, Penguin

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