Explanation Quotes - Page 5

• 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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• The argument advanced by the supporters of the theory of hereditary transmission does not furnish a satisfactory explanation of the cause of the inequalities and diversities of the universe.

  Swami Abhedananda

  Science, Diversity, Doe

  Swami Abhedananda (2005). “Vedanta Philosophy”, p.34, 1st World Publishing

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• If history is any guide at all, it seems to me to suggest that there is a final theory. In this century we have seen a convergence of the arrows of explanation, like the convergence of meridians toward the North Pole.

  Steven Weinberg

  Science, Arrows, History

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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 present moment, though, is outside of time, it’s Eternity. In India they use the word “karma” for lack of any better term. But it’s a concept that’s rarely given a proper explanation. It isn’t what you did in the past that will affect the present. It’s what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future.

  Paulo Coelho

  Karma, Past, India

  "Aleph". Book by Paulo Coelho, 2011.

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• In evolution, as in all areas of science, our knowledge is incomplete. But the entire success of the scientific enterprise has depended on an insistence that these gaps be filled by natural explanations, logically derived from confirmable evidence. Because "intelligent design" theories are based on supernatural explanations, they can have nothing to do with science.

  Bruce Alberts

  Intelligent, Design, Gaps

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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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• They [scientists of centuries past] call on God only from the lonely and precarious edge of incomprehension. Where they feel certain about their explanations, however, God gets hardly a mention.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Lonely, Religious, Science

  Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.353, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Hey, Ms. P," Tad called, "what's going on?" She let out a slow breath before she answered. "You won't believe this... Brian Murrey tried to eat Scott Morgan." Nick's eyes widened at the unexpected explanation. Had he heard that right?

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Believe, Eye, Hey

  Sherrilyn Kenyon (2016). “Chronicles of Nick”, p.66, St. Martin's Griffin

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• Now it seems to me that love of some kind is the only possible explanation of the extraordinary amount of suffering that there is in the world. I cannot conceive of any other explanation. I am convinced that there is no other, and that if the world has indeed, as I have said, been built of sorrow, it has been built by the hands of love, because in no other way could the soul of man, for whom the world was made, reach the full stature of its perfection. Pleasure for the beautiful body, but pain for the beautiful soul.

  Oscar Wilde

  Beautiful, Pain, Men

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1079, Wordsworth Editions

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• And it was about then, about that time, that I began to find life unsatisfactory as an explanation of itself and was forced to adopt the method of the artist of not explaining but putting the blocks together in some other way that seems more significant to him. Which is a rather fancy way of saying I started writing.

  Tennessee Williams

  Block, Writing, Artist

  Tennessee Williams (1994). “Collected Stories”, p.274, New Directions Publishing

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• But some part of him realized, even as he fought to break free from Lupin, that Sirius had never kept him waiting before. . . . Sirius had risked everything, always, to see Harry, to help him. . . . If Sirius was not reappearing out of that archway when Harry was yelling for him as though his life depended on it, the only possible explanation was that he could not come back. . . . That he really was . . .

  J. K. Rowling

  Yelling, Waiting, Helping

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• The majority of people don't want to plan. They want to be free of the responsibility of planning. What they ask for is merely some assurance that they will be decently provided for. The rest is a day-to-day enjoyment of life. That's the explanation for your Father Divines; people naturally flock to anyone they can trust for the necessities of life... They are the backbone of a community--solid, trust-worthy, essential.

  B. F. Skinner

  Father, Responsibility, People

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• The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight.

  John Berger

  Sight, Evening, Earth

  "Ways of Seeing". Book by John Berger, 1972.

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• I wondered if kicking him in the head would make the whole explanation pop out of his mouth in one chunk.

  Ilona Andrews

  Kicking, Mouths, Pops

  Ilona Andrews (2011). “Magic Slays”, p.92, Penguin

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• That is the explanation of war, an outrage by humanity upon humanity in despite of humanity.

  Victor Hugo

  War, Humanity, Outrage

  Victor Hugo (1980). “Les misérables”, Viking Pr

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• Poor people never, or hardly ever, ask for an explanation of all they have to put up with. They hate one another, and content themselves with that.

  Louis-Ferdinand Celine

  Hate, People, Poor

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• A garter. You’re supposed to take it off and keep it as a memento. K-k-kinda like a trophy for going far sexually with a girl. It’s stupid, really. And kind of d-d-degrading if I think about it too m-m-much.” “I know what it is,” he says, amusement evident in his voice. “I just wanted to hear your explanation.

  Simone Elkeles

  Girl, Stupid, Thinking

  Simone Elkeles (2011). “Rules of Attraction”, p.103, Simon and Schuster

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• I had no words to give him. No explanation. I didn’t understand it, myself. It scared me, but then so do roller coasters, and I ride them anyway, too.

  Megan Hart

  Giving, Scared, Roller Coaster

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• Some who support [more] coercive strategies assume that children will run wild if they are not controlled. However, the children for whom this is true typically turn out to be those accustomed to being controlled— those who are not trusted, given explanations, encouraged to think for themselves, helped to develop and internalize good values, and so on. Control breeds the need for more control, which is used to justify the use of control.

  Alfie Kohn

  Running, Children, Thinking

  Alfie Kohn (1999). “Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes”, p.49, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• It is my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.

  Stephen Hawking

  Motivational, Atheist, Believe

  YouTube Chanel "stepore"/ "Stephen Hawking There is no God. There is no Fate.", www.youtube.com. August 15, 2011.

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