Explanation Quotes - page 19

Any philosophic explanation of Quality is going to be both false and true precisely because it is a philosophic explanation. (Robert M. Pirsig)
Any philosophic explanation of Quality is going to be both false and true precisely because it is a philosophic explanation. The process of philosophic explanation is an analytic process, a process of breaking something down into subjects and predicates. What I mean (and everybody else means) by the word ‘quality' cannot be broken down into subjects and predicates. This is not because Quality is so mysterious but because Quality is so simple, immediate and direct. View quote
Robert M. Pirsig
Science reveals where religion conceals. Where religion purports to explain, it actually resorts to tautology. To assert that "God did it" is no more than an admission of ignorance dressed deceitfully as an explanation. View quote
Peter Atkins
In the construction of world views one can distinguish seven important tasks that correspond with the various components of a world view and that must provide an answer to a number of fundamental questions. First we must design a model of the world. What is the world like in which we live? How is the world structured and how does it function? What are the most suitable metaphors for speaking of the whole? Are mechanistic or organic models to be given preference? An explanation of reality must then follow. Why are the world and mankind as they are? Is a completely different world possible? What general explanatory principles apply? View quote
Diederik Aerts
You don't need an explanation for everything, Recognize that there are such things as miracles - events for which there are no ready explanations. Later knowledge may explain those events quite easily. View quote
Harry Browne
Before he can devote himself to God or a woman, a boy will devote himself to his father, even foolishly, even beyond explanation. View quote
Mitch Albom
The physicist may be satisfied when he has the mathematical scheme and knows how to use for the interpretation of the experiments. But he has to speak about his results also to non-physicists who will not be satisfied unless some explanation is given in plain language. Even for the physicist the description in plain language will be the criterion of the degree of understanding that has been reached. View quote
Werner Heisenberg
We Shall Naturally look round in vain the macrophysical world for acausal events, for the simple reason that we cannot imagine events that are connected non-causally and are capable of a non-causal explanation. But that does not mean that such events do not exist. View quote
Carl Jung
'Because it's there' could never be enough of an explanation for entering politics. ... My focus on work comes from my own childhood and my own personal experience. My parents, particularly Dad, taught me through word and deed that the world does not owe you a living. That you should expect throughout your life to be required to earn what you intend to spend. View quote
Julia Gillard
For years, when I was the culture editor at Indian Country Today Media Network, we requested interviews with Warren, but not once did she accept our numerous invitations for comment or explanation regarding her alleged ancestry. She simply ignored us. View quote
Elizabeth Warren
Terrorism, ladies and gentlemen, in my eyes I have a very, very, very simple explanation. Gangs of criminals, killers, used unfortunately by certain governments in the past for political purposes, who are on their own now as gangs. (Hamid Karzai)
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-- Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth's superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind. View quote
Emily Dickinson
The agreement of this law with nature will be better seen by the repetition of experiments than by a long explanation. View quote
Hans Christian Ørsted
Design can never be an ultimate explanation for anything. It can only be a proximate explanation. A plane or a car is explained by a designer but that's because the designer himself, the engineer, is explained by natural selection. View quote
Richard Dawkins
Greenspan's eventual explanation for the growing gap between stock prices and actual productivity was that, fortuitously, the laws of nature had changed -- humanity had reached a happy stage of history where bullshit could be used as rocket fuel. View quote
Matt Taibbi
Sometimesa word is found so right it tremblesat the slightest explanation. View quote
Rita Dove
It appears to me, that any explanation of the cheapness of manufactured articles, as consequent upon the division of labour, would be incomplete if the following principle were omitted to be stated. That the master manufacturer, by dividing the work to be executed into different processes, each requiring different degrees of skill or of force, can purchase exactly that precise quantity of both which is necessary for each process; whereas, if the whole work were executed by one workman, that person must possess sufficient skill to perform the most difficult, and sufficient strength to execute the most laborious, of the operations into which the art is divided. View quote
Charles Babbage
The true Vedantic spirit does not start out with a system of preconceived ideas. It possesses absolute liberty and unrivalled courage among religions with regard to the facts to be observed and the diverse hypotheses it has laid down for their coordination. Never having been hampered by a priestly order, each man has been entirely free to search wherever he pleased for the spiritual explanation of the spectacle of the universe. View quote
Romain Rolland
From the beginning, I knew intuitively that if nothing else, music was safe, and that nobody could tell me anything about it. Music didn't need a middleman, whereas all the other things in school needed some kind of explanation. View quote
Eric Clapton
For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice. View quote
Michio Kaku
Rosen suggests that the rule of the few might simply be the result of coordination problems confronting the many in overthrowing the few. ... The coordination problem explanation of why the few rule the many is that the many can't coordinate their behavior to overthrow the few, but the actual phenomenon the Marxist theory explains is that the many don't even see the need to overthrow the few, indeed, don't even see that the few rule the many! (Brian Leiter)
A good yarn, an offbeat tale, a bloodcurdling ghost story -- they need no explanation or excuse for the telling! View quote
C.B. Colby
There is no doubt that religion had already waned under the onslaught of the Enlightenment, but it was Freud who provided the radically new understanding of human nature that made any religious explanation of the whats and whys of our personhood seem naive. View quote
Tony Campolo
The Diggbats didn't like it one bit that they were being prevented from stealing copyrighted material ... Kevin Rose has surrendered to the mob, and posted the code at his own blog, with a ludicrous explanation that amounts to endorsing the thugs ... You either respect the concept of intellectual property, or you don't. View quote
Charles Foster Johnson
DYING AND DEATH are the most universal and personally relevant experiences for every single individual. In the course of life, we all lose relatives, friends, teachers, and acquaintances and eventually face our own biological demise. Yet it is quite extraordinary that until the late 1960es, the Western industrial civilization showed an almost complete lack of interest in the subject of death and dying. This attitude has been displayed not only by the general public, but also by scientists and professionals for whom this subject should be of great interest - medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and theologicians. The only plausible explanation for this situation is massive denial of death and psychological repression of everything related to it. This disinterest is even more striking when we compare it to the attitude toward mortality in preindustrial societies... View quote
Stanislav Grof