Explanation Quotes - Page 21

• Every time I change the way I explain myself to myself, I have to rearrange the story of my life.

  Mason Cooley

  Change, Stories, Way

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• Explanations comfort us by giving the impression that there is an order in things.

  Mason Cooley

  Order, Giving, Comfort

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• Because the true perfection of a practical occupation consists not only in knowing the actual performance of the occupation but also in its explanation, why the work is done a in a particular way, and because the art of calculating is a practical occupation, it is clear that it is pertinent to concern oneself with the theory.

  Gersonides

  Art, Knowing, Perfection

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• And I will add this point of merely personal experience of humanity: when men have a real explanation they explain it, eagerly and copiously and in common speech, as Huxley freely gave it when he thought he had it. When they have no explanation to offer, they give short dignified replies, disdainful of the ignorance of the multitude.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Real, Ignorance, Men

  "Doubts About Darwinism". The Illustrated London News, July 17, 1920.

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• Are cans constitutionally iffy? Whenever, that is, we say that we can do something, or could do something, or could have done something, is there an if in the offing--suppressed, it may be, but due nevertheless to appear when we set out our sentence in full or when we give an explanation of its meaning?

  J. L. Austin

  Giving, Done, May

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• In drawing an inference or conclusion from facts proved, regard must always be had to the nature of the particular case, and the facility that appears to be afforded, either of explanation or contradiction. No person is to be required to explain or contradict, until enough has been proved to warrant a reasonable and just conclusion against him, in the absence of explanation or contradiction.

  Tony Abbott

  Drawing, Facts, Absence

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• Christianity, if it is to triumph over pantheism, must absorb it. To our pusillanimous eyes Jesus would have borne the marks of a hateful pantheism, for he confirmed the Biblical phrase "ye are gods," and so would St. Paul, who tells us that we are of "the race of God." Our century wants a new theology - that is to say, a more profound explanation of the nature of Christ and of the light which it flashes upon heaven and upon humanity.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Jesus, Eye, Biblical

  Entry for October 01, 1849, "The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel", Book by Henri-Frédéric Amiel, translated by Mary Augusta Ward, 1882.

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• God is the explanation of all things.

  Edwin Hubbel Chapin

  God, All Things

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• It's human nature to find patterns where there are none and to find skill where luck is a more likely explanation (particularly if you're the lucky manager).

  William J. Bernstein

  Skills, Luck, Patterns

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• A rational prediction has an explanation based on theory.

  W. Edwards Deming

  Management, Predictions, Theory

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• So, in the physical world mankind are prone to seek an explanation of uncommon phenomena only, while the ordinary changes of nature, which are in themselves equally wonderful, are disregarded.

  Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps

  Loss, Ordinary, World

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• There are an awful lot of things going on that need understanding and explanation, but - to put it mildly - the world is a mess.

  Madeleine Albright

  Spring, Reality, Community

  "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer, www.cbsnews.com. July 27, 2014.

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• There are three kinds of explanation in science: explanations which throw a light upon, or give a hint at a matter; explanations which do not explain anything; and explanations which obscure everything.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Science, Light, Giving

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• Freudian psychoanalytical theory is a mythology that answers pretty well to Levi-Strauss's descriptions. It brings some kind of order into incoherence; it, too, hangs together, makes sense, leaves no loose ends, and is never (but never) at a loss for explanation. In a state of bewilderment it may therefore bring comfort and relief.... give its subject a new and deeper understanding of his own condition and of the nature of his relationship to his fellow men. A mythical structure will be built up around him which makes sense and is believable-in, regardless of whether or not it is true.

  Peter Medawar

  Relationship, Nature, Loss

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• The lady ... is an anomaly to which the western nations of this planet have grown accustomed but which would require a great deal of explanation before a Martian could understand her.

  Emily James Smith Putnam

  Anomalies, Planets, Deals

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• Now, science cannot completely exclude the possibility of supernatural explanation. It is possible though very unlikely that our whole world is controlled by elves. But supernatural explanations like these are simply never needed; we manage to understand the natural world just fine using reason and materialism.

  Jerry A. Coyne

  World, Materialism, Reason

  Jerry A. Coyne (2009). “Why Evolution is True”, p.245, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Historical explanation is not identical with moral judgment.

  Moses Finley

  Historical, Moral, Judgment

  "Democracy Ancient And Modern". Book by Moses Finley (Second Edition). Chapter 3, Democracy, Consensus and National Interest, p. 96, 1985.

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• It has been a long time since I believed in Reality. I prefer the loveliness and the terror of my subjective experiences to those coldly scientific explanations which in the long run turn out to be no more real, and far less fun, than my own fantasies and musings.

  Sheldon B. Kopp

  Running, Fun, Real

  Sheldon B. Kopp (1985). “Even a Stone Can be a Teacher: Learning and Growing from the Experiences of Everyday Life”, Tarcher

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• How strange a scene is this in which we are such shifting figures, pictures, shadows. The mystery of our existence--I have no faith in any attempted explanation of it. It is all a dark, unfathomed profound.

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  Faith, Dark, Profound

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• To those who are willing to believe, no explanation of these events is necessary...and to those who are not willing to believe, no explanation is possible.

  Joan Anderson

  Believe, Angel, Events

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• Knowing something for oneself or for communication to an expert colleague is not the same as knowing it for explanation to a student.

  Hyman Bass

  Teacher, Communication, Teaching

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• For Americans the contradiction between national ideal and social fact required explanation and correction. Ultimately this contradiction did not lead to the abandonment of the ideal of equal opportunity but rather to its postponement: to the notion of achieving for the next generation what could not be achieved for the current one. And the chief means to this end was a brilliant American invention: universal, free, compulsory public education. This "solution" was especially important for children and families because it gave children a central role in achieving the national ideal.

  Kenneth Keniston

  Education, Children, Mean

  Kenneth Keniston (1977). “All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure”, Harcourt on Demand

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• Watching a whole cluster of friends, and my own mother, die over quite a short space of time convinced me that purely materialist 'explanations' for our mysterious human existence simply won't do - on an intellectual level.

  A. N. Wilson

  Mother, Space, Intellectual

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• Reports to the Surgeon General represent the final word upon the efficient and devoted sense of responsibility of our people in this obligation to our fellow citizens. Overwhelmingly they confirm the fact that the general mortality rate, infant mortality rate, epidemics, the disease rate - are less than in normal times. There is but one explanation. That is, that through an aroused sense of public responsibility, those in destitution and their children are receiving actually more adequate care than even in normal times.

  Herbert Hoover

  Children, Responsibility, Epidemics

  "The Hoover Policies". Book by Ray Lyman Wilbur and Arthur N. Hyde, 1937.

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• Men are of three different capacities: one understands intuitively; another understands so far as it is explained; and a third understands neither of himself nor by explanation. The first is excellent, the second, commendable, and the third, altogether useless.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Men, Useless, Firsts

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