Explanation Quotes - Page 25

• It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as the plan of
  creation or unity of design, etc., and to think that we give an explanation
  when we only restate a fact.

  Charles Darwin

  Ignorance, Thinking, Expression

  Charles Darwin (2016). “On the Origin of Species”, p.357, Zillmann Publishing

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• The hypothesis of God offers no worthwhile explanation for anything, for it simply postulates what we are trying to explain.

  Richard Dawkins

  Trying, Worthwhile, Hypothesis

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• The human mind has a superglue-like quality: Once a viewpoint has been plucked from the swirling chaos of beliefs and explanations, then the mind quickly solidifies that view, resisting any future modification.

  Charles Hugh Smith

  Views, Mind, Quality

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• People are upset. They know something is wrong. But they don't know what. The real explanation is too complicated. They won't sit still for it. So, they look for scapegoats - the rich...the banks...the Chinese.

  Bill Bonner

  Real, People, Upset

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• The reason so many people misunderstand so many issues is not that these issues are so complex, but that people do not want a factual or analytical explanation that leaves them emotionally unsatisfied. They want villains to hate and heroes to cheer - and they don't want explanations that do not give them that.

  Thomas Sowell

  Cheer, Hate, Hero

  Thomas Sowell (2011). “Dismantling America and Other Controversial Essays (Large Print 16pt)”, p.398, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Freemasonry is a Jewish establishment, whose history, grades, official appointments, passwords, and explanations are Jewish from beginning to end

  Isaac Mayer Wise

  Ends, Establishment, Grades

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• The Blue Degrees are but the outer court...of the temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretation. It is not intended that he shall understand them, but it is intended that he shall imagine that he understands them...The true explanation is reserved for the Adepts, the Princes of Masonry (those of the 32nd and 33rd degrees)

  Albert Pike

  Blue, Degrees, Temples

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• There are alternate explanations for everything.

  James Cook

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• It turns out, that men, when they're taking care of their business, they're not fully attending to the task at hand, but, I'm sure there's an evolutionary explanation for this, if you give them a target, they will aim.

  Richard Thaler

  Men, Hands, Giving

  "Big Think Interview". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. June 19, 2009.

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• A foreign correspondent, after talking to me for a while, once said: "You don't seem smart enough to be so good at what you're doing. Do you have an explanation?"

  Charlie Munger

  Smart, Talking, Enough

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• At all times and in all fields the explanation by fire is a rich explanation.

  Gaston Bachelard

  Fire, Fields, Rich

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• Profit is not the explanation, cause, or rationale of business behavior and business decisions, but the test of their validity.

  Peter Drucker

  Decision, Tests, Causes

  Peter Drucker (2013). “People and Performance”, p.89, Routledge

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• For the people who believe, you don't have to explain, and for the people who don't believe, no explanation is good enough.

  Jeff Jarrett

  Believe, People, Good Enough

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• Fourier's theorem has all the simplicity and yet more power than other familiar explanations in science. Stated simply, any complex pattern, whether in time or space, can be described as a series of overlapping sine waves of multiple frequencies and various amplitudes.

  Bruce Hood

  Space, Simplicity, Patterns

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• I think that the resistance against Darwin is not just the difficulty of seeing the power of a spectacularly beautiful explanation: it is the fear of realizing the extraordinary power that such an explanation has in shattering rests of old world views.

  Carlo Rovelli

  Beautiful, Thinking, Views

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• Unfortunately, 19th-century scientists were just as ready to jump to the conclusion that any guess about nature was an obvious fact, as were 17th-century sectarians to jump to the conclusion that any guess about Scripture was the obvious explanation . . . . and this clumsy collision of two very impatient forms of ignorance was known as the quarrel of Science and Religion.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Ignorance, Two, Scripture

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• By the age of fifteen, I had convinced myself that nobody could give a reasonable explanation of what he meant by the word 'God' and that it was therefore as meaningless to assert a belief as to assert a disbelief in God. Though this, in a general way, has remained my position ever since, I have always avoided unnecessarily to offend other people holding religious belief by displaying my lack of such belief, or even stating my lack of belief, if I was not challenged.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Religious, People, Giving

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• Life goes on and the truth changes; this just happens to be the way life is. What was once true is often no longer true just a little while later. Yesterday's truth is today's bullshit. Even yesterday's liberating insight is today's jail of stale explanation.

  Brad Blanton

  Yesterday, Jail, Bullshit

  Brad Blanton (1996). “Radical Honesty: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth”, Dell

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• There are three kinds of brains. The one understands things unassisted, the other understands things when shown by others, the third understands neither alone nor with the explanations of others.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Brain, Three, Kind

  Niccolo Machiavelli (2017). “The Prince”, p.73, Race Point Publishing

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• I love you is unsubtle. It removes explanations, facilities, degrees, scruples.

  Roland Barthes

  Love You, Degrees, Scruples

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• Americans get very simple explanations of what happens to them.

  Mick Jagger

  Simple, Happens

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• Listen, the weather is just like Hillary's explanation for her war vote: we just don't know, do we?

  Dennis Miller

  War, Weather, Vote

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• We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs.

  Carl Sagan

  Errors, Giving, Challenges

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.58, Ballantine Books

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• A great photograph needs no explanation; it functions by suggestion. There is no need to be explicit.

  Mary Ellen Mark

  Needs, Suggestions, Photograph

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• Hillary's explanation of the Libyan action to Congress was so good, I wonder who explained it to her?

  Mort Sahl

  Action, Wonder, Congress

  Twitter post from Apr 03, 2011

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