Quotes About Explanation

the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started.

Why did you do it? — I don't know. Here isn't always an explanation for everything. — Oh isn't there? I was brought up to think there was. — That's awfully nice. — Do We have to go on and talk this way? — No. — That's a relief. Isn't it?

I do not think they believed a word of the story and I thought it was silly but it was like a law-court. You did not want something reasonable, you wanted something technical and then stuck to it without explanations.

Why did you do it? — I don't know. There isn't always an explanation for everything. — Oh isn't there? I was brought up to think there was. — That's awfully nice. — Do we have to go on and talk this way? — No. — That's a relief. Isn't it?

My dear, do you want forgiveness … or an explanation?

It would take too long to explain the intimate alliance of contradictions in human nature which makes love itself wear at times the desperate shape of betrayal. And perhaps there is no possible explanation. —Joseph Conrad, Some Reminiscences

The purpose of risk management is to improve the future, not to explain the past.

A mistake we make too often in science is thinking that having a name for something is the same as understanding it. A skeleton in a museum or a drop of blood

And you're sucking up all our oxygen in here for what reason?

Each sudden gust of light explains itself as flames, but neither they, nor even bombs redoubled on the hills tonight can quite include me in their fear.

Humility is the only soil in which the graces root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God, and allows Him as God to do all.

If one found ways to explain her husband's infidelity or disrespect for her, all the others would give her a pass, knowing full well they were either in similar circumstances or anticipating that they would soon be.

the qualities desirable in a politician, Churchill said, 'The ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year Ã¢â'¬â€œ and . . . to explain why it didn't happen.

I never thought of the future as any kind of solution. The future is always the refuge of fools. It arrives, and they have to explain why it didn't arrive the way it was supposed to, or prove that this was exactly what they predicted. That's why I prefer to drink alone or with friends and wait for the past to take us into its possession. (page 122)

Code is there to explain the comments to the computer.

Preaching for life change requires far less information and more application. Less explanation and more inspiration. Less first century and more twenty-first century.

The only coherent explanation of contingent intentionality is the existence of some necessary being, an agent from whom all other intentionality derives but who does not require further explanation.

Was anyone else seen in the place? We're especially interested if they made their way down this valley.' She pointed with a ruler to the map and looked around the room to check that she had their full attention. 'This is where Randle's body was found by Percy Douglas.' Another stab at the map. 'And this is the big house where Randle was the temporary house-sitter and where Benton's body was found.' A pause. 'Joe, fill us in

There is a strong tendency in explanatory prose to invoke quantities of tension, energy, and whatnot to explain the genesis of pattern. I believe that all such explanations are inappropriate or wrong.

Whenever you're faced with an explanation of what's going on in Washington, the choice between incompetence and conspiracy, always choose incompetence.

It's been reported a lot that I've had two bouts of mononucleosis. The evidence suggests it wasn't two bouts, it was the same bout. I never got over it the first time. That's hard to explain to people. It makes it look like I'm not very resilient, whereas it was completely mismanaged.

Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.

There is a lurking sense that there is a kind of seedy corruption underlying a lot of public life today. But while journalism does a very good job of describing that corruption, it is failing to bring it into a bigger focus. To explain what it is all about.

Whenever someone like a plumber or a mechanic tries to explain something technical to me, I listen for about three seconds before it all just becomes white noise, like Charlie Brown's teacher.