Quotes About Explanation

On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, we gain no scientific explanation.

if there is a conventional explanation for an observation, it is almost always the right one. Radical departures should be accepted only when they explain phenomena that older ideas fail to accommodate. In

The weak force violates parity symmetry by acting differently on left-handed and right-handed particles. It turns out that only left-handed particles experience the weak force. For example, a left-handed electron would experience the weak force, whereas one spinning to the right would not. Experiments show this clearly—it's the way the world works—but there is no intuitive, mechanical explanation for why this should be so.

It was a mistake," I assure him, "for about ten different reasons I'm not going to list.

Where is his father? When will his mother be home? How is he going to explain the moon taken hostage, the sea risen to fill up all the mirrors? How is he going to explain the branches beginning to grow from his ribs and throat, the cries and trills starting in his own mouth? And now that ancient sorrow between his hips, his body's ripe listening; the planet knowing itself at last.

It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.

Mama, you know, lost all her enthusiasm for mothering by Baby Number Seven. What a pity she did not lose her enthusiasm for Papa at the same time. But then, I doubt she was ever altogether clear on where babies come from. She was very much astonished each time she found herself enceinte. Papa was naughty not to explain her.

he said...Do you understand?" "Yes," she said, heart pounding. "Thank you for explaining it in simple terms, in case my girl brain was too small to grasp the implications.

Maybe," he said in a slow, rural drawl, "you could explain to me why I found you in the middle of an orgy." "Well," I said, "if you're going to be in an orgy, the middle is the best spot, isn't it.

Maybe, he said in a slow, rural drawl, You could explain to me why I found you in the middle of an orgy. Well, I said. If you're going to be in an orgy, the middle is the best spot, isn't it.

Describing something helps to define it, to give it limits, to set guardrails of understanding around it.

Why did you do it?" I got annoyed. "I had personal reasons." "Which are?" "Personal," I said.

But then that's an appropriate response to death?' I interrupted. 'There isn't a singular response. You keep on truckin', as that cartoonist Crumb said. You're probably having a thousand responses a day because your brain simply can't stop trying to comprehend what has happened to you. It's the largest question mark we deal with in life and no responses will make it go away. We envy the devout who experience the pain but have a surefire explanation.

I would figure out, later, how to explain to my boss that, for me, Delia will never be a story, but a happy ending.

Humor explained is humor denied

We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.

Science is wonderfully equipped to answer the question "How?" but it gets terribly confused when you ask the question "Why?"

My doctor, who happens to be my old college roommate, tells me the Parkinson's shouldn't affect my golf game at all, which really surprised me. His explanation was very interesting. He said I've never been able to putt and since it was impossible for my putting to get any worse, there was actually a chance it might improve.

Our society must understand that a minority--a certain category of people-- must be paid very well by the state, so that they can secure the interests of the majority. When will we finally begin to understand this? Our people aren't stupid. It's just that it hasn't been explained the right way.

I just woke up by the side of the road in the dark like I'd been dumped there by the Mafia, but you take your time explaining, that's fine with me.

The superintendent is afraid to make a decision. If he does nothing, he has nothing to explain to his superiors. No explanation is required if a man in management for doing nothing.

There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish to bewail it senseless.

Math can explain the reason there's one out of four chance that I'd have blue eyes. But it doesn't explain why me.

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