Explanations Quotes

“No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

“Never explain―your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.”
― Elbert Hubbard

“We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

“If you can't understand it without an explanation, you can't understand it with an explanation.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“You don't get explanations in real life. You just get moments that are absolutely, utterly, inexplicably odd.”
― Neil Gaiman

“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight.”
― John Berger, Ways of Seeing

“I didn’t like having to explain to them, so I just shut up, smoked a cigarette, and looked at the sea.”
― Albert Camus, The Stranger

“To rush into explanations is always a sign of weakness.”
― Agatha Christie, The Seven Dials Mystery

“Save your explanations, I got some questions for you first and you'd better answer them!' [slurred Hellian.]
'With what?' [Banaschar] sneered. 'Explanations?'
'No. Answers. There's a difference-'
'Really? How? What difference?'
'Explanations are what people use when they need to lie. Y'can always tell those,'cause those don't explain nothing and then they look at you like they just cleared things up when really they did the opposite and they know it and you know it and they know you know and you know they know that you know and they know you and you know them and maybe you go out for a pitcher later but who picks up the tab? That's what I want to know.'
'Right, and answers?'
'Answers is what I get when I ask questions. Answers is when you got no choice. I ask, you tell. I ask again, you tell some more. Then I break your fingers, 'cause I don't like what you're telling me, because those answers don't explain nothing!”
― Steven Erikson, The Bonehunters

“Constantly stopping to explain oneself may expand into a frustrating burden for the rare individual, so ceasing to do so is like finally dropping the weights and sprinting towards his goals. Those who insincerely misunderstand, who intentionally distort the motives of a pure-intentioned individual, then, no longer have the opportunity to block his path; instead, they are the ones left to stand on the sidelines shouting frustratedly in the wind of his trail.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations of complex facts. We are apt to fall into the error of thinking that the facts are simple because simplicity is the goal of our quest. The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, 'Seek simplicity and distrust it.”
― Alfred North Whitehead, The Concept of Nature: The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, 11/1919

“Take lightly what you hear about individuals. We need not distort trust for our paltry little political agendas. We tend to trust soulless, carried information more than we trust soulful human beings; but really most people aren't so bad once you sit down and have an honest, one-on-one conversation with them, once, with an open heart, you listen to their explanations as to why they act the way they act, or say what they say, or do what they do.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“What happened?" Bailey asks.
"That is somewhat difficult to explain," Tsukiko answers. "It is a long and complicated story."
"And you're not going to tell me, are you?"
She tilts her head a bit ... "No, I am not," she says.
"Great," Bailey mutters under his breath... "The bonfire exploded? How?"
"Remember when I said it was difficult to explain? That has not changed.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“It was so easy to be wise in the explanation of an experience one has not personally witnessed.

("The Wendigo")”
― Algernon Blackwood, Monster Mix

“Are you lost, Daddy?" I asked tenderly. "Shut up," he explained.”
― Ring Lardner, The Young Immigrunts

“It's simpler to believe in a miracle.”
― William Golding, The Spire

“A thoughtful expression crossed the woman’s damp face. “I used to beat myself up over my body. What woman doesn’t?” She paused, as if thinking about her words. “I finally decided I’d had enough. It was time to believe in me, without shame. I still slip up and have doubts. But for the most part, I take pride in who I am.”
― Abby Niles, Extreme Love

“There will be times in your life when you need to remain low key. Not everyone needs to know everything about you. Not everyone deserves to know the real you. If they want to criticise you for who they think you are, then let them make that mistake. But you’re not responsible for their thoughts.”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“But if my father could stand up to schoolmasters and if he inherited some of his own father's gifts as a teacher, he himself could never have become one. He could teach and loved teaching. He could radiate enthusiasm, but he could never impose discipline. He could never have taught a dull subject to a dull boy, never have said: "Do this because I say so." Enthusiasm spread knowledge sideways, among equals. Discipline forced it downwards from above. My father's relationships were always between equals, however old or young, distinguished or undistinguished the other person. Once, when I was quite little, he came up to the nursery while I was having my lunch. And while he was talking I paused between mouthfuls, resting my hands on the table, knife and fork pointing upwards. "You oughtn't really to sit like that," he said, gently. "Why not?" I asked, surprised. "Well..." He hunted around for a reason he could give. Because it's considered bad manners? Because you mustn't? Because... "Well," he said, looking in the direction my fork was pointing, "Suppose somebody suddenly fell through the ceiling. They might land on your fork and that would be very painful." "I see," I said, though I didn't really. It seemed such an unlikely thing to happen, such a funny reason for holding your knife and fork flat when you were not using them... But funny reason or not, it seems I have remembered it. In the same sort of way I learned about the nesting habits of starlings. I had been given a bird book for Easter (Easter 1934: I still have the book) and with its help I had made my first discovery. "There's a blackbird's nest in the hole under the tiles just outside the drawing-room window," I announced proudly. "I've just seen the blackbird fly in." "I think it's probably really a starling," said my father. "No, it's a blackbird," I said firmly, hating to be wrong, hating being corrected. "Well," said my father, realizing how I felt but at the same time unable to allow an inaccuracy to get away with it, "Perhaps it's a blackbird visiting a starling." A blackbird visiting a starling. Someone falling through the ceiling. He could never bear to be dogmatic, never bring himself to say (in effect): This is so because I say it is, and I am older than you and must know better. How much easier, how much nicer to escape into the world of fantasy in which he felt himself so happily at home.”
― Christopher Milne, The Enchanted Places

“The easiest explanations are often the right ones.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“This was always the case when people asked if you knew what something meant. They didn’t want you to know it. They wanted to be able to explain it themselves, to prove themselves bearers of esoteric knowledge.”
― Rivers Solomon, An Unkindness of Ghosts

“The easiest explanations are often the right one.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“Under no condition do you need to piddle away any time attempting to explain who you are to those wankers who act as if they’ve pledged to misinterpreting your very existence.”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“This, after all, is the king who passed the law about putting trousers on cats and dogs, who made too-loud laughter a punishable crime. According to rumor, he was abused by his father, the last king. But that's the story people always tell, isn't it, when they want to explain inexplicable behavior?”
― Michael Cunningham, A Wild Swan: And Other Tales

“He’s always enjoyed plotlines mediated by on-screen experts, since when things go horribly wrong, eventually there’s an explanation. There’s no ambiguity or confusion when science is involved.”
― Beth Morgan, A Touch of Jen

“I’m not sure love makes sense even to those who are involved. If we could simply explain it like an algorithm or a theory, we might lose interest.”
― Hannah Rothschild, House of Trelawney

“If something is greater than that which we can understand, we create weak caricatures and fanciful narratives to explain it. And at the point that these things become the story, the fiction is based on the belief that we actually have a story.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“No intentes refutar cada ficción concebida de la nada. Sitúa de nuevo la carga probatoria sobre los hombros de tus interlocutores. Pídeles razones, no la mera afirmación de un punto de vista. No te toca a ti refutar sus afirmaciones, sino a ellos defenderlas”
― Gregory Koukl, Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions

“Those who know you don’t need explanations, those who don’t won't believe you. - Chris Geiger”
― Chris Geiger, The Cancer Survivors Club

“It struck me, a belief that has never left me since, that we are just a great machine for looking backward, and that humans are great at self-delusion. Every year that goes by increases my belief in this distortion.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable