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class="vector-body" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container> <div class="vector-body-before-content"> <div class="mw-indicators"> </div> <div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikiquote</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"><span class="mw-redirectedfrom">(Redirected from <a href="/w/index.php?title=Explain&redirect=no" class="mw-redirect" title="Explain">Explain</a>)</span></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-right" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Rosa_sp.181.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Rosa_sp.181.jpg/220px-Rosa_sp.181.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="165" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Rosa_sp.181.jpg/330px-Rosa_sp.181.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Rosa_sp.181.jpg/440px-Rosa_sp.181.jpg 2x" data-file-width="640" data-file-height="480" /></a><figcaption>To ask me to explain, is to say, "<a href="/wiki/Roses" title="Roses">Roses</a>! Boil them, or we won't have them!" My <a href="/wiki/Tales" class="mw-redirect" title="Tales">tales</a> may not be roses, but I will not boil them. ~ <a href="/wiki/George_MacDonald" title="George MacDonald">George MacDonald</a> </figcaption></figure> <p>An <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/explanation" class="extiw" title="w:explanation">explanation</a></b> is a set of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statement_(logic)" class="extiw" title="w:Statement (logic)">statements</a> usually constructed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/description" class="extiw" title="w:description">describe</a> a set of facts that clarifies the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/causality" class="extiw" title="w:causality">causes</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wiktionary:context" class="extiw" title="w:wiktionary:context">context</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_consequence" class="extiw" title="w:Logical consequence">consequences</a> of those facts. This description may establish <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rule_of_inference" class="extiw" title="w:rule of inference">rules</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/axiom" class="extiw" title="w:axiom">laws</a>, and may clarify the existing rules or laws in relation to any objects, or phenomena examined. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Quotes">Quotes</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Explanations&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Quotes"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><i>Jolie hypothèse elle explique tant de choses.</i> <ul><li>A pretty hypothesis which explains many things.</li> <li>Quoted by Mr. Asquith, Speech in Parliament, March 29, 1917, as "a saying of a witty Frenchman"; reported in <i>Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations</i> (1922), p. 245.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b><a href="/wiki/Sing" class="mw-redirect" title="Sing">Sing</a> the melody line you hear in your own head. Remember, you don't owe anybody any explanations, you don't owe your parents any explanations, you don't owe your professors any explanations.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Bono" title="Bono">Bono</a>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v50/n34/commence-b.html">Commencement Address at the University of Pennsylvania PENN Address</a> (May 17, 2004)] <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://beansidhe.isc-net.upenn.edu:8080/ramgen/president/commencement04/commencement04.rm">RealPlayer video</a> (Bono introduced at 1:50:30, speaks from 1:56:00 - 2:22:00).</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/David_Deutsch" title="David Deutsch">David Deutsch</a> <i>The Fabric of Reality</i> (1997).</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>A prediction, or any assertion, that cannot be defended might still be true, but an explanation that cannot be defended is not an explanation.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/David_Deutsch" title="David Deutsch">David Deutsch</a> <i>The Fabric of Reality</i> (1997).</li></ul></li></ul> <p><br /> </p> <ul><li><b>Dionysus</b>: He who <a href="/wiki/Believes" class="mw-redirect" title="Believes">believes</a> needs no explanation.<br /> <b>Pentheus</b>: What's the worth in believing worthless things? <br /><b>Dionysus</b>: Much worth, but not worth telling you, it seems. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Euripides" title="Euripides">Euripides</a> <i>Bacchae</i> l. 472, as translated by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Teevan" class="extiw" title="w:Colin Teevan">Colin Teevan</a> (2002)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>... <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Dreams_of_a_Final_Theory.html?id=Qd0MEtsBr7oC"><i>Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist’s Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature</i></a> (1992) ... belongs alongside <a href="/wiki/G._H._Hardy" title="G. H. Hardy">G. H. Hardy</a>’s <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mathematician%27s_Apology" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:A Mathematician's Apology">A Mathematician’s Apology</a></i> (1940) and <a href="/wiki/James_D._Watson" title="James D. Watson">James Watson</a>’s <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Double_Helix" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:The Double Helix">The Double Helix</a></i> (1968) as one of the classic <a href="/wiki/Book" class="mw-redirect" title="Book">books</a> in which a brilliant <a href="/wiki/Scientist" class="mw-redirect" title="Scientist">scientist</a> has given his motivations full vent. But while Hardy and Watson portrayed science as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/quest" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:quest">quest</a> for personal <a href="/wiki/Glory" title="Glory">glory</a>, <a href="/wiki/Steven_Weinberg" title="Steven Weinberg">Weinberg</a> portrayed it as a quest toward some final explanation, one that would undergird all others. <ul><li>David Kordahl, <cite style="font-style:normal"> (Winter 2019)"<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/steven-weinberg-glimpses-the-promised-land">Steven Weinberg Glimpses the Promised Land</a>". <i>The New Atlantis</i>: 120–128.</cite></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>But as our explanation will be more brief than one broken in upon by words of wonder, regret, and affection, we will proceed to it ; holding that explanation, like advice, should be of all convenient shortness. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Letitia_Elizabeth_Landon" title="Letitia Elizabeth Landon">Letitia Elizabeth Landon</a>, The Book of Beauty, 1833 (1832), <i>Theresa</i>.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li> "But surely you would explain your <a href="/wiki/Idea" class="mw-redirect" title="Idea">idea</a> to one who asked you?" <br /> <b>I say again, if I cannot draw a <a href="/wiki/Horse" class="mw-redirect" title="Horse">horse</a>, I will not write THIS IS A HORSE under what I foolishly <a href="/wiki/Meant" class="mw-redirect" title="Meant">meant</a> for one.</b> Any <a href="/wiki/Key" title="Key">key</a> to a work of <a href="/wiki/Imagination" title="Imagination">imagination</a> would be nearly, if not quite, as <a href="/wiki/Absurd" class="mw-redirect" title="Absurd">absurd</a>. The <a href="/wiki/Tale" class="mw-redirect" title="Tale">tale</a> is there, not to <a href="/wiki/Hide" class="mw-redirect" title="Hide">hide</a>, but to show: if it show nothing at your window, do not open your <a href="/wiki/Door" title="Door">door</a> to it; leave it out in the cold.<b> To ask me to explain, is to say, "<a href="/wiki/Roses" title="Roses">Roses</a>! Boil them, or we won't have them!" My tales may not be roses, but I will not boil them.</b> <br /> So long as I think my <a href="/wiki/Dog" class="mw-redirect" title="Dog">dog</a> can bark, I will not sit up to bark for him. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/George_MacDonald" title="George MacDonald">George MacDonald</a>, in "The Fantastic Imagination" (1893).</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/H._L._Mencken" title="H. L. Mencken">H. L. Mencken</a>, "The Divine Afflatus" in <i>New York Evening Mail</i> (16 November 1917); later published in <i>Prejudices: Second Series</i> (1920) and <i>A Mencken Chrestomathy</i> (1949).</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>There probably is a <a href="/wiki/God" title="God">God</a>. Many things are easier to explain if there is than if there isn't.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/John_Von_Neumann" class="mw-redirect" title="John Von Neumann">John Von Neumann</a>, as quoted in <i>John Von Neumann : The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer , Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence and Much More</i> (1992) by Norman Macrae, p. 379.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b><a href="/wiki/Tao" title="Tao">Tao</a> mystics never talk about <a href="/wiki/God" title="God">God</a>, reincarnation, <a href="/wiki/Heaven" title="Heaven">heaven</a>, <a href="/wiki/Hell" title="Hell">hell</a>. No, they don't talk about these things. These are all creations of human mind: explanations for something which can never be explained, explanations for the <a href="/wiki/Mystery" title="Mystery">mystery</a>.</b> In fact, all explanations are against God because explanation de-mystifies existence. Existence is a mystery, and one should accept it as a mystery and not pretend to have any explanation. No, explanation is not needed – only exclamation, a wondering heart, awakened, surprised, feeling the mystery of life each moment. Then, and only then, you know what truth is. And truth liberates. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Osho_(Bhagwan_Shree_Rajneesh)" class="mw-redirect" title="Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)">Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)</a>, <i>Never Born, Never Died</i> (2002) <small> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/81-7621-121-4" title="Special:BookSources/81-7621-121-4">ISBN 81-7621-121-4</a></small>.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><i>Denn wenn sich Jemand versteckt erklärt, so ist Nichts unhöflicher als eine neue Frage.</i> <ul><li>For when any one explains himself guardedly, nothing is more uncivil than to put a new question.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jean_Paul_Richter" class="mw-redirect" title="Jean Paul Richter">Jean Paul Richter</a>, <i>Hesperus</i>, II; reported in <i>Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations</i> (1922), p. 245.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>Explanations are clear but since no one to whom a thing is explained can connect the explanations with what is really clear, therefore clear explanations are not clear.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Gertrude_Stein" title="Gertrude Stein">Gertrude Stein</a>, <i>Everybody's Autobiography</i> (1937), chapter 4.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Very simple was my explanation, and plausible enough—as most wrong theories are! <ul><li><a href="/wiki/HG_Wells" class="mw-redirect" title="HG Wells">HG Wells</a> <a href="/wiki/The_Time_Machine" title="The Time Machine">The Time Machine</a> Chapter 4</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Paradoxes explain everything. Since they do, they cannot be explained. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Gene_Wolfe" title="Gene Wolfe">Gene Wolfe</a>, <i>The Book of the Short Sun</i>, Volume 1: <i>On Blue's Waters</i> (1999), Ch. 9.</li></ul></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Explanations&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Fact" title="Fact">Fact</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Explanations&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="noprint" style="clear: right; border: solid #aaa 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; font-size: 90%; background: #f9f9f9; width: 250px; padding: 4px; spacing: 0px; text-align: left; float: right;"> <div style="float: left;"><figure class="mw-halign-none" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg" class="mw-file-description" title="Wikipedia"><img alt="Wikipedia" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/50px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="46" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/75px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/100px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="103" data-file-height="94" /></a><figcaption>Wikipedia</figcaption></figure></div> <div style="margin-left: 60px;"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> has an article about: <div style="margin-left: 10px;"><i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explanation" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Explanation">Explanation</a></b></i></div> </div> </div> <div class="noprint metadata" style="clear: right; border: solid #aaa 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; font-size: 90%; background: #f9f9f9; width: 250px; padding: 4px; spacing: 0px; text-align: left; float: right;"> <div style="float: left;"><figure class="mw-halign-none" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wiktionary-logo.svg" class="mw-file-description" title="Wiktionary"><img alt="Wiktionary" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Wiktionary-logo.svg/50px-Wiktionary-logo.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="47" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Wiktionary-logo.svg/75px-Wiktionary-logo.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Wiktionary-logo.svg/100px-Wiktionary-logo.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="370" data-file-height="350" /></a><figcaption>Wiktionary</figcaption></figure></div> <div style="margin-left: 60px;">Look up <i><b><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/explanation" class="extiw" title="wiktionary:explanation">explanation</a></b></i> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiktionary" class="extiw" title="w:Wiktionary">Wiktionary</a>, the free dictionary</div> </div>    </div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;"></noscript> <div class="printfooter" data-nosnippet="">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Explanations&oldid=3621560">https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Explanations&oldid=3621560</a>"</div></div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Discourse" title="Category:Discourse">Discourse</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Semiotics" title="Category:Semiotics">Semiotics</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Logic" title="Category:Logic">Logic</a></li></ul></div></div> </div> </main> </div> <div class="mw-footer-container"> <footer id="footer" class="mw-footer" > <ul id="footer-info"> <li id="footer-info-lastmod"> This page was last edited on 22 November 2024, at 20:09.</li> <li id="footer-info-copyright">Text is available under the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License</a>; additional terms may apply. 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