Explained Quotes

When we remember we are all mad,
the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
- Mark Twain

Related topics: Wisdom Deep Lesson Cynical Funny

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

Time to Die:
A Zen teacher had a rare and priceless teacup.
One day, his precocious student accidentally broke the cup.
Hearing the footsteps of his teacher,
the student held the pieces of the cup behind his back.
When the master appeared, he asked: "Why do people have to die?"
"This is natural," explained the teacher.
"Everything has to die and has just so long to live."
The student showed the shattered cup, saying,
"It was time for your cup to die."
- Traditional Zen Koan

If you can't explain it simply,
you don't understand it well enough.
- Albert Einstein

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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Nothing I say can explain to you Divine Love
Yet all of creation cannot seem to stop talking about it.
- Rumi

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love is an endless mystery,
for it has nothing else to explain it.
- Rabindranath Tagore

The Four Stages of Public Opinion
I (Just after publication): The novelty is absurd
and subversive of Religion and Morality.
The propounder both fool and knave.
II (Twenty years later): The Novelty is absolute Truth
and will yield a full and satisfactory
explanation of things in general -
The propounder a man of sublime genius and perfect virtue.
III (Forty years later): The Novelty won't explain
things in general after all, and therefore is a wretched failure.
The propounder a very ordinary person advertised by a clique.
IV (A century later): The Novelty a mixture of truth and error.
Explains as much as could reasonably be expected.
The propounder worthy of all honor
in spite of his share of human frailties,
as one who has added to the permanent possessions of science.
- Thomas Henry [T. H.] Huxley

The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it.
- Mark Twain

A politician needs the ability to
foretell what is going to happen
tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year.
And to have the ability afterwards
to explain why it didn't happen.
- Winston Churchill

The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
- William Arthur Ward

Being is the great explainer.
- Henry David Thoreau

For centuries, theologians have been explaining
the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.
- H. L. Mencken

Interesting.
You Earth people glorify organized violence for 40 centuries,
but you imprison those who employ it privately.
- the character Spock in the television series Star Trek

The African is my brother but he is
my younger brother by several centuries.
- Albert Schweitzer

The only interesting answers are those that destroy the questions.
- Susan Sontag

The most interesting information comes from children,
for they tell all they know and then stop.
- Mark Twain

Success is never so interesting as struggle
- Willa Cather

A lot of presidential memoirs, they say, are dull and self-serving.
I hope mine is interesting and self-serving.
- William J. Clinton

I wanted to see exotic Vietnam, the jewel of Southeast Asia.
I, uh, I wanted to meet interesting
and stimulating people of an ancient culture,
and kill them.
- the movie Full Metal Jacket

It is an interesting question how far men
would retain their relative rank
if they were divested of their clothes.
- Henry David Thoreau

Nothing in life is to be feared.
It is only to be understood.
- Marie Curie

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- Robert F. Kennedy

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only
grow if you are willing to feel awkward and
uncomfortable when you try something new.
- Brian Tracy

There are no facts, only interpretations.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph
is for enough good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke

We have only this moment,
sparkling like a star in our hand -
and melting like a snowflake.
- Marie B. Ray

Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

There are only two or three human stories,
and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely
as if they had never happened before.
- Willa Cather

People only see what they are prepared to see.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Majority rule only works if you're also
considering individual rights,
because you can't have five wolves and one sheep
voting on what to have for dinner.
- Larry Flynt

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition,
is not only a waste of energy
but the worst habit you could possibly have.
- Dale Carnegie

You're only here for a short visit.
Don't hurry. Don't worry.
And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
- Walter Hagen

The essence of all religions is one.
Only their approaches are different.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Friendship is born at that moment
when one person says to another,
"What! You too? I thought I was the only one."
- C. S. Lewis

Life only
appears to be
rushing toward us
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Choose Inner Peace.
Nothing is worth losing your inner peace.
Take action as circumstances require,
but never surrender your inner peace.
Stop. Breathe deeply.
Close your eyes and breathe deeply again.
Then, and only then, take action -
from a peaceful heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life is an adventure.
I can only wonder what treasure
awaits at the top of the path.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Hate is never conquered by hate,
Hate is only conquered by love.
- The Buddha

One can not reflect in streaming water.
Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
- Lao Tzu

Play with life, laugh with life,
dance lightly with life,
and smile at the riddles of life,
knowing that life's only true lessons
are writ small in the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
- Henry David Thoreau

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was,
Thank you, that would suffice.
- Meister Eckhart

Only love and death will change all things.
- Khalil Gibran

A man is truly ethical only when he obeys
the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist,
and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.
- Albert Schweitzer

I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing
was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.
- Margaret Mead

There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
- Albert Einstein

Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.
- Soren Kierkegaard

Apology is only egotism wrong side out.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Truth is not only violated by falsehood;
it may be equally outraged by silence.
- Henri Frederic Amiel

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere,
while the pessimist sees only the red stoplight.
The truly wise person is colorblind.
- Albert Schweitzer

Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Non-violence means avoiding not only external physical violence
but also internal violence of spirit.
You not only refuse to shoot a man,
but you refuse to hate him.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

I must dedicate my life to teaching my people,
for only education would make their lot less bitter,
their latent power more strong.
- Jimmy Yen

I cannot teach anybody anything.
I can only make them think.
- Socrates

The only ones among you who will be really happy
are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer

Smile at the riddles of life,
knowing that life's only true lessons
are writ small in the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.
Only through experiences of trial and suffering
can the soul be strengthened,
vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.
- Helen Keller

Hatred does not cease by hatred,
but only by love;
this is the eternal rule.
- The Buddha

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.
Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
- Marie Curie

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles
possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.
- Albert Schweitzer

A man can do only what he can do.
But if he does that each day he can sleep at night
and do it again the next day.
- Albert Schweitzer

Books can only reveal us to ourselves,
and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.
- Henry David Thoreau

The only place where your dream becomes impossible
is in your own thinking.
- Robert H. Schuller

You only get out what you put in.
- Anonymous

There is no certainty; there is only adventure.
- Roberto Assagioli

One thing I know: the only ones among you
who will be really happy are those
who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer

The heart knows nothing of the past,
nothing of the future;
it knows only of the present.
- Osho

Do not attempt to conquer the world with force,
for force only causes resistance.
- Lao Tzu

Commitment cannot be taught;
it can only be caught.
I refer to the crusading spirit.
Without the crusading spirit,
you may have the starting power
but not the staying power.
- Jimmy Yen

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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie