“Absurd, irreducible; nothing — not even a profound and secret delirium of nature — could explain it. Obviously I did not know everything, I had not seen the seeds sprout, or the tree grow. But faced with this great wrinkled paw, neither ignorance nor knowledge was important: the world of explanations and reasons is not the world of existence. A circle is not absurd, it is clearly explained by the rotation of a straight segment around one of its extremities. But neither does a circle exist. This root, on the other hand, existed in such a way that I could not explain it.” KnowsWorldWayDoeImportantReasonHandsGrowsSecretExistenceTreeIgnoranceRootsProfoundSeedsCirclesAbsurdExplanationPawsDeliriumSproutsExtremityNauseaRotation Author:Jean-Paul Sartre
“Of course, the simple explanation of the fact is that marriage is the most important act of man's life in Europe or America, and that everything depends upon it.” MenImportantFactsAmericaCoursesLiteratureSimpleDependsEuropeExplanation Book:Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn Source: Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn
“The strange and wonderful Book of Job treats of the same subject as we are discussing; its contents are a fiction, conceived for the purpose of explaining the different opinions which people hold on Divine Providence. ...This fiction, however, is in so far different from other fictions that it includes profound ideas and great mysteries, removes great doubts, and reveals the most important truths. I will discuss it as fully as possible; and I will also tell you the words of our Sages that suggested to me the explanation of this great poem.” PeopleImportantBookIdeasDifferentJobsPurposeFictionOpinionDoubtWonderfulMysterySubjectsDivineStrangeTreatsProfoundExplanationRemoveProvidenceSageExplainingDiscussingDivine ProvidenceDifferent Opinions Author:Maimonides
“I was lucky to wander into evolutionary theory, one of the most exciting and important of all scientific fields. I had never heard of it when I started at a rather tender age; I was simply awed by dinosaurs. I thought paleontologists spent their lives digging up bones and putting them together, never venturing beyond the momentous issue of what connects to what. Then I discovered evolutionary theory. Ever since then, the duality of natural history-richness in particularities and potential union in underlying explanation-has propelled me.” ImportantAgeTogetherNaturalIssuesHeardAtheismFieldsTheoryLuckyExcitingUnionsBonesWanderExplanationRichnessDualityDiggingDinosaursNatural History Author:Stephen Jay Gould