Explain Yourself Quotes

Don't try to explain yourself to stupid people. You're not the jackass whisperer. ~ Lani Lynn Vale

Adam glanced at me. His grin was back. I'd forgotten how easily he could wind me up.
"You know, Eliza," he said, "maybe you're missing something here."
"You're going to be missing a few teeth if you don't explain yourself," I growled. ~ Sam Dogra

[E]very society imposes some of its values on those raised within it, but the point is that some societies try to maximize that effect, and some try to minimize it. You come from one of the latter and you're being asked to explain yourself to one of the former. Prevarication will be more difficult than you imagine; neutrality is probably impossible. You cannot choose not to have the politics you do; they are not some separate set of entities somehow detachable from the rest of your being; they are a function of your existence. ~ Iain M. Banks

Stop trying to explain yourself. People only understand things from their level of perception; within the parameters of their agreement with reality. Save your energy. ~ Steve Maraboli

The lovely thing about being an actor is being anonymous, it's never having to explain yourself. And that's what I find interesting about actors or painters I admire. I don't want to know about their lives. ~ Matthew Macfadyen

When you work with new people, I think that it throws all of the matters into relief, because you have to explain yourself every time. It's like crossing a new border. They want to see your documents. ~ Elvis Costello

I often think it would be really interesting to take all of those who would wage war to the battlefield cemeteries, and say, explain yourself to the dead. Explain yourself to the dead! ~ Jacqueline Winspear

I think the root of embarrassment is feeling totally misunderstood, wanting to explain yourself over and over but knowing that you won't make much sense to anyone even if you do. ~ Alice Ozma

Explain yourself!" he commanded.
"Isn't that rather much for a man to ask of a woman?"
"I don't know. I have no experience of women. In the abstract, it seems to me that every man has a
right to some explanation from the woman who has ruined his life." (page 90) ~ Max Beerbohm

How is faith to endure, O God, when you allow all this scraping and tearing on us? You have allowed rivers of blood to flow, mountains of suffering to pile up, sobs to become humanity's song
all without lifting a finger that we could see. You have allowed bonds of love beyond number to be painfully snapped. If you have not abandoned us, explain yourself.
We strain to hear. But instead of hearing an answer we catch sight of God himself scraped and torn. Through our tears we see the tears of God. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

Words can," Susan said. "And tone of voice. You're just so goddamned autonomous that you won't explain yourself to anybody. ~ Robert B. Parker

When you are rich and powerful, no one will challenge you to your face or give you a chance to explain yourself. All the whispers are behind your back. You are left with no means of clearing your own name. And after a while you realize there is no point in even attempting to do so. No one wants the truth. All anyone wants is the chance to add more fuel to the fires of gossip. The whispers become so loud that sometimes you think you will drown in them. ~ Amanda Quick

Don't waste your time trying to explain yourself to people that are committed to misunderstanding you. Instead, commit your time to explaining who they are to them. When you get a person to see the positive similarities you share, it begins to restore the loss of respect between you. ~ Shannon L. Alder

Though sometimes you need to explain yourself with bitter or better words, he who knows how to speak how matured he is with silence in his most tempting moment is truly a matured person. ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Don't apologize. You don't have to explain yourself. I choose you. I want you. ~ Lex Martin

You need a place where you can explain yourself. You can write as much or as little as you would like, but the words will be all yours. You can create the context. You can make sure that all issues are addressed. You can take issue with individuals or the media as a whole. Your words, your message. ~ Mark Cuban

Never explain yourself, Alma. It makes you appear weak. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

If you prepare, and you've got wonderful, bright people who get it, who accept and appreciate your preparation, then you don't have to explain yourself 9,000 times. ~ Israel Horovitz

It's hard to discipline yourself not to explain yourself or apologize. ~ Joel Stein

You're allowed to hold your family at arm's length, family can be toxic, family can be abusive, family can belittle you, invalidate you, or make you feel unsafe, you don't need to explain yourself to anyone who disagrees. ~ Amanda Lovelace

Jernau Gurgeh," the machine said, making a sighing noise, "a guilty system recognizes no innocents. As with any power apparatus which thinks everybody's either for it or against it, we're against it. You would be too, if you thought about it. The very way you think places you among its enemies. This might not be your fault, because every society imposes some of its values on those raised within it, but the point is that some societies try to maximize that effect, and some try to minimize it. You come from one of the latter and you're being asked to explain yourself to one of the former. Prevarication will be more difficult than you might imagine; neutrality is probably impossible. You cannot choose not to have the politics you do; they are not some separate set of entities somehow detachable from the rest of your being; they are a function of your existence. I know that and they know that; you had better accept it." Gurgeh thought about this. "Can I lie? ~ Iain M. Banks

Never explain yourself to people, just make them feel you. ~ Toba Beta

I'm happy in a silent world - well, not a silent world but one that relies on - I'm in a pretty physical actor I suppose anyway, and I just don't - I don't struggle that idea of emotional expression just because there aren't words to explain yourself. ~ Guy Pearce

Never explain yourself to anyone, because the one who likes you would not need it, and the one dislikes you wouldn't believe it. ~ Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Never explain yourself. Your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe it. ~ Ziad K. Abdelnour

Well? Are you going to crouch there and gawk at me or explain yourself?"
Instead of answering, the girl frowned and asked, "Why can't i read you?"
A short disbelieving laugh slipped from Sherry, but when the girl simply stared at her with bewilderment, she said reasonably, "Maybe because I'm not a book. ~ Lynsay Sands

The allure of love is to have someone who knows you so well that you don't have to explain yourself. It is the promise of someone who cares enough about you to protect you against the world of strangers who do not wish you well. ~ Deborah Tannen

Dalek: I will talk to the Doctor.
The Doctor: Oh will you? That's nice. Hello!
Dalek: The Dalek strategem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene.
The Doctor: Oh really? Why's that, then?
Dalek: We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated.
The Doctor: No.
Dalek: Explain yourself.
The Doctor: I said, "No."
Dalek: What is the meaning of this negative?
The Doctor: It means, "No."
Dalek: But she will be destroyed!
The Doctor: No! 'Cause this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rescue her. I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I'm gonna save the Earth. And then - just to finish off - I'm gonna wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!
Dalek: But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan.
The Doctor: Yeah! And doesn't that scare you to death? Rose?
Rose: Yes, Doctor?
The Doctor: I'm coming to get you. ~ Russell T. Davies

Neither can you explain yourself to me. Nor can I explain myself to you. You have your sadness and I have mine. ~ Avijeet Das

It is so much easier to deal with the dead than with the living. The dead are out of the way, merely characters from stories about the past, never again unreadable, no misunderstandings possible, the pain coming from them stable and manageable. nor do you have to explain yourself to them, to justify the fact of your life. ~ Aleksandar Hemon

JACE WAYLAND," she said. "Explain yourself."
Jace was glaring at the cat. "I told you to bring me to Alec! Backstabing Judas."
Church rolled onto his back, purring contentedly. ~ Cassandra Clare

When you're called to Revival & Awakening you walk closer to God and most people won't understand your calling so save your breathe you don't have to explain yourself ~ Joe Joe Dawson

Who are you?" I demanded when I was certain he couldn't escape my grip.
"I'm a twenty-four-year-old Taurus who enjoys long walks on the beach." Even though I couldn't see his face, I could feel his arrogant grin.
"You have ten seconds to explain yourself," I ordered. "Or I'm really going to hurt you."
"Oh, come on! Can't we get back to the kissing? You can't tease a guy like that. ~ Ada Adams

Dealing with all the questions once the book is out and unchangeable, forces you to permanently give opinions about - in this case - sensible, challenging topics that you are basically only half the expert you would have to be if you wanted to explain yourself in a trustworthy, intelligent and helpful manner. ~ Sasa Stanisic

I did not want to write this book as a way of explaining the humanity of Vietnamese. Toni Morrison says in Beloved that to have to explain yourself to white people distorts you because you start from a position of assuming your inhumanity or lack of humanity in other people's eyes. Rather than writing a book that tries to affirm humanity, which is typically the position that minority writers are put into, the book starts from the assumption that we are human, and then goes on to prove that we're also inhuman at the same time. ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen

If someone thinks you're being dramatic or selfish, then they obviously haven't walked a mile in your shoes. It's not important for you to explain yourself. You get a pass here. Don't let anyone else try to saddle you with guilt or shame. If you need your space, take it. ~ Sarah Newman

There are four categories of questions Emmily asks:
1. Can I please go to the bathroom?
2. Where is the bathroom?
3. Is it okay if I raise my hand and ask a question?
4. I don't understand anything you've said in the last thirty minutes. Could you explain it again? Also the last six weeks. ~ Jim Benton

And it was the pretending that might explain how she could smile so brightly while her mind felt nothing - as if, at these times, there existed a disconnection between outer and inner, a shutting off, and the key to her happiness lay in warding off pain, or dodging it, or pushing it into the shape of something else - like shame or anger or even hope. ~ Sue Saliba

Arin, are you all right?"
"How?" He managed. "How did her arm break?"
"She fell of a ladder."
He must have visibly relaxed, because his cousin raised her brows and looked ready to scold.
"I imagined something worse," he tried to explain.
She appeared to understand his relief that pain, if it had to come, came this time without malice. Just and accident. Done by no one. The luck, sometimes of life. A bad slip that ends with bread, and someone to bind you. ~ Marie Rutkoski

I have nothing to explain. As for being misunderstood, I have grown accustomed to that. ~ Fan Bingbing

Life's too damn funny for me to explain. ~ Don Marquis

This is what you have to learn. Don't backtalk. Don't explain. Don't protest. Don't fight it out. Just say, 'All right, honey,' and do whatever the hell you want. For example, just this morning, Mark said, 'Make tacos tonight, babe,' before he kissed me good-bye. No 'please'. No, 'are you feeling like tacos?' Just 'make them.'" She tipped her head to the side. "Now, are we having tacos?" She shook her head. "Hell no. We had tacos two days ago. I get he loves my tacos, but eff that. My friend is coming over and I just had tacos. Furthermore, I have to make the damn things. So we're having a roast. You serve company a good roast. Not freaking tacos. ~ Kristen Ashley

Rhys straightened. "You'd- make me food?"
"Heat," I said. "I can't cook."
It didn't seem to make a difference. But whatever it was, the act of offering him food... I dumped some cold soup into a pan and lit the burner. "I don't know the rules," I said, my back to him. "So you need to explain them to me."
He lingered in the center of the cabin, watching my every move. He said hoarsely, "It's an... important moment when a female offers her mate food. It goes back to whatever beats we were a long, long time ago. But it still matters. The first time matters. Some mated pairs will make an occasion of it- throwing a party just so the female can formally offer mate food... That's usually done amongst the wealthy. But it means that the female... accepts the bond."
I stared into the soup. "Tell me the story- tell me everything."
He understood my offer: tell me while I cooked, and I'd decide at the end whether or not to offer him that food. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Another thing much too commonly seen, is an aberration of the human mind which otherwise I should have been ashamed to warn you of. It is technically called carpet-gardening. Need I explain it further? I had rather not, for when I think of it, even when I am quite alone, I blush with shame at the thought. ~ William Morris

The fact that a man who goes his own way ends in ruin means nothing ... He must obey his own law, as if it were a daemon whispering to him of new and wonderful paths ... There are not a few who are called awake by the summons of the voice, whereupon they are at once set apart from the others, feeling themselves confronted with a problem about which the others know nothing. In most cases it is impossible to explain to the others what has happened, for any understanding is walled off by impenetrable prejudices. "You are no different from anybody else," they will chorus or, "there's no such thing," and even if there is such a thing, it is immediately branded as "morbid"...He is at once set apart and isolated, as he has resolved to obey the law that commands him from within. "His own law!" everybody will cry. But he knows better: it is the law...The only meaningful life is a life that strives for the individual realization - absolute and unconditional - of its own particular law ... To the extent that a man is untrue to the law of his being ... he has failed to realize his own life's meaning. ~ C.G. Jung

Amar reached for my hand and put something in my palm. I looked down: string.
"For conquering," he said.
I stretched the string into a taut line.
"Conquering what? Insects?"
"No. Your enemies."
The stars. Fate.
The string drooped in my fingers.
"Why do you hate them?" he asked.
"If Akaran has its eyes and ears in Bharata, then you already know," I said darkly, thinking of the horoscope that had shadowed the past seventeen years.
"Do you believe the horoscope?"
"No."
I meant it. There was no proof. Sometimes, I still thought it was a hateful rumor born of Mother Dhina's jealousy.
"Then why hate the stars?"
"For what they did. Or, I guess, what they made other people do," I said softly. "For making me hated without reason and without evidence. Wouldn't you hate distant jailers?"
"I don't believe they're jailers. I believe the stars."
"Then you're a fool to marry me."
He laughed. "I believe them, but I choose to read them differently."
"I don't see any happy way to explain death and destruction."
"Doesn't death make room for life? Autumn trees die to make room for new shoots. And destruction is part of that cycle. After all, a devastating forest fire lets the ground start anew."
I stared at him. No one had ever said anything like that in Bharata. No one had ever challenged the stars. And yet, the light contoured him, clung to him, like the stars knew and believed everything he said. Ma ~ Roshani Chokshi

I work very hard on finding good characters who can explain things to me, and I use them to help tell the story. I organize my pieces not just around people but around animals and plants, energy flows, the path that carbon takes through the food system. ~ Michael Pollan

If you want to know the taste of an orange, you have to taste it; no amount of description can exactly convey its taste to you. Similarly, you cannot properly explain enlightenment to someone who has not experienced it. ~ Joseph P. Kauffman

A God that can be understood is no God. Who can explain the Infinite in words? ~ W. Somerset Maugham

Juanita refused to analyze this process, insisted that it was something ineffable, something you couldn't explain with words. A radical, rosary-toting Catholic, she has no problem with that kind of thing. But the bitheads didn't like it. Said it was irrational mysticism. So she quit and took a job with some Nipponese company. They don't have any problem with irrational mysticism as long as it makes money. ~ Neal Stephenson

Tolstoy isn't the only reason I don't wish to marry," Pandora said. "Whatever your reasons, they are unsound. I will explain to you later why you do wish to marry. Furthermore, you are an unconventional girl, and you must learn to conceal it. There is no happiness for any individual, man or woman, who does not dwell within the broad zone of average. ~ Lisa Kleypas

God causes grains and seeds to split and sprout, for He brings life from death and death from life. That's how God is to you, so how is it that you're so deceived (about His nature)? [95] He splits the dawn (from the night) and made the night for rejuvenation and rest, while the sun and the moon are for counting the passage of time. That's how He's arranged (for your world to work, for He's) the Powerful and the Knowing. [96] He's the One Who made the stars (as reference points) to guide you on your way through the unknown regions of land and sea, and this is how We explain Our signs for people who know. [97] He's the One Who produced you all from a single soul. (So understand that this world that you inhabit) is a place to linger, and it's also a point of departure. This is how We explain Our verses for people who understand. He's the One Who sends down water from the sky and uses it to produce plants of every kind. ~ Anonymous

An ocean could not explain the distance we have traveled. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer

She tried to explain to them it wasn't the place that made people uncultured but their attitudes. ~ Vivian Arend

Physics explains everything, which we know because anything physics cannot explain does not exist, which we know because whatever exists must be explicable by physics, which we know because physics explains everything. There is something here of the mystical. ~ David Bentley Hart

Acquainted with the Night
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night. ~ Robert Frost

Science cannot explain miracles. Neither do miracles explain science. ~ Jerry Pollock

I could see us sitting at the old piano, while he tried to explain how music worked. I could see the Iron glamour in the notes, the strict lines and rigid rules that made up the score, but the music itself was a vortex of song and pure, swirling emotion. They weren't separate entities, creative magic and Iron glamour. They were one; cold logic and wild emotion, merged together to create something truly beautiful. ~ Julie Kagawa

Sometimes I wonder if there's things we'll never explain. You know, like, you know, what if we did answer all the questions? You know, would we live on, like forever, happy with our triumph over ignorance? Or is ignorance just a common enemy that once destroyed, would leave our species without a reason to carry on? I guess it doesn't matter what the answer is...because even if supreme knowledge did bring about the end of our species, the thought of obtaining it is just what would keep us together. You know? People will always look up at the sky...and just wonder why we're here. WATER BISON POWERS, ACTIVATE! ~ Michael J. Caboose

New town. New house. New car. New job.
New life.
That's what Ben had asked me to do. To start a new life for my four-year-old daughter, Rowen, and a new life for me.
And as much as I would have liked to explain that a major life change was completely unnecessary, it was tough to argue with a dead man.
So here we were in Prescott, Montana. Starting a new life. ~ Devney Perry

She did not need Miguel to explain that love, unconditional and unremitting, is the essence of life. She knew well that love based on conditions is a twisted copy of the truth, and yet it is there that humanity plays - there, in the shade of a metaphorical tree that wavers like a sullen mirage and scatters the seeds of a million lies. ~ Miguel Ruiz

I can't explain how it's different. Why kissing is easy, and being kissed is like being suffocated. ~ Rainbow Rowell

Bree shot to her feet and glared at him.
"Look all you want, Brianna. That was the deal, remember? Until Arturo is found, I'm not leaving you alone."
Alessandro stared down at her with immovable stubbornness.
"How am I gonna explain you to my grandfather? And what if the rest of my family is there?"
"Hello O'Reiley family, you remember Alessandro, the father of my child, the man that I love, the light of my life, ma raison d'être…"
"Are you done?" Bree asked cocking an eyebrow.
"Depends, are you quite ready to go? Look, you can explain that I'm there for answers too. My father's involvement in this vendetta directly influences my own future and that of my child. ~ E. Jamie

Plants have to eat, too," I tried to explain. "They need nitrogen, they need minerals. You have to replace what you're taking out. Your choices are fossil fuels or animal products. ~ Lierre Keith

Then you've had a good day of it, I suppose."

"Then you suppose wrong," said Lymond shortly. "I've had a damned carking afternoon. A Moslem would blame my Ifrit, a Buddhist explain the papingo was really my own great-grandmother, and a Christian, no doubt, call it the vengeance of the Lord. As a plain, inoffensive heathen, I call it bloody annoying. ~ Dorothy Dunnett

It's odd, then, that in my twenties, despite my devotion to urbanity, I often found myself wrestling with a curiosity about country living that seemed strangely akin to a homophobic person "struggling with same-sex attraction." As much as I wanted to be a creature of the city, as much as I'd organized my entire life around the overpriced, undersized vagaries of Manhattan living, I sometimes found myself wanting desperately to live on a farm, or at least near one. I can't explain this by way of any rational desire; ~ Meghan Daum

Explanations can't explain love--only deep perception can do that. ~ Debasish Mridha

We came to the city because we wished to live haphazardly, to reach for only the least realistic of our desires, and to see if we could not learn what our failures had to teach, and not, when we came to live, discover that we had never died. We wanted to dig deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to be overworked and reduced to our last wit. And if our bosses proved mean, why then we'd evoke their whole and genuine meanness afterward over vodka cranberries and small batch bourbons. And if our drinking companions proved to be sublime then we would stagger home at dawn over the Old City cobblestones, into hot showers and clean shirts, and press onward until dusk fell again. For the rest of the world, it seemed to us, had somewhat hastily concluded that it was the chief end of man to thank God it was Friday and pray that Netflix would never forsake them.

Still we lived frantically, like hummingbirds; though our HR departments told us that our commitments were valuable and our feedback was appreciated, our raises would be held back another year. Like gnats we pestered Management - who didn't know how to use the Internet, whose only use for us was to set up Facebook accounts so they could spy on their children, or to sync their iPhones to their Outlooks, or to explain what tweets were and more importantly, why - which even we didn't know. Retire! we wanted to shout. We ha Get out of the way with your big thumbs and your senior moments and your nostalgia for 1976! W ~ Kristopher Jansma

I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain," said he. "Results without causes are much more impressive. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle