“In Phebus realm, in knowledge as in verse,
All things are clear, the sun of Phoebus clear,
Clear was his crystal, the Kastalian.
What you cannot clearly say, you don’t know:
To tongue of man his thought brings word:
What’s said obscurely is what’s thought obscurely.”
"Epilog vid Magisterpromotionen i Lund 1820".
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Esaias Tegnér 7
Swedish poet, professor and bishop 1782–1846Related quotes

Letter, March 11, 1954, to Malcolm Cowley. Collecting Himself (1989)
Letters and interviews

A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work

Source: Everybody’s Autobiography (1937), Ch. 4
Context: 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. Now this is a simple thing that anybody who has ever argued or quarreled knows perfectly well is a simple thing, only when they read it they do not understand it because they do not see that understanding and believing are not the same thing.

Entry (1954)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)