“I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY”
1984
Variant: I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
George Orwell 473
English author and journalist 1903–1950Related quotes
Act 1
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)
Source: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985), p. 10
“The reasons why I do things are difficult for me to understand and difficult for me to explain.”
Another Man Essay
“What a wonderful thing a woman is. I can admire what they do even if I don't understand why.”
The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), unplaced by chapter
“I don't understand why I wanted to kill you.”
Danny Saunders to Reuven Malter
The Chosen (1967)
On an article by Qunta magazine(when asked: Is there one big question that has always guided you?) https://www.quantamagazine.org/michael-atiyahs-mathematical-dreams-20160303
Context: I always want to try to understand why things work. I’m not interested in getting a formula without knowing what it means. I always try to dig behind the scenes, so if I have a formula, I understand why it’s there. And understanding is a very difficult notion. People think mathematics begins when you write down a theorem followed by a proof. That’s not the beginning, that’s the end. For me the creative place in mathematics comes before you start to put things down on paper, before you try to write a formula. You picture various things, you turn them over in your mind. You’re trying to create, just as a musician is trying to create music, or a poet. There are no rules laid down. You have to do it your own way. But at the end, just as a composer has to put it down on paper, you have to write things down. But the most important stage is understanding. A proof by itself doesn’t give you understanding. You can have a long proof and no idea at the end of why it works. But to understand why it works, you have to have a kind of gut reaction to the thing. You’ve got to feel it.