Thomas Pynchon Quotes

I begin to see an object when I cease to understand it.

Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.

Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

It's very hard to know what wisdom is.

Understanding reduces the greatest to simplicity, and lack of its causes the least to take on the magnitude.

If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused.

It's a murky world out there, and it's hard to figure things out sometimes.

Sometimes it's easier to understand things than it is to figure them out

They understand but a little who understand only what can be explained.

The more I see, the less I know.

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

There are many things that I don't understand.

Those who understand only what can be explained understand very little.

I'd rather not ever make anything overly simple just because I'm scared people won't get it.

If the body had been easier to understand, nobody would have thought that we had a mind.

Understanding is but the sum of misunderstandings.

The things best to know are first principles and causes, but these things are perhaps the most difficult for men to grasp, for they are farthest removed from the senses.

Yeah. I mean, acknowledging is easy. Something happened or it didn't. But understanding... that's where things get sticky.

Common sense is so very simple but very difficult to grasp.