Martin Amis

Jane was my wicked stepmother: she was generous, affectionate and resourceful; she salvaged my schooling and I owe her an unknowable debt for that. One flaw: sometimes, early on, she would tell me things designed to make me think less of my mother, and I would wave her away, saying, 'Jane, this just backfires and makes me think less of you.

British Author

Elizabeth Gilbert

You know, I think that allowing somebody, one mere person to believe that he or she is like, the vessel you know, like the font and the essence and the source of all divine, creative, unknowable, eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile, human psyche. It's like asking somebody to swallow the sun.

American Novelist

Michael Sheen

Hamlet' is one of the most dangerous things ever set down on paper. All the big, unknowable questions like what it is to be a human being; the difference between sanity and insanity; the meaning of life and death; what's real and not real. All these subjects can literally drive you mad.

Welsh Actor

Michael Leunig

Perhaps life is actually more confusing and unknowable to an adult than a child, but grown-ups have learned to deceive themselves and act as if they understand what's going on; and some are elected to high office on the basis of their ability to create this impression.

Australian Cartoonist

Sam Esmail

The world is so heavily influenced by technology, and it has started to feel like it's not on solid ground. The world has become unreliable, unknowable. Facts are vulnerable, and things you have come to rely on are no longer there.

American Director

Andrew O'Hagan

When I look back at my childhood on the Ayrshire coast, I recall a basic devotion to the idea that human nature and national character are as unknowable as the weather's rationale.

Scottish Novelist

Leo Strauss

If the highest things are unknowable, then the highest capacity or virtue of man cannot be theoretical wisdom.

German Philosopher

Joseph Barber Lightfoot

It is strange to reflect how much energy is thrown away in attempting to know the unknowable.

English Theologian

H. L. Mencken

Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.

American Writer

Leonard Bernstein

Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.

American Composer

Used in discussions about existence, life's big questions and philosophical theories.

Philosophical Use

Acknowledges the limits of human knowledge and understanding.

Intellectual Humility

Adds a sense of mystery when describing something beyond comprehension.

Conveys Mystery

Used when outcomes cannot be predicted, often due to too many changing variables.

Uncertainty in Events

Common in sports commentary to emphasize suspense and unpredictability.

Sports Commentary

Indicates that something is beyond the scope of current expertise or technology.

Limit of Expertise

Implies that some historical information might be permanently lost or impossible to decipher.

Historical Secrets

Suggests that some cultural phenomena are too complex to fully understand.

Cultural Enigmas

Adds depth to a character or situation by suggesting hidden layers or meanings.

Perceived Depth

 of the hidden and ultimately unknowable sensory signals that reach my eyes. And just think about the redness itself, for a moment. Does the color red exist in the world? No, it doesn't. And we don't need neuroscience to tell us this. Newton discovered long ago that all the colors we experience,

Anil Seth: How your...

 You know, I think that allowing somebody, one mere person to believe that he or she is like, the vessel, you know, like the font and the essence and the source of all divine, creative, unknowable, eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile, human psyche.

Your elusive creative...

 extended for 650 kilometers all the way into the sea, killing unknowable amounts of plant and animal life along the way. And lastly, here is a story related to the crisis in Syria, a conflict which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.

What it feels like to...

 Remember, black swan is this rare bird that you see once and suddenly shattered your belief that all swans should be white, so it has captured the idea of unpredictability, unknowability, that the extreme events are fundamentally unknowable. Nothing can be further

Didier Sornette: How we...

 of natural and spiritual forces that can shift the course of her existence without warning. And when she finally does find true love, these unknowable powers continue to act on her, threatening to destroy the life she's so painstakingly built.

Can love and independence...

 not unknowable qualia beyond physical explanation. But there still isn't a definitive answer to the question of whether Mary would learn anything new when she sees the apple. Could it be that there are fundamental limits to what we can know

Mary's Room: A...

 or she is the vessel you know like the font and the essence and the source of all divine creative unknowable eternal mystery is just like a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile human psyche it's like asking somebody

 in my dad's big easy chair, you know? So, three types of vision, right? Vision based on what one cannot see, the vision of that unseen and unknowable. The vision of that which has already been proven or can be ascertained.

Scott McCloud:...

 you know oh i love that that's a beautiful image i love that because that's the that's washing away all of that that inability to access the other you know that you feel unknowable but it's like you can get more of your

Reframing Black History...

 the tragic fact is that even the most vigilant and responsible of us may not be able to help, but for love's sake, we must never stop trying to know the unknowable. Thank you.

Unknowable