[wrwatson]

I think of comments as an apology to the engineer reading the code.

I'm apologising because the code isn't obvious, or the language not sufficiently expressive, or the good-idea-at-the-time no longer is. Ideally I wouldn't need to write many comments, but I often find myself sorry things are not simpler.

[atoav]

In the end a comment should be like a shortcut that allows people to understand your code faster or a reminder why certain choices were made.

You are right in spirit to say sorry when the code cannot be self-explainatory, but consider that sometimes even if the code is self explainatory, comments can help your reader to see the grand picture faster or to avoid interpersonal ambiguity by allowing you to use two different ways of phrasing a thing.