Certainty Quotes - Page 4

• Moral certainty, clear standards, and a commitment to spiritual ideals will set you apart in a world that searches for meaning.

  Mitt Romney

  Spiritual, Commitment, World

  Mitt Romney's commencement speech at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, www.washingtonpost.com. May 14, 2012.

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• When we are not sure, we are alive.

  Graham Greene

  Inspirational, Life, Doubt

  Graham Greene (2010). “The Quiet American”, p.8, Random House

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• The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes amounts to certainty; the new therefore always appears in the guise of a miracle.

  Hannah Arendt

  Odds, Law, Miracle

  Hannah Arendt (2013). “The Human Condition: Second Edition”, p.178, University of Chicago Press

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• Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Jealousy, Doubt, Madness

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• The scientist believes in proof without certainty, the bigot in certainty without proof.

  Ashley Montagu

  Believe, Science, Religion

  "Science and Creationism". Book by Ashley Montagu (Introduction, p. 9), 1984.

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• Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities.

  George Boole

  Probability Theory, Perfect, Expectations

  Collected Logical Works Volume II An Investigation of the Law of Thought Chapter XVI (p. 258)

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• The Resistance is a moral certainty, not a poetic one. The true poet never uses words in order to punish someone. His judgment belongs to a creative order; it is not formulated as a prophetic scripture.

  Salvatore Quasimodo

  Order, Creative, Use

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• The American people want us to stop spending. And so let's just give them some certainty. Let's extend the tax - the existing tax cuts. And then let's give some more tax breaks to small businesses and large. And then maybe the American people will have some confidence.

  John McCain

  Confidence, Cutting, People

  "Sen. John McCain Talks Economy, Elections, Immigration". "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. September 5, 2010.

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• From this bestial view that the human mind consists of only sense certainty, pleasure and pain, Locke developed an equally bestial theory of the nation. Man originally existed in a State of Nature of complete liberty.

  Robert Trout

  Nature, Pain, Men

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• One thing, however, I know with certainty: violence, or the direct threat of violence, of the kind we have seen in the past few days, is totally unjustified as a response to any published word or image.

  Timothy Garton Ash

  Past, Violence, Kind

  "Our media must give Muslims the chance to debate with each other" by Timothy Garton Ash, www.theguardian.com. February 09, 2006.

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• In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Death, Money, Business

  Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy, 13 Nov. 1789

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• And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.

  William Gibson

  Money, Eye, Blue

  William Gibson (1987). “Count Zero”, p.24, Penguin

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• Sooner or later you must move down an unknown road that leads beyond the range of the imagination, and the only certainty is that the trip has to be made

  Bruce Catton

  Moving, Journey, Imagination

  Bruce Catton (1987). “Waiting for the Morning Train: An American Boyhood”, p.39, Wayne State University Press

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• Benjamin Franklin said there were only two things certain in life: death and taxes. But I'd like to add a third certainty: trash. And while some in this room might want to discuss reducing taxes, I want to talk about reducing trash.

  Ruth Ann Minner

  Certainty Of Death, Two, Add

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• Subatomic particles do not exist but rather show 'tendencies to exist', and atomic events do not occur with certainty at definite times and in definite ways, but rather show 'tendencies to occur'.

  Fritjof Capra

  Science, Events, Atoms

  Fritjof Capra, Pier Luigi Luisi (2014). “The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision”, p.72, Cambridge University Press

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• The hypotheses which we accept ought to explain phenomena which we have observed. But they ought to do more than this; our hypotheses ought to foretell phenomena which have not yet been observed; ... because if the rule prevails, it includes all cases; and will determine them all, if we can only calculate its real consequences. Hence it will predict the results of new combinations, as well as explain the appearances which have occurred in old ones. And that it does this with certainty and correctness, is one mode in which the hypothesis is to be verified as right and useful.

  William Whewell

  Real, Acceptance, Science

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• A common fallacy in much of the adverse criticism to which science is subjected today is that it claims certainty, infallibility and complete emotional objectivity. It would be more nearly true to say that it is based upon wonder, adventure and hope.

  Cyril Norman Hinshelwood

  Adventure, Science, Emotional

  "Chemistry in Britain". Quoted in E.J. Bowen's obituary of Hinshelwood, "Chemistry in Britain", Vol. 3, 536, 1967.

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• I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth - and truth rewarded me.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Inspirational, Truth, Comfort

  "All Said and Done". Book by Simone de Beauvoir, 1972.

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• It is only of life on Earth, however, that one can speak with any certainty. It seems to me that all life on Earth, the sum total of life upon the Earth, has purpose.

  Clifford D. Simak

  Purpose, Earth, Speak

  "Speaking of Science Fiction". Book by Paul Walker, 1978.

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• To be positive is to be mistaken at the top of one's voice.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Positive, Voice, Mistaken

  Ambrose Bierce, S. T. Joshi, David E. Schultz (1998). “A Sole Survivor: Bits of Autobiography”, p.18, Univ. of Tennessee Press

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  Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.

  Erich Fromm

  Letting Go, Spiritual, Courage

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• It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.

  H. L. Mencken

  Faith, Men, Dull

  H.L. Mencken (1920). “Prejudices Second Series”

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• Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Clarity, Absolute Certainty, Intellect

  Carl von Clausewitz (2008). “On War”, p.86, Princeton University Press

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• If a man fights his way through his doubts to the conviction that Jesus Christ is Lord, he has attained to a certainty that the man who unthinkingly accepts things can never reach.

  William Barclay

  Jesus, Stars, Fighting

  William Barclay (1964). “The Gospel of John”

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• If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom.

  Lord Byron

  Self, Envy, Doubt

  "Letters and Journals of Lord Byron". Book by Thomas Moore, Vol III, Chap. XVII, p. 208, 1830.

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