Certain Knowledge Quotes

• We do know of certain knowledge that he [Osama Bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead.

  Donald Rumsfeld

  Country, Osama Bin Laden, Certain

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• Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

  Charles Darwin

  Positive, Confidence, Ignorance

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.33, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Confidence, Atheist

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.6343, Delphi Classics

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• I believe in intuitions and inspirations...I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am.

  Albert Einstein

  Faith, Believe, Inspiration

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.435, Princeton University Press

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• If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

  Francis Bacon

  Inspirational, Success, Wisdom

  The Advancement of Learning bk. 1, ch. 5, sec. 8 (1605)

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• The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.

  Albert Einstein

  Life, Motivational, God

  Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.49, Broadway Books

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• The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.

  Frank Herbert

  Knowledge, Caring, Discovery

  Frank Herbert (2008). “God Emperor of Dune”, p.150, Penguin

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• Knowledge is recognizing what you know and what you don't.

  Confucius

  Education, Homeschooling, Educational

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• I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Inspirational, Change, Education

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• One of the things that makes our military the best in the world is the certain knowledge of each soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine that they can always count on their comrades should they need help - that they will never be abandoned.

  Jon Kyl

  Military, Marine, Soldier

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• It may well happen that what is in itself the more certain on account of the weakness of our intelligence, which is dazzled by the clearest objects of nature; as the owl is dazzled by the light of the sun. Hence the fact that some happen to doubt about articles of faith is not due to the uncertain nature of the truths, but to the weakness of human intelligence; yet the slenderest knowledge that may be obtained of the highest things is more desirable than the most certain knowledge obtained of lesser things.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Christian, Light, Doubt

  Saint Thomas Aquinas, Catholic Way Publishing (2014). “The Summa Theologica: Complete Edition”, p.59, Catholic Way Publishing

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• What . . . is this testimony of Jesus, how can it be acquired, and what will it do for those who receive it? The testimony of Jesus is the sure and certain knowledge, revealed to the spirit of a person through the Holy Ghost, that Jesus is the living Son of the living God. Because the testimony of Jesus is God-given, it stands preeminent and is essential to a happy life. It is the fundamental principle of our religion, and all other things pertaining to our faith are appendages to it.

  Keith B. McMullin

  Jesus, Happy Life, Son

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• Rhetoric is the counterpart of logic; since both are conversant with subjects of such a nature as it is the business of all to have a certain knowledge of, and which belong to no distinct science. Wherefore all men in some way participate of both; since all, to a certain extent, attempt, as well to sift, as to maintain an argument; as well to defend themselves, as to impeach.

  Aristotle

  Men, Way, Logic

  Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes (1823). “Aristotle's Treatise on Rhetoric”, p.1

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• Certain knowledge of what to fight for, and what to fight against, gives meaning to life and provides its own version of discipline: never give up. That kind of meaning is illusory, I now believe, and blinkered. Fealty to a mystical absolute is a formula for disaster, especially in transformative times.

  Stewart Brand

  Giving Up, Believe, Fighting

  Stewart Brand (2010). “Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, RestoredWildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary”, p.223, Penguin

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• Americans live with the certain knowledge that the source of their greatness has not yet been released.

  Ralph Steadman

  Greatness, Source, Certain

  "The Joke's Over". Book by Ralph Steadman, 2006.

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• I was convinced that our beliefs are based much more on custom and example than on any certain knowledge.

  Rene Descartes

  Atheism, Example, Belief

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• Computerization brings about an essential change in the way the worker can know the world and, with it, a crisis of confidence inthe possibility of certain knowledge.

  Shoshana Zuboff

  Work, Knowledge, Essentials

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• Science does not mean an idle resting upon a body of certain knowledge; it means unresting endeavor and continually progressing development toward an end which the poetic intuition may apprehend, but which the intellect can never fully grasp.

  Max Planck

  Knowledge, Mean, Science

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• The worthiest man to be known, and for a pattern to be presented to the world, he is the man of whom we have most certain knowledge. He hath been declared and enlightened by the most clear-seeing men that ever were; the testimonies we have of him are in faithfulness and sufficiency most admirable.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Society, World

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• You would be miserable if you had to go through life with a human doormat with 'Welcome' written on him. You want some one made of sterner stuff. You want, as it were, a sparring-partner, some one with whom you can quarrel happily with the certain knowledge that he will not curl up in a ball for you to kick, but will be there with the return wallop.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Sparring Partner, Curls, Would Be

  P. G. Wodehouse (2009). “Piccadilly Jim: Easyread Super Large 24pt Edition”, p.405, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Granny Weatherwax, who had walked nightly without fear in the bandit-haunted forests of the mountains all her life in the certain knowledge that the darkness held nothing more terrible than she was.

  Terry Pratchett

  Darkness, Mountain, Forests

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• Woe to the suicides! I believe that there can be none more miserable than they. Oh, there are some who remain proud and fierce even in hell, in spite of their certain knowledge and contemplation of the absolute truth; there are some fearful ones who have given themselves over to Satan and his proud spirit entirely. For such, hell is voluntary and ever consuming; they are tortured by their own choice. For they have cursed themselves, cursing God and life. And they will burn in the fire of their own wrath forever and yearn for death and annihilation. But they will not attain to death.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Suicide, Believe, Suicidal

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• The conversation, like many others I had with people on trains, derived an easy candour from the shared journey, the comfort of the dining car, and the certain knowledge that neither of us would see each other again.

  Paul Theroux

  Journey, People, Car

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• What with the political monopoly, the Cheka and the Red Army, all that now existed of the 'Commune-State' of our dreams was a theoretical myth. The war, the internal measures against counterrevolution, and the famine (which had created a bureaucratic rationing apparatus) had killed off Soviet democracy. How could it revive, and when? The Party lived in the certain knowledge that the slightest relaxation of its authority would give day to reaction.

  Victor Serge

  Dream, War, Party

  Victor Serge (2002). “Memoirs of a Revolutionary”, p.133, University of Iowa Press

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• There are only two kinds of certain knowledge: Awareness of our own existence and the truths of mathematics.

  Jean le Rond d'Alembert

  Two, Kind, Awareness

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