Certainty Quotes - Page 2

• There is no certainty; there is only adventure.

  Roberto Assagioli

  Travel, Adventure, Quitting

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• What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Men, Want

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• The truth that I know for sure is that I may have an opinion, but I do not know the truth, and the other thing I know for sure is that certainty is the root of all ignorance and the root of all evil.

  Grant Bowler

  Ignorance, Roots, Evil

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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• The public, with its mob yearning to be instructed, edified and pulled by the nose, demands certainties; it must be told definitely and a bit raucously that this is true and that is false. But there are no certainties.

  H. L. Mencken

  Society, Noses, Demand

  H. L. Mencken, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers (2010). “H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series”, Hubsta Ltd

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• It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel.

  Anatole France

  Wisdom, Math, Men

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• Certainty is a closing of the mind. To create something new you must have doubt.

  Milton Glaser

  Design, Doubt, Mind

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• The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty.

  Anne Lamott

  Opposites, Doubt, Doubt And Certainty

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• Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Inferiority, Moral

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.416, Knopf

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• Absolute certainty will always elude us. We will always be mired in error. The most each generation can hope for is to reduce the error. . . .

  Carl Sagan

  Errors, Elude Us, Generations

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.52, Ballantine Books

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• We proceed by doubt, by trial and error, by resisting the impulse to lunge after certainty.

  William Deresiewicz

  Errors, Doubt, Trial And Error

  William Deresiewicz (2015). “Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life”, p.151, Simon and Schuster

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• Certainty is rarely if ever possible and we increase the likelihood of getting things wrong if we succumb to the hunger for it.

  Peter Elbow

  Hunger, Increase, Likelihood

  Peter Elbow (1986). “Embracing contraries: explorations in learning and teaching”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• The very desire to be certain,to be secure,is the beginning of bondage.It's only when the mind is not caught in the net of certainty,and is not seeking certainty, that it is in a state of discovery.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Discovery, Mind, Desire

  Jiddu Krishnamurti (2010). “Commentaries on Living 1”, p.181, M-y books ltd

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• The problem with certainty is that it is static; it can do little but endlessly reassert itself. Uncertainty, by contrast, is full of unknowns, possibilities, and risks.

  Stephen Batchelor

  Risk, Littles, Problem

  "Confession of a Buddhist Atheist". Book by Stephen Batchelor, 2010.

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  The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Confidence, Wisdom

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• We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Has Beens, Certitude

  Harvard Law Review Natural Law Volume 32, Number 1, November 1918 (p. 40)

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• We are not certain, we are never certain. If we were we could reach some conclusions, and we could, at last, make others take us seriously.

  Albert Camus

  Lasts, Certain, Conclusion

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• Certainty is the most vivid condition of ignorance and the most necessay condition for knowledge.

  Kedar Joshi

  Ignorance, Knowledge, Science

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• Moral certainty is intellectual immorality

  Kedar Joshi

  Science, Intellectual, Morality

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• There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty.

  Bart D. Ehrman

  Religious, Inbreds, Critical Thinking

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• I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

  Anne Lamott

  Father, Real, Light

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• I'm for open-mindedness and tolerance. I'm against any form of fanaticism, fundamentalism or zealotry, and this certainty of 'We have the truth.' The truth is far too large and complex. Nobody has the truth.

  Philip Pullman

  Tolerance, Truth Is, Form

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• I have teken refuge in the doctrine that advises one not to seek tranquility in certainty but in permanently suspended judgement.

  William Boyd

  Judgement, Doctrine, Tranquility

  William Boyd, John Costello (1991). “Ten days to destiny: the secret story of the Hess peace initiative and British efforts to strike a deal with Hitler”, William Morrow & Co

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• The areas of consensus shift unbelievably fast; the bubbles of certainty are constantly exploding.

  Rem Koolhaas

  Consensus, Exploding, Areas

  Interview with Marcus Fairs, www.iconeye.com. June 2004.

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• In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

  Pliny the Elder

  Matter, Uncertain, Uncertainty And Doubt

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• From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.

  Tom Stoppard

  Reality, Principles, Facts

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