Certainty Quotes - Page 26

• It has been said, and perhaps with truth, that the conclusions of Political Economy partake more of the certainty of the stricter sciences than those of most of the other branches of human knowledge.

  Thomas Malthus

  Political, Branches, Economy

  Thomas Malthus (2015). “An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings”, p.240, Penguin UK

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• While we were never able to provide 100 percent certainty regarding the disposition of Iraq's proscribed weaponry, we did ascertain a 90-95 percent level of verified disarmament. This figure takes into account the destruction or dismantling of every major factory associated with prohibited weapons manufacture, all significant items of production equipment, and the majority of the weapons and agent produced by Iraq.

  Scott Ritter

  Iraq, Agents, Levels

  "Is Iraq a True Threat to the US?". Boston Globe, July 2002.

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• Religion seems to have always offered us that false duality ... the silences of infinite space or the cozy comfort of inner certainty.

  Dan Simmons

  Space, Silence, Comfort

  Dan Simmons (2014). “The Hyperion Cantos 4-Book Bundle: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion”, p.2195, Spectra

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• Is there any evidence to the contrary? I don't need certainty in order to act on a well-founded suspicion.

  Robert Charles Wilson

  Order, Needs, Suspicion

  "Julian Comstock: A Story of the 22nd Century". Book by Robert Charles Wilson, June 1, 2009.

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• Economic life should be definancialised. We should learn not to use markets as storehouses of value: they do not harbour the certainties that normal citizens require. Citizens should experience anxiety about their own businesses (which they control), not their investments (which they do not control).

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Anxiety, Citizens, Use

  "Ten Principles for a Black Swan-proof World". www.ft.com. April 07, 2009.

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• A science only advances with certainty, when the plan of inquiry and the object of our researches have been clearly defined; otherwise a small number of truths are loosely laid hold of, without their connexion being perceived, and numerous errors, without being enabled to detect their fallacy.

  Jean-Baptiste Say

  Numbers, Errors, Research

  Jean Baptiste Say, Charles Robert Prinsep (1857). “A Treatise on Political Economy; Or, The Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth”, p.15

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• There is no great danger to politics in the desire for certainty at any price.

  Bernard Crick

  Desire, Danger

  Bernard Crick (1993). “In Defense of Politics”, p.92, University of Chicago Press

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• Between certainty and the real, an ancient enmity.

  Jane Hirshfield

  Real, Enmity, Ancient

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• "What is the meaning of life?" This question has no answer except in the history of how it came to be asked. There is no answer because words have meaning, not life or persons or the universe itself. Our search for certainty rests in our attempts at understanding the history of all individual selves and all civilizations. Beyond that, there is only awe.

  Julian Jaynes

  Self, Civilization, Understanding

  "LIFE" Magazine, December 1988.

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• I accept that life is uncertain--that the goal is not to become more certain about anything but to relax more into the mystery of not knowing what will come next. And then, miracle of miracles, out there in the deep and uncertain water, I come into a peaceful knowing--a faithful wisdom that surpasses control and certainty.

  Elizabeth Lesser

  Life, Knowing, Water

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• Every patient reacts a little differently, both biologically and psychologically. The only constant in cancer is inconstancy; the only certainty is a future of uncertainty, a truism for all of modern life but one made vivid by life-threatening illness.

  Jonathan Alter

  Cancer, Modern Life, Littles

  Jonathan Alter (2008). “Between the Lines: A View Inside American Politics, People, and Culture”

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• Although I was first drawn to math and science by the certainty they promised, today I find the unanswered questions and the unexpected connections at least as attractive.

  Lisa Randall

  Math, Connections, Unanswered Questions

  Lisa Randall (2005). “Warped passages: unravelling the universe's hidden dimensions”, Lane, Allen

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• In Chaos Magic , beliefs are not seen as ends in themselves, but as tools for creating desired effects. To fully realize this is to face a terrible freedom in which nothing is true and everything is permitted, which is to say that everything is possible, there are no certainties , and the consequences can be ghastly.

  Peter J. Carroll

  Creating, Magic, Tools

  Peter J. Carroll (1992). “Liber Kaos”, p.75, Weiser Books

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• Doubt is a profound and effective spiritual motivation. Without doubt, no truism is transcended, no new knowledge found, no expansion of the imagination possible. Doubt is unsettling to the ego and those who are drawn to ideologies that promise the dispelling of doubt by preferring certainties never grow.

  James Hollis

  Spiritual, Motivation, Imagination

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• Christmas is ... a time to mark our progress through this earthly journey. Every December we can look back and marvel at the designs of God and realize how very little we are in control of the events that shaped the past year. Then, with hearts full, look to the celebration of that silent, holy night, and all its certainty. Because of Christmas, this we know: Christ was born for us. He is love, and the plans he has for us always surpass those of our own.

  Karen Kingsbury

  Christmas, Heart, Past

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• There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is impossible.

  Jack Vance

  Men, Order, Trying

  "The Languages of Pao" by Jack Vance, iBooks, (p. 133), 2004.

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• We can bear up under everything, if we have only the certainty that the monster Hitler with his insatiable bloodletting and plundering will have committed soon his last shameful deed.

  Friedrich Kellner

  Monsters, Deeds, Lasts

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• Through positive thinking and related approaches, we seek the safety and solid ground of certainty, of knowing how the future will turn out, of a time in the future when we'll be ceaselessly happy and never have to fear negative emotions again. But in chasing all that, we close down the very faculties that permit the happiness we crave.

  Oliver Burkeman

  Positive Thinking, Knowing, Safety

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• First, the only certainty is that there is no certainty. Second, every decision, as a consequence, is a matter of weighing probabilities. Third, despite uncertainty we must decide and we must act. And lastly, we need to judge decisions not only on the results, but on how they were made.

  Robert Rubin

  Judging, Decision, Needs

  Robert E. Rubin's Commencement Address at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, www.treasury.gov. May 17, 1999.

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• Two men with a camera, thoughtfully observing the visual cacophony of one major thoroughfare and the complicated interplay of its history, its present, and the certainty of change, have laid the groundwork for a dialogue and a vision that reaches farther than human eyes can see.

  Vicki Goldberg

  Eye, Men, Two

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• About the only certainty, other than uncertainty, in fly fishing is that a fly won't catch fish if it stays in its box.

  Arnold Gingrich

  Lakes, Sea, Fishing

  Arnold Gingrich (1973). “The Joys of Trout”

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• As far as miracles are concerned, I'm not aware that I perform miracles. After many years and lifetimes of meditation, I am able to use the kundalini energy to alter other people's awareness and aid them in their search for light and certainty.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Light, Years

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• Who is so brave and so noble that they could hurl themselves at infinity without any question, with complete trust and complete certainty that that infinity will destroy them forever?

  Frederick Lenz

  Brave, Forever, Noble

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• I confess that I have not cleared a path through all seven hundred pages, I confess to having examined only bits and pieces, and yet I know what it is, with that bold and legitimate certainty with which we assert our knowledge of a city, without ever having been rewarded with the intimacy of all the many streets it includes.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Book, Cities, Path

  Jorge Luis Borges, Eliot Weinberger (1999). “Selected Non-fictions”, Viking Press

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• The intellectual who no longer feels attached to anything is not satisfied with opinion merely; he wants certainty, he wants a system. The revolution provides him with his opium.

  Raymond Aron

  Intellectual, Atheism, Want

  Raymond Aron (2001). “The Opium of the Intellectuals”, p.257, Transaction Publishers

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