Uncertain Quotes - Page 16

• O woman! in our hours of ease Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made; When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou!

  Walter Scott

  Pain, Angel, Light

  Marmion canto 6, st. 30 (1808) See Shakespeare 228

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• When the other person is hurting, confused, troubled, anxious, alienated, terrified; or when he or she is doubtful of self-worth, uncertain as to identity, then understanding is called for. The gentle and sensitive companionship of an empathic stance… provides illumination and healing. In such situations deep understanding is, I believe, the most precious gift one can give to another.

  Carl Rogers

  Hurt, Confused, Believe

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• The coast is an edgy place. Living on the coast presents certain stark realities and a wild, rare beauty. Continent confronts ocean. Weather intensifies. It's a place of tide and tantrum; of flirtations among fresh- and saltwaters, forests and shores; of tense negotiations with an ocean that gives much but demands more. Every year the raw rim that is this coast gets hammered and reshaped like molten bronze. This place roils with power and a sometimes terrible beauty. The coast remains youthful, daring, uncertain about tomorrow. The guessing, the risk; in a way, we're all thrill seekers here.

  Carl Safina

  Ocean, Reality, Years

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• I feel passionately about how I express myself. Language is the greatest motivating force. You can phrase something positively and inspire people to do their best, or negatively and make them feel worried, uncertain, and self-conscious. You can talk at a fast pace and people will get nervous, feel afraid to bring up extraneous thoughts. But those are the very thoughts that might be most important! They might represent that person's best thinking. If you're rushed, you're simply not going to get at that extra level of thinking.

  Frances Hesselbein

  Thinking, Self, People

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• To-day, to-morrow, every day, to thousands the end of the world is close at hand. And why should we fear it? We walk here, as it were, in the crypts of life; at times, from the great cathedral above us, we can hear the organ and the chanting choir; we see the light stream through the open door, when some friend goes up before us; and shall we fear to mount the narrow staircase of the grave that leads us out of this uncertain twilight into life eternal?

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Time, Twilight, Doors

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1851). “The prose works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”, p.473

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• This is a world that is much more uncertain than the past. In the past we were certain, we were certain it was us versus the Russians in the past. We were certain, and therefore we had huge nuclear arsenals aimed at each other to keep the peace. That's what we were certain of... You see, even though it's an uncertain world, we're certain of some things. We're certain that even though the "evil empire" may have passed, evil still remains.

  George W. Bush

  Humor, Past, Evil

  "Bush, in his own words" by Jacob Weisberg, www.theguardian.com. November 3, 2000.

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• Determined will is the beginning of all magical operations. It is because men do not perfectly imagine and believe the result, that the (occult) arts are so uncertain, while they might be perfectly certain.

  Paracelsus

  Art, Believe, Men

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• It was the heart of any scam or fiddle -- keep the punter uncertain, or, if he is certain, make him certain of the wrong thing.

  Terry Pratchett

  Heart, Scams, Punters

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• At quite uncertain times and places,
  The atoms left their heavenly path,
  And by fortuitous embraces,
  Engendered all that being hath.
  And though they seem to cling together,
  And form 'associations' here,
  Yet, soon or late, they burst their tether,
  And through the depths of space career.

  James Clerk Maxwell

  Science, Careers, Space

  James Clerk Maxwell, “Molecular Evolution”

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• Nothing is so uncertain or unpredictable as the feelings of a crowd.

  Livy

  Feelings, Crowds, Unpredictable

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• Stardom is like making love in a hammock - a happy experience but one of uncertain duration.

  David Niven

  Making Love, Hammocks, Duration

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• Surely women's liberation is a most unpromising panacea. But the movement is working politically, because our sexuality is so confused, our masculinity so uncertain, and our families so beleaguered that no one knows what they are for or how they are sustained.

  George Gilder

  Confused, Women, Movement

  George F. Gilder (1973). “Sexual Suicide”, [New York] : Quadrangle

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• Economics is uncertain because its fundamental subject matter is not money but human action. That's why economics is not the dismal science, it's no science at all.

  Julian Baggini

  Fundamentals, Matter, Action

  "The science of ignorance" by Julian Baggini, www.theguardian.com. November 25, 2008.

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• The rifleman's stalking the sick and the lame, preacherman seeks the same, who'll get there first is uncertain.

  Bob Dylan

  Reality, Sick, Lame

  Song: Jokerman, Album: Infidels, 1983

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• When you break it all down, my punk rock is my dad's blues. It's music from the underground, and it's real, and it's written for the downtrodden in uncertain times.

  Frank Iero

  Dad, Real, Rocks

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• I found myself declaiming, full flower, for an hour on the "utmost importance and urgency" of Blogging, telling him in no uncertain terms that, especially in a high-end niche business, Blogging is "the premier way" to have "intimate conversations" with his Clients. Funny thing, I believe it!

  Tom Peters

  Funny, Believe, Flower

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• If you act impetuously, it will be uncertain, and you'll know it. It just won't feel right. It is better to wait.

  Frederick Lenz

  Wisdom, Buddhism, Waiting

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• I like to take things one step at a time, because the entertainment industry is very uncertain.

  Rebel Wilson

  Entertainment, Steps, One Step At A Time

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• The best way to get thrown out of the columnists' club is to be uncertain about anything whatsoever on this earth.

  Eric Sevareid

  Media, Earth, Clubs

  Eric Sevareid (1964). “This is Eric Sevareid”

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• In todays uncertain economy, the safest solution to be wealthy, be in total control and enjoy freedom for you and your family is to have multiple streams of income.

  Robert G. Allen

  Income, Today, Economy

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• Natural hazards, however formidable, are inherently less dangerous and less uncertain than fighting hazards. All conditions are more calculable, all obstacles more surmountable than those of human resistance.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Fighting, Hazards

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• The nation seems to slouch onward into its uncertain future like some huge inarticulate beast, too much attainted by wounds and ailments to be robust, but too strong and resourceful to succumb.

  Richard Hofstadter

  Strong, Too Much, Beast

  Quoted in Hedrick Smith The Power Game (1988).

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• How to know, oh how to know! All is relative ease and facility in orthodoxy, yet how can it be denied that good is in itself undeniable? Absolutes are the most uncertain of all formulations, while the uncertainties are the most real.

  Jack Vance

  Real, Ease, Orthodoxy

  Jack Vance (2007). “The Jack Vance Treasury”, Subterranean

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• When you demand the nature of my motives, you reveal the style of your thinking to be callow, captious, superficial, craven, uncertain and impudent.

  Jack Vance

  Thinking, Style, Demand

  Jack Vance (2011). “The Languages of Pao”, p.61, Hachette UK

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• Human history is in truth nothing but the history of the slow, uncertain, and surprising fulfillment of the Promise.

  Gustavo Gutiérrez

  Promise, Fulfillment, Surprising

  Gustavo Gutiérrez (1988). “A theology of liberation: history, politics, and salvation”

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