Uncertain Quotes - Page 23

• This is a confusing and uncertain period, when a thousand wise words can go completely unnoticed, and one thoughtless word can provoke an utterly nonsensical furor.

  Vaclav Havel

  Wise, Confusing, Language

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• Still uncertain as to our identity, we think that what matters in the work world is gaining attention and making friends. And these misconceptions and naïveté are brutally exposed in the light of the real world.

  Robert Greene

  Real, Thinking, What Matters

  Robert Greene (2012). “Mastery”, p.64, Profile Books

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• We see and understand more about our behaviors.  We come aware.  And aware.  And aware. . . Often, we feel uncertain about what to do with all this awareness.

  Melody Beattie

  Awareness, Behavior, Feels

  Melody Beattie (2013). “Melody Beattie 4 Title Bundle: Codependent No More and 3 Other Best Sellers by Melody Beattie: A collection of four Melody Beattie best sellers”, Hazelden Publishing

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• It is the curse of minorities in this power-worshipping world that either from fear or from an uncertain policy of expedience they distrust their own standards and hesitate to give voice to their deeper convictions, submitting supinely to estimates and characterizations of themselves as handed down by a not unprejudiced dominant majority.

  Anna Julia Cooper

  Voice, Giving, Majority

  Anna Julia Cooper (1988). “A Voice From the South”, p.43, Oxford University Press

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• It has always been the opinion and judgment of wise men that nothing can be so uncertain as fame or power not founded on its own strength.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Wise, Men, Opinion

  Niccolo Machiavelli (2010). “The Prince”, p.56, FastPencil Inc

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• If we consider the actual basis of this information [i.e., intelligence], how unreliable and transient it is, we soon realize that war is a flimsy structure that can easily collapse and bury us in its ruins. ... Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain. This is true of all intelligence but even more so in the heat of battle, where such reports tend to contradict and cancel each other out. In short, most intelligence is false, and the effect of fear is to multiply lies and inaccuracies.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  War, Lying, Battle

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• I kiss him as the train slides into unlit, uncertain land. I kiss him for as long as I want, for longer than I should, given that my brother sits three feet away from me.

  Veronica Roth

  Brother, Kissing, Land

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• Life is always uncertain,'he said with a shrug. 'We cannot let the fear of what might happen stop us living as we choose.

  Susanna Kearsley

  Might, Life Is, Said

  Susanna Kearsley (2016). “The Susanna Kearsley Collection”, p.280, Allison & Busby Ltd

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• Uncertain as I was as I pushed forward, I felt right in my pushing, as if the effort itself meant something. That perhaps being amidst the undesecrated beauty of the wilderness meant I too could be undesecrated, regardless of the regrettable things I'd done to others or myself or the regrettable things that had been done to me. Of all the things I'd been skeptical about, I didn't feel skeptical about this: the wilderness had a clarity that included me.

  Cheryl Strayed

  Effort, Done, Pushing

  Cheryl Strayed (2012). “Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found”, p.128, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• The smell of that buttered toast simply spoke to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cozy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one's ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Morning, Cat, Winter

  1908 The Wind in the Willows, ch.8.

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• In the uncertain ebb and flow of time and emotions, much of one’s life history is etched in the senses. And things of no particular importance, or irreplaceable things, can suddenly resurface in a café one winter night.

  Banana Yoshimoto

  Winter, Night, Ebb And Flow

  Banana Yoshimoto, Megan Backus (1979). “Three Plays”, p.75, Grove Press

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• The future was uncertain, absolutely, and there were many hurdles, twists, and turns to come, but as long as I kept moving forward, one foot in front of the other, the voices of fear and shame, the messages from those who wanted me to believe that I wasn't good enough, would be stilled.

  Chris Gardner

  Believe, Moving, Voice

  Chris Gardner (2009). “The Pursuit of Happyness”, p.6, Harper Collins

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• great artists can be uncertain. Of course they are while strugggling to find solutions. Tolstoi's scripts are almost indecipherable. Emily Dickinson provided four or more alternates for every word; Beethoven wrestled with endings to the point of exhaustion; in our day Jerome Robbins and his lack of decision are a byword in the dance profession. But all of these knew very well what they did not want, and what they did not want was the current coin, the well-worn usage. What they wanted was something newly experienced, and therefore unknown and hard to attain.

  Agnes de Mille

  Artist, Decision, Coins

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• Fortune, delighting in her cruel task, and playing her wanton game untiringly, is ever shifting her uncertain favours.

  Horace

  Games, Tasks, Shifting

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• Little do you know what a gloriously uncertain thing law is.

  Plautus

  Law, Littles, Knows

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• What is certain in death is somewhat softened by what is uncertain; it is an indefiniteness in the time, which holds a certain relation to the infinite, and what is called eternity.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Death, Infinite, Eternity

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• The man who goes through life with an uncertain doctrine not knowing what he believes, what a poor, powerless creature he is! He goes around through the world as a man goes down through the street with a poor, wounded arm, forever dodging people be meets on the street for fear they may touch him.

  Phillips Brooks

  Believe, Men, Knowing

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• Uncertain whose the narrowest span,--the clown unread, or half-read gentleman.

  John Dryden

  Reading, Gentleman, Half

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• All the strength and force of man comes from his faith in things unseen. He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions. The man strongly possessed of an idea is the master of all who are uncertain or wavering. Clear, deep, living convictions rule the world.

  James Freeman Clarke

  Faith, Strong, Believe

  James Freeman Clarke (1875). “Common-sense in Religion: A Series of Essays”, p.339

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• The bore is good for promoting sleep; but though he causeth sleep in others, it is uncertain whether he ever sleeps himself; as few can keep awake in his company long enough to see. It is supposed that when he sleeps it is with his mouth open.

  Maria Edgeworth

  Sleep, Long, Mouths

  Maria Edgeworth (1848). “Harrington ; Thoughts on bores ; and, Ormond”, p.209

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• When Anaxagoras was told of the death of his son, he only said, "I knew he was mortal." So we in all casualties of life should say "I knew my riches were uncertain, that my friend was but a man." Such considerations would soon pacify us, because all our troubles proceed from their being unexpected.

  Plutarch

  Son, Men, Riches

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• Sometimes I try my hand at turning out small profundities and uncertain short stories, but I always end up with just one single word: God.

  Etty Hillesum

  God, Hands, Trying

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.640, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• There is a story of some mountains of salt in Cumana, which never diminished, though carried away in much abundance by merchants; but when once they were monopolized to the benefit of a private purse, then the salt decreased; till afterward all were allowed to take of it, when it had a new access and increase. The truth of this story may be uncertain, but the application is true; he that envies others the use of his gifts decays then, but he thrives most that is most diffusive.

  Herbert Spencer

  Envy, Generosity, Mountain

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• Everyone's future is, in reality, uncertain and full of unknown treasures from which all may draw unguessed prizes.

  Lord Dunsany

  Future, Reality, Treasure

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• A man's longest purposes will be his best purposes. It is true, life is short and uncertain; but it is better to live on the short arc of a large circle than to describe the whole circumference of a small circle.

  Charles Henry Parkhurst

  Life Is Short, Men, Circles

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