Absolute Certainty Quotes

• Only one absolute certainty is possible to man, namely that at any given moment the feeling which he has exists.

  Thomas Huxley

  Men, Feelings, Given

  Thomas Henry Huxley, Henrietta A. Huxley (1908). “Aphorisms and reflections”

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• I never imagined it wouldn't work out for me. I had that absolute certainty in myself that has seen me through, I think, and my parents were absolutely behind me all the way.

  Ewan McGregor

  Men, Thinking, Work Out

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• When the human mind exists in the light of reason and no more than reason, we may say with absolute certainty that Man and all that made him will be in that instant gone.

  Loren Eiseley

  Men, Light, Mind

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• Whether gods exist or not, there is no way to get absolute certainty about ethics. Without absolute certainty, what do we do? We do the best we can.

  Richard Stallman

  Way, Ethics, Whether God Exists

  "Thus Spake Stallman". Slashdot.org Interview, slashdot.org. May 01, 2000.

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• I can predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Change, War, Generations

  Woodrow Wilson (1919). “Addresses of President Wilson”

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• If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there's still a 30% chance we're going to get it wrong.

  Joe Biden

  Chance, Stills, Absolutes

  "MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski Gushingly Admits: Joe Biden Is 'Our Guy,' Also, 'I Love Him'". Interview with Rachel Burnett, www.newsbusters.org. July 19, 2010.

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• The existence of a first cause of the universe is a necessity of thought ... Amid the mysteries which become more mysterious the more they are thought about, there will remain the one absolute certainty that we are over in the presence of an Infinite, Eternal Energy from which all things proceed.

  Herbert Spencer

  Science, Energy, Firsts

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• The Principle of Tolerance, fixed once for all the realization that all knowledge is limited. It is an irony of history that at the very time when this was being worked out, there should rise, under Hitler in Germany and other tyrants elsewhere, a counter-conception: a principle of monstrous certainty. When the future looks back on the 1930's, it will think of them as a crucial confrontation of culture as I have been expounding it - the ascent of man against the throwback to the despots' belief that they have absolute certainty.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Faith, Men, Thinking

  "The Ascent of Man" (Episode 11: "Knowledge or Certainty"), 1973.

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• I am one of a rare breed of true politicians who definitely say what they may or may not mean with absolute certainty.

  Anthony Eden

  Mean, May, Politician

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• Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

  Voltaire

  Inspirational, Faith, Atheist

  Voltaire (1919). “Voltaire in His Letters: Being a Selection from His Correspondence”

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• The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Intellectual, Vices

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.62, Routledge

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• Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Ignorance, Knowing

  Bertrand Russell (1996). “Unpopular Essays”, p.38, Psychology Press

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• All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.

  John Stuart Mill

  Silence, Assumption, Infallibility

  John Stuart Mill (2012). “On Liberty”, p.15, Courier Corporation

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• “Et Tu, Babe” was born out of my absolute certainty that a writer’s life was solitary and insular, and I was happy with that. I love reading and writing, it’s my whole life.

  Mark Leyner

  Reading, Writing, Certainty In Life

  "Mark Leyner On “War, Inc.”". Interview with Aaron Hillis, www.ifc.com. May 22, 2008.

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• To believe with certainty, we must begin with doubting.

  Stanisław I Leszczyński

  Faith, Believe, Doubt

  "Maxims and Moral Sentences". Book by François de La Rochefoucauld, pp. 153-186, No. 61, 1851.

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• Once upon a time, growing up male gave little boys a sense of certainty about the natural order of things. We had short hair, wore pants, and played baseball. Girls had long hair, wore skirts, and, no matter how hard they tried, always threw a baseball just like a girl.

  Kenneth R. Miller

  Girl, Baseball, Growing Up

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• To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after than to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of any thing.

  Isaac Newton

  Nature, Science, Men

  "Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton". Book by Richard S. Westfall, p. 643, 1704.

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• To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age

  Isaac Newton

  Science, Men, Age

  "Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton". Book by Richard S. Westfall, p. 643, 1983.

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• For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

  Vincent Van Gogh

  Inspirational, Dream, Stars

  Vincent van Gogh, Rachel Barnes (1990). “Van Gogh by Vincent”

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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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• Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities.

  George Boole

  Probability Theory, Perfect, Expectations

  Collected Logical Works Volume II An Investigation of the Law of Thought Chapter XVI (p. 258)

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• Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it.

  Tom Stoppard

  Beauty, Order, Joy

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• It is far better to foresee even without certainty than not to foresee at all.

  Henri Poincare

  Certainty, Foreseeing, Foreseen

  The Foundations of Science Science and Hypothesis (p. 129)

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• To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Birthday, Educational, Philosophy

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.14, Simon and Schuster

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• Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Clarity, Intellect, Fascinating

  Carl von Clausewitz (2008). “On War”, p.86, Princeton University Press

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