Certainty Quotes - Page 17

• Uncertainty would be the only certainty there's, and realizing how to stay with insecurity could be the only protection

  John Allen Paulos

  Insecurity, Would Be, Realizing

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• I have learned to prize holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty and to seek companions who have arrived at the same place.

  Barbara Brown Taylor

  Religious, Ignorance, Holy

  Barbara Brown Taylor (2011). “Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith”, p.224, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

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• Often a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other parts of the world, about the motions and orbits of the stars and even their sizes and distances... and this knowledge he holds with certainty from reason and experience. It is thus offensive and disgraceful for an unbeliever to hear a Christian talk nonsense about such things, claiming that what he is saying is based in Scripture. We should do all that we can to avoid such an embarrassing situation, which people see as ignorance in the Christian and laugh to scorn.

  Saint Augustine

  Christian, Stars, Distance

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• The few certainties in our existences are pain, death and bereavement.

  Jane Wilson-Howarth

  Pain, Bereavement, Existence

  Jane Wilson-Howarth (2012). “A Glimpse of Eternal Snows: A Journey of Love and Loss in the Himalayas”, p.375, Bradt Travel Guides

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• Knowledge breeds doubt, not certainty,
  And the more we know the more uncertain we become.

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Doubt, Uncertain, Knows

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• I do believe that there is a conflict between science and religion ... the spirit or attitude toward the facts is different in religion from what it is in science. The uncertainty that is necessary in order to appreciate nature is not easily correlated with the feeling of certainty in faith.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Attitude, Believe, Order

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• Neither the intensity of your feelings nor the certainty of your convictions is any assurance that you are right.

  Michael Josephson

  Feelings, Conviction, Intensity

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• Incompetence is certainty in the absence of expertise. Overconfidence is certainty in the presence of expertise.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Absence, Incompetence, Overconfidence

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• ... the English alphabet is pure insanity..., It can hardly spell any word in the language with any degree of certainty.

  Mark Twain

  Insanity, Degrees, Alphabet

  Mark Twain (2013). “Autobiography of Mark Twain”, p.268, Univ of California Press

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• The only difference between causation and the value is that the word "cause" implies absolute certainty whereas the implied meaning of "value" is one of preference. In classical science it was supposed that the world always works in terms of absolute certainty and that "cause" is the more appropriate word to describe it. But in modern quantum physics all that is changed. Particles "prefer" to do what they do. An individual particle is not absolutely committed to one predictable behavior. What appears to be an absolute cause is just a very consistent pattern of preferences.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Differences, World, Patterns

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• We are all of us invented. We are all of us cobbled together from cartilage and dust. Few of us know with certainty the name of our maker. But I do... Bram Stoker.

  Steven Dietz

  Dust, Names, Together

  Steven Dietz (1996). “Dracula”, p.9, Dramatists Play Service Inc

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• So trust the process of your life unfolding, and know with certainty, through the peaks and valleys of your journey, that your soul rests safe and secure in the arms of God.

  Dan Millman

  Journey, Soul, Valleys

  Dan Millman (2001). “The Laws of Spirit: Simple, Powerful Truths for Making Life Work”, p.110, H J Kramer

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• The only certainties in life are death and taxes.

  Mark Twain

  Certainty Of Death, Certainty In Life, Taxes

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• People who need certainty are unlikely to make good entrepreneurs.

  Peter Drucker

  People, Entrepreneur, Needs

  Peter Drucker (2014). “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, p.41, Routledge

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• So the journey is over and I am back again where I started, richer by much experience and poorer by many unexploded certainties. For convictions and certainties are too often the concomitants of ignorance. Those who like to feel they are always right and who attached a high importance to their own opinions should stay at home. When one is traveling, convictions are mislaid as easily as spectacles; but unlike spectacles, they are not easily replaced.

  Aldous Huxley

  Home, Ignorance, Journey

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• Certainty abolishes hope, and robs us of renewal.

  Neil Postman

  Renewal, Abolish

  Neil Postman (2011). “Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future”, p.124, Vintage

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• O Mother of God! If I place my confidence in thee, I shall be saved; if I am under thy protection, I have nothing to fear; for the fact of being thy client is a possession of a certainty of salvation which God grants only to those whom He intends to save.

  John of Damascus

  Mother, Facts, Clients

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• A geometrical theory in physical interpretation can never be validated with mathematical certainty ... ; like any other theory of empirical science, it can acquire only a more or less high degree of confirmation.

  Carl Gustav Hempel

  Degrees, Confirmation, Interpretation

  Carl Gustav Hempel (2001). “The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality”, p.28, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• In what concerns divine things, belief is not appropriate. Only certainty will do. Anything less than certainty is unworthy of God.

  Simone Weil

  Belief, Divine, Concern

  Simone Weil (2009). “Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)”, p.80, Routledge

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• That which draws us by its mystical force; what every created thing, even the very stones, feels with absolute certainty as the center of its being... is the force of love. Christians call this "eternal blessedness." It is a necessity of man for growth and joy.

  Gustav Mahler

  Christian, Men, Joy

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• That which most concerns and worries you - your survival - is the only certainty you have.

  Richard Bach

  Worry, Survival, Concern

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• The certainty that life cannot be long, and the probability that it will be much shorter than nature allows, ought to awaken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to perform.

  Samuel L. Jackson

  Men, Long, Probability

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• Certainty... lurks at the door of faith and threatens to devour it.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Doors

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• Only years of practice will teach you the mysteries and bold certainty of a real gardener, who treads at random, yet tramples on nothing.

  Karel Capek

  Real, Years, Practice

  Karel Capek (2002). “The Gardener's Year”

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• History is everything in gardening: With a site, weather, a particular plant. It solves mysteries. And it's why, when others say, "You can't do that!" you can know with deepest certainty that you can.

  Janet Macunovich

  Weather, Gardening, Mystery

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