Certainty Quotes - Page 6

• If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

  Francis Bacon

  Inspirational, Success, Wisdom

  The Advancement of Learning bk. 1, ch. 5, sec. 8 (1605)

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• Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions.

  Thomas Szasz

  Psychosis, Doubt, Neurosis

  Thomas Stephen Szasz (1973). “The second sin”, Anchor

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• A reasonable probability is the only certainty.

  E. W. Howe

  Motivational, Probability, Reasonable

  Sinner Sermons (p. 23)

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• He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Alexander Chalmers (1810). “The idler”, p.229

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• Wake up! If you knew for certain you had a terminal illness--if you had little time left to live--you would waste precious little of it! Well, I'm telling you...you do have a terminal illness: It's called birth. You don't have more than a few years left. No one does! So be happy now, without reason--or you will never be at all.

  Dan Millman

  Inspirational, Happy, Time

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• That Mars is inhabited by beings of some sort or other we may consider as certain as it is uncertain what these beings may be.

  Percival Lowell

  Nature, Space, Mars

  "Fantastically Wrong: One Astronomer’s Quest to Expose the Alien-Built Canals of Mars" by Matt Simon, www.wired.com. May 21, 2014.

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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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• Certainties are arrived at only on foot.

  Antonio Porchia

  Feet

  "Voices". Book by Antonio Porchia, 1943.

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• If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything, including those things that other people are certain are impossible.

  Tony Robbins

  Motivational, Confidence, Spiritual

  FaceBook post by Tony Robbins from Sep 23, 2015

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• There are very few certainties that touch us all in this mortal experience, but one of the absolutes is that we will experience hardship and stress at some point.

  James Dobson

  Stress, Reality, Hardship

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• I feel, sometimes, as the renaissance man must have felt in finding new riches at every point and in the certainty that unexplored areas of knowledge and experience await at every turn.

  Polykarp Kusch

  Knowledge, Science, Men

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• Step by step a powerful and enterprising race has driven them back from the Atlantic to the West until at last there is scarcely a spot of ground upon which the Indians have any certainty of maintaining a permanent abode.

  Nelson A. Miles

  Powerful, Race, Lasts

  Nelson A. Miles (1992). “Personal Recollections and Observations of General Nelson A. Miles, Embracing a Brief View of the Civil War, Or, From New England to the Golden Gate and the Story of His Indian Campaigns with Comments on the Exploration, Development, and Progress of Our Great Western Empire”, p.340, U of Nebraska Press

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• Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.

  Mark Twain

  Inspiration, Cocky, Ignorance

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.11, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Fundamentalists are panicked by the apparent disintegration of the family, the disappearance of certainty and the decay of morality. Fear leads them to ask, if we cannot trust the Bible, what can we trust?

  Garrett Hardin

  Decay, Morality, Asks

  "Naked Emperors : Essays of a Taboo-Stalker". Book by Garrett Hardin, 1982.

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• Don't be too harsh to these poems until they're typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction.

  Dylan Thomas

  Thinking, Conviction, Harsh

  Dylan Thomas, Paul Ferris (1985). “The collected letters”, Scribner

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• The statistics of life out there and the statistics of intelligent beings and advanced civilization is a certainty, the way I look at it. It has not been accepted, because we've been in an anthropocentric era.

  Story Musgrave

  Intelligent, Civilization, Looks

  "NASA Distinguished Service Medal". The Academy of Achievement, www.achievement.org. May 22, 1997.

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• It is to be feared that those who emigrate to New South Wales, generally anticipate too great facility in their future operations and certainty of success in conducting them; but they should recollect that competency cannot be obtained without labour.

  Charles Sturt

  Success, Conducting, Should

  Charles Sturt (1834). “Two expeditions into the interior of Southern Australia: during the years 1828, 1829, 1830 and 1831 with observations on ... New South Wales”, p.68

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• We delight in one knowable thing, which comprehends all that is knowable; in one apprehensible, which draws together all that can be apprehended; in a single being that includes all, above all in the one which is itself the all.

  Giordano Bruno

  Together, Delight, Existence

  Giordano Bruno (1962). “Cause, Principle, and Unity: Five Dialogues”

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• Faith is a process of leaping into the abyss not on the basis of any certainty about where we shall land, but rather on the belief that we shall land.

  Carter Heyward

  Faith, Land, Belief

  Carter Heyward (1976). “A Priest Forever”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Science, Opportunity, Progress

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• Events are never absolute, their outcome depends entirely upon the individual. Misfortune is a stepping stone for a genius, a piscina for a Christian, a treasure for a man of parts, and an abyss for a weakling.

  Honore de Balzac

  Christian, Men, Events

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• We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

  Eric Hoffer

  Thinking, Certain, Agnosticism

  The True Believer Part 3, Chapter XII, Section 57 (p. 79)

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• It is said to await certainty is to await eternity.

  Jonas Salk

  Science, Eternity, Said

  "Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine". Book by Jane S Smith, p. 295, 1990.

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• In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how many lifetimes you live.

  Robert James Waller

  Love, Dream, Matter

  "The Bridges of Madison County". Book by Robert James Waller, 1992.

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• For any culture which is primarily concerned with meaning, the study of death - the only certainty that life holds for us - must be central, for an understanding of death is the key to liberation in life.

  Stanislav Grof

  Death, Heart, Keys

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