Uncertain Quotes - Page 2

• Religions often partake of the myth of progress that shields us from the terrors of an uncertain future.

  Frank Herbert

  Religion, Progress, Statistics

  Frank Herbert (1999). “Dune”, Ace Hardcover

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• If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.

  Jim Carrey

  Karma, Pain, Regret

  "Carrey: 'Life Is Too Beautiful'". www.cbsnews.com. November 18, 2004.

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• Certainty is the mother of quiet and repose, and uncertainty the cause of variance and contentions

  Edward Coke

  Mother, Causes, Coke

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• Now, since our condition accommodates things to itself, and transforms them according to itself, we no longer know things in their reality; for nothing comes to us that is not altered and falsified by our Senses. When the compass, the square, and the rule are untrue, all the calculations drawn from them, all the buildings erected by their measure, are of necessity also defective and out of plumb. The uncertainty of our senses renders uncertain everything that they produce.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Philosophy, Reality, Squares

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• Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.

  Hugh Mackay

  Relationship, Perfect, Dating

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• The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.

  Theodore Hesburgh

  Leadership, Business, Blow

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• Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Military, War, Contradictory

  On War (1832). Not just in war.

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• There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Inspirational, Change, Leadership

  Niccolo Machiavelli (2010). “The Prince”, p.21, FastPencil Inc

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• All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, Motivational, Positive

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2004). “A Dream Too Wild: Emerson Meditations for Every Day of the Year”, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

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• Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain: and it is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Motivation, Two, Liberty

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.253

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• Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Change, Happiness, Growth

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The World As Will And Idea: 3 vols in 1 [unabridged]”, p.59, Kshetra Books

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• There is nothing so uncertain as a sure thing.

  Scotty Bowman

  Inspirational, Motivational, Hockey

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• There was a time when meanings were focused and reality could be fixed; when that sort of belief disappeared, things became uncertain and open to interpretation.

  Bridget Riley

  Reality, Belief, Interpretation

  Bridget Riley (2009). “The Eye's Mind: Collected Writings 1965-2009”

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• It was still quite light out of doors, but inside with the curtains drawn and the smouldering fire sending out a dim, uncertain glow, the room was full of deep shadows.

  Kate Chopin

  Fire, Light, Glowing

  Kate Chopin (2015). “The Awakening & Other Short Stories”, p.201, Booklassic

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• It is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Two, Fuel, Easier

  Benjamin Franklin (1848). “The Way to Wealth”, p.7

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• In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

  Pliny the Elder

  Matter, Certainty, Uncertainty And Doubt

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• Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

  James Russell Lowell

  Happiness, Success, Character

  JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1871). “THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN KEATS.”, p.14

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• But living in uncertain times does not mean San Franciscans must live in fear

  Gavin Newsom

  Mean, Doe, Uncertain Times

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• When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is in some doubt.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Doubt, Ignorant, Answers

  Richard P. Feynman (2011). “"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character”, p.263, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.

  Jane Austen

  Men, Thinking, Giving

  1813 Pride and Prejudice, ch.22.

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• You need an infinite stretch of time ahead of you to start to think, infinite energy to make the smallest decision. The world is getting denser. The immense number of useless projects is bewildering. Too many things have to be put in to balance up an uncertain scale. You can't disappear anymore. You die in a state of total indecision.

  Jean Baudrillard

  Thinking, Numbers, Decision

  Jean Baudrillard (1990). “Cool Memories”, p.110, Verso

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• I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Badass, Knowledge, Science

  Richard P. Feynman (2005). “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman”, p.21, Hachette UK

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• The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Life, Business, Future

  The Left Hand of Darkness ch. 5 (1969)

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• At a certain age you're always uncertain how other people will take you.

  Al Purdy

  People, Age, Certain

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• Because a truly skeptical position would be a very uncertain one.

  Rupert Sheldrake

  Would Be, Skeptical, Position

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