Uncertain Quotes - Page 21

• It was the hour in which objects lose the consistency of shadow that accompanies them during the night and gradually reacquire colors, but seem to cross meanwhile an uncertain limbo, faintly touched, just breathed on by light; the hour in which one is least certain of the world's existence.

  Italo Calvino

  Morning, Night, Light

  Italo Calvino (2012). “The Nonexistent Knight”, p.23, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Oh, how this spring of love resembleth, The uncertain glory of an April day, Which now shows all beauty of the Sun, And by and by a cloud takes all away

  William Shakespeare

  Spring, Love You, Clouds

  'The Two Gentlemen Of Verona' (1592-3) act 1, sc. 3, l. 84

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• A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

  Aristotle

  Leadership, Greek, Coaching

  Poetics ch. 24, 1460a

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• Any violence which does not spring from a spiritual base, will be wavering and uncertain. It lacks the stability which can only rest in a fanatical outlook.

  Adolf Hitler

  Spiritual, Religious, Spring

  Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The form of a work of art, which gives speech to their thoughts and is, therefore, their mode of talking, is always somewhat uncertain, like all kinds of speech.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Art, Talking, Giving

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2012). “Human, All-Too-Human: Parts One and Two”, p.103, Courier Corporation

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• It's unclear how air strikes on our part can succeed unless the Iraqi army is willing to fight, and that's uncertain given the fact that several Iraqi army divisions have melted away.

  Carl Levin

  Military, Army, Fighting

  "Obama contemplates military action as US tensions rise over Iraq crisis" by Spencer Ackerman, www.theguardian.com. June 12, 2014.

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• I never could do anything with figures, never had any talent for mathematics, never accomplished anything in my efforts at that rugged study, and to-day the only mathematics I know is multiplication, and the minute I get away up in that, as soon as I reach nine times seven- [He lapsed into deep thought, trying to figure nine times seven. Mr. McKelway whispered the answer to him.] I've got it now. It's eighty-four. Well, I can get that far all right with a little hesitation. After that I am uncertain, and I can't manage a statistic.

  Mark Twain

  Science, Accomplishment, Effort

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• The coast is an edgy place. Living on the coast presents certain stark realities and a wild, rare beauty. Continent confronts ocean. Weather intensifies. It's a place of tide and tantrum; of flirtations among fresh- and saltwaters, forests and shores; of tense negotiations with an ocean that gives much but demands more. Every year the raw rim that is this coast gets hammered and reshaped like molten bronze. This place roils with power and a sometimes terrible beauty. The coast remains youthful, daring, uncertain about tomorrow. The guessing, the risk; in a way, we're all thrill seekers here.

  Carl Safina

  Ocean, Reality, Years

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• There was no mistaking, even in the uncertain light, the hand, half crabbed, half generous, and wholly drunken, of the Consul himself, the Greek e's, the flying buttresses of d's, the t's like lonely wayside crosses save where they crucified an entire word.

  Malcolm Lowry

  Lonely, Light, Hands

  Malcolm Lowry (2012). “Under the Volcano: A Novel”, p.49, Open Road Media

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• But I have my life, I’m living it. It’s twisted, exhausting, uncertain, and full of guilt, but nonetheless, there’s something there.

  Banana Yoshimoto

  Guilt, Twisted, Exhausting

  Banana Yoshimoto (2011). “The Lake”, p.182, Melville House

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• How to know, oh how to know! All is relative ease and facility in orthodoxy, yet how can it be denied that good is in itself undeniable? Absolutes are the most uncertain of all formulations, while the uncertainties are the most real.

  Jack Vance

  Real, Ease, Orthodoxy

  Jack Vance (2007). “The Jack Vance Treasury”, Subterranean

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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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• I accept that life is uncertain--that the goal is not to become more certain about anything but to relax more into the mystery of not knowing what will come next. And then, miracle of miracles, out there in the deep and uncertain water, I come into a peaceful knowing--a faithful wisdom that surpasses control and certainty.

  Elizabeth Lesser

  Life, Knowing, Water

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• The task that lies before me is daunting and the rewards are uncertain. I should probably let someone else do it.

  John S. Hall

  Lying, Tasks, Rewards

  "Daily Negations". Book by John S. Hall, 2007.

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• I mean that two of any thing is a most uncomfortable number. One may do as he pleases. Six may get along well enough. But two must always struggle for mastery. Two must always watch each other. The eyes of all the world will be on two, uncertain which of them to follow.

  Susanna Clarke

  Struggle, Mean, Eye

  Susanna Clarke (2009). “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell”, p.542, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen. One way to deal with that is to keep your pajamas washed.

  Haruki Murakami

  Way, Pajamas, Life Is

  FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Jan 15, 2016

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• But I have never had the privilege of unhappiness in Happy Valley. California is about the good life. So a bad life there seems so much worse than a bad life anywhere else. Quality is an obsession there—good food, good wine, good movies, music, weather, cars. Those sound like the right things to shoot for, but the never-ending quality quest is a lot of pressure when you’re uncertain and disorganized and, not least, broker than broke. Some afternoons a person just wants to rent Die Hard, close the curtains, and have Cheerios for lunch.

  Sarah Vowell

  Good Life, Wine, Lunch

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• The utility, or intrinsic value of gold as a commodity is now considerably less than in the past; its monetary status has become extraordinarily ambiguous; and its future is highly uncertain.

  Benjamin Graham

  Past, Gold, Commodity

  "Storage and Stability". Book by Benjamin Graham.Part III, Chapter X, The Status of Gold and Silver, p. 127, 1937.

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• The nation seems to slouch onward into its uncertain future like some huge inarticulate beast, too much attainted by wounds and ailments to be robust, but too strong and resourceful to succumb.

  Richard Hofstadter

  Strong, Too Much, Beast

  Quoted in Hedrick Smith The Power Game (1988).

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• When you demand the nature of my motives, you reveal the style of your thinking to be callow, captious, superficial, craven, uncertain and impudent.

  Jack Vance

  Thinking, Style, Demand

  Jack Vance (2011). “The Languages of Pao”, p.61, Hachette UK

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• She couldn’t hide from everyone for the rest of her life… Well she could. That was the direction things were going. But she knew from long-ago experience that when you were uncertain and if you were courageous enough to let her in a real friend could do a world of good.

  Ann Brashares

  Real, Long Ago, World

  Ann Brashares (2011). “Sisterhood Everlasting (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants): A Novel”, p.224, Random House

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• Human history is in truth nothing but the history of the slow, uncertain, and surprising fulfillment of the Promise.

  Gustavo Gutiérrez

  Promise, Fulfillment, Surprising

  Gustavo Gutiérrez (1988). “A theology of liberation: history, politics, and salvation”

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• And now I see what has been there all along, what I've noticed but never truly understood until now. Eli is as uncertain as I am, as we all are. Life has surprised him like it has me. Has hurt him like it has me.

  Elizabeth Scott

  Hurt, Understood, Has Beens

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• How many people do you know who are obsessed with their work, who are type A or have stress related diseases and who can’t slow down? They can’t slow down because they use their routine to distract themselves, to reduce life to only its practical considerations. And they do this to avoid recalling how uncertain they are about why they live.

  James Redfield

  Stress, People, Routine

  James Redfield (1993). “The celestine prophecy: an adventure”, Atticus Press & Company (AL)

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• Going into my 20s, I was uncertain, trying to figure out what my relationship to acting is.

  Gaby Hoffmann

  Trying, Acting, Figures

  "Interview: Actress Gaby Hoffmann Is Now Playing Adults". Interview with Marshall Fine, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 31, 2012.

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