Uncertainty Quotes - Page 15

• Science is a way to teach how something gets to be known, what is not known, to what extent things are known (for nothing is known absolutely), how to handle doubt and uncertainty, what the rules of evidence are, how to think about things so that judgments can be made, how to distinguish truth from fraud, and from show.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Science, Thinking, Doubt

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.146, Princeton University Press

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• Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

  Martin Rees

  Science, Vastness, Ontology

  Quoted in Project Cyclops: A Design Study of a System for Detecting Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life, rev. ed., ed. B. M. Oliver and J. Billingham (1973). An earlier version by A. R. Burn appeared in a book review by Burn in The Classical Review, June 1969: "absence of evidence is not identical with evidence of absence."

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• In the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, from the prison of past conditioning. Uncertainty is the fertile ground of creativity and freedom.

  Deepak Chopra

  Change, Lying, Creativity

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• Lastly, the great uncertainty of all data in War is a peculiar difficulty, because all action must, to a certain extent, be planned in a mere twilight, which in addition not unfrequently — like the effect of a fog or moonshine — gives to things exaggerated dimensions and an unnatural appearance.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  War, Twilight, Data

  "On War".

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• Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion.

  Florence Nightingale

  Nursing, Nurse, Expectations

  Florence Nightingale (1992). “Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not”, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

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• Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality. Though different traditions may emphasize different aspects, it is only the interplay of these antithetic forces and the struggle for their synthesis that constitute the life, usefulness, and supreme value of mathematical science.

  Richard Courant

  Struggle, Expression, Perfection

  Richard Courant, Herbert Robbins, Ian Stewart (1996). “What is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods”, p.23, Oxford University Press, USA

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• You must not procrastinate. Rather, you should make preparations so that even if you did die tonight, you would have no regrets. If you develop an appreciation for the uncertainty and imminence of death, your sense of the importance of using your time wisely will get stronger and stronger.

  Dalai Lama

  Appreciation, Regret, Procrastination

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• In horror of death, I took to the mountains - again and again I meditated on the uncertainty of the hour of death, capturing the fortress of the deathless unending nature of mind. Now all fear of death is over and done.

  Milarepa

  Buddhist, Mind, Mountain

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• The uncertainty of the danger belongs to the essence of terrorism.

  Jurgen Habermas

  Essence, Transcendentalism, Terrorism

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• We must, therefore, be confident that the general measures we have adopted will produce the results we expect. most important in this connection is the trust which we must have in our lieutenants. consequently, it is important to choose men on whom we can rely and to put aside all other considerations. if we have made appropriate preparations, taking into account all possible misfortunes, so that we shall not be lost immediately if they occur, we must boldly advance into the shadows of uncertainty.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Military, Men, Preparation

  Carl von Clausewitz (2012). “Principles of War”, p.41, Courier Corporation

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• War is the province of chance. In no sphere of human activity is such a margin to be left for this intruder. It increases the uncertainty of every circumstance, and deranges the course of events.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Military, War, Events

  "The Essential Clausewitz: Selections from On War".

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• All my life I believed I knew something. But then one strange day came when I realized that I knew nothing, yes, I knew nothing. And so words became void of meaning. I have arrived too late at ultimate uncertainty.

  Ezra Pound

  Despair, Too Late, Void

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• To live in poverty is to live with constant uncertainty, to accept galling indignities, and to expect harassment by the police, welfare officials and employers, as well as by others who are poor and desperate.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Expectations, Police, Poverty

  Barbara Ehrenreich (1989). “FEAR OF FALLING”, Pantheon

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• Through fear of resembling one another, through horror of having to submit, through uncertainty as well, through skepticism and complexity, there is a multitude of individual little beliefs for the triumph of strange little individuals.

  Andre Gide

  Littles, Triumph, Belief

  Andre Gide (2017). “Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality”, p.34, Routledge

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• I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Leadership, Taken, Past

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• Nothing is secure. That is my message. Nothing can be secure, because a secure life will be worse than death. Nothing is certain. Life is full of uncertainties, full of surprises - that is its beauty! You can never come to a moment when you can say, "Now I am certain." When you say you are certain, you simply declare your death, you have committed suicide.

  Rajneesh

  Life, Suicide, Messages

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• It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious and severe. For as they seldom comprehend at once all the consequences of a position, or perceive the difficulties by which cooler and more experienced reasoners are restrained from confidence, they form their conclusions with great precipitance. Seeing nothing that can darken or embarrass the question, they expect to find their own opinion universally prevalent, and are inclined to impute uncertainty and hesitation to want of honesty, rather than of knowledge.

  Samuel Johnson

  Honesty, Men, Want

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.110

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• To tell of disappointment and misery, to thicken the darkness of futurity, and perplex the labyrinth of uncertainty, has been always a delicious employment of the poets

  Samuel Johnson

  Disappointment, Darkness, Labyrinth

  Samuel Johnson (2009). “The Lives of the Poets: A Selection”, p.422, OUP Oxford

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• Science is founded on uncertainty. Each time we learn something new and surprising, the astonishment comes with the realization that we were wrong before.

  Lewis Thomas

  Learning, Science, Realization

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• People without financial knowledge, who take advice from financial experts are like lemmings simply following their leader. They race for the cliff and leap into the ocean of financial uncertainty, hoping to swim to the other side.

  Robert Kiyosaki

  Inspirational, Ocean, Race

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• Regulators have not been able to achieve the level of future clarity required to act pre-emptively. The problem is not lack of regulation but unrealistic expectations. What we confront in reality is uncertainty, some of it frighteningly so...

  Alan Greenspan

  Ignorance, Reality, Expectations

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• [Modern science] passed through a long period of uncertainty and inconclusive experiment, but as the instrumental aids to research improved, and the results of observation accumulated, phantoms of the imagination were exorcised, idols of the cave were shattered, trustworthy materials were obtained for logical treatment, and hypotheses by long and careful trial were converted into theories.

  Thomas George Bonney

  Science, Idols, Long

  Thomas George Bonney (1913). “The Present Relations of Science and Religion”

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• To start blindly with a statement is a sign of arrogance and narrow-mindedness, and will lead to conflict. To start blindly with a question is a sign of uncertainty and honesty, and will lead to wisdom.

  Scott Watson

  Honesty, Arrogance, Conflict

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• Death is a vast mystery, but there are two things we can say about it: It is absolutely certain that we will die, and it is uncertain when or how we will die. The only surety we have, then, is this uncertainty about the hour of our death, which we seize on as the excuse to postpone facing death directly. We are like children who cover their eyes in a game of hide and seek and think that no one can see them.

  Sogyal Rinpoche

  Death, Children, Eye

  Sogyal Rinpoche (2009). “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller: Revised and Updated Edition”, p.25, Harper Collins

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• In a climate of uncertainty and fear, without strong and visionary leadership, people panic.

  Patrick Dodson

  Leadership, Strong, People

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