Uncertainty Quotes - Page 30

• Mathematics is purely hypothetical: it produces nothing but conditional propositions.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Ontology, Logic, Mathematics

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1931). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce”

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• But as the work proceeded I was continually reminded of the fable about the elephant and the tortoise. Having constructed an elephant upon which the mathematical world could rest, I found the elephant tottering, and proceeded to construct a tortoise to keep the elephant from falling. But the tortoise was not more secure than the elephant, and after some twenty years of very arduous toil, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing more that I could do in the way of making mathematical knowledge indubitable.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fall, Years, Elephants

  Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.725, Psychology Press

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• Do you think it's possible that things that seem to be discrete in three dimensions might all be part of the same bigger object in four dimensions? ...What if humanity- that collective noun we so often employ- really is, at a higher level, a singular noun? What it what we perceive in three dimensions as seven billion individual human beings are really all just aspects of one giant being?

  Robert J. Sawyer

  Thinking, Humanity, What If

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• We admit, in geometry, not only infinite magnitudes, that is to say, magnitudes greater than any assignable magnitude, but infinite magnitudes infinitely greater, the one than the other. This astonishes our dimension of brains, which is only about six inches long, five broad, and six in depth, in the largest heads.

  Voltaire

  Long, Brain, Ontology

  Voltaire (2016). “Voltaire – The Philosophical Works: Treatise On Tolerance, Philosophical Dictionary, Candide, Letters on England, Plato’s Dream, Dialogues, The Study of Nature, Ancient Faith and Fable, Zadig…: From the French writer, historian and philosopher, famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion and freedom of expression”, p.1207, e-artnow

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• We think of the number "five" as applying to appropriate groups of any entities whatsoever - to five fishes, five children, five apples, five days... We are merely thinking of those relationships between those two groups which are entirely independent of the individual essences of any of the members of either group. This is a very remarkable feat of abstraction; and it must have taken ages for the human race to rise to it

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Children, Taken, Independent

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• To see what is general in what is particular, and what is permanent in what is transitory, is the aim of scientific thought.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Ontology, Logic, Certainty

  Alfred North Whitehead (1958). “An Introduction to Mathematics”, p.4, New York : Oxford University Press, 1958 [c1948]

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• The enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and there is no rational explanation of it.

  Eugene Wigner

  Ontology, Logic, Mysterious

  Eugene Paul Wigner, Jagdish Mehra, Arthur S. Wightman (1997). “Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses”, p.535, Springer Science & Business Media

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• The inherent preferences of organizations are clarity, certainty and perfection. The inherent nature of human relationships involves ambiguity, uncertainty, and imperfection. How one honors, balances, and integrates the needs of both is the real trick of feedback.

  Richard Pascale

  Inspirational, Educational, Real

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• I rest in the light of forgiveness. I forgive myself and others for that which is done (and better left undone) and also that which is not done (and better if done). I give myself permission to enjoy this moment without guilt. I freely release all uncertainty, regret, and fear.

  Mary Anne Radmacher

  Regret, Light, Giving

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• Manage through the uncertainties. Practice appropriate actions and participate in healthy choices. Value and celebrate the loyalty of the individuals around you: celebrate their competencies and successes, as well as your own. Build up your circle and reinforce it at every opportunity.

  Mary Anne Radmacher

  Loyalty, Opportunity, Practice

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• Investors don't like uncertainty.

  Kenneth Lay

  Investors

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• Many of life's decisions are hard. What kind of career should you pursue? Does your ailing mother need to be put in a nursing home? You and your spouse already have two kids; should you have a third?such decisions are hard for a number of reasons. For one the stakes are high. There's also a great deal of uncertainty involved. Above all, decisions like these are rare, which means you don't get much practice making them. You've probably gotten good at buying groceries, since you do it so often, but buying your first house is another thing entirely.

  Steven Levitt

  Mother, Home, Mean

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• If you're speaking of love, you really must include the element of uncertainty - and perhaps it's best approached as the art of constant maintenance.

  Twyla Tharp

  Art, Love You, Maintenance

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• Products a start-up builds are really experiments…Learning about how to build a sustainable business is the outcome of those experiments [which follow] a three-step process: Build, measure, learn.” “[A startup is] … an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty.

  Eric Ries

  Organization, Creating, Three

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• These days it seems the lyric impulse, so seemingly fragile, comes in for a lot of abuse-or simply a lot of mistrust. What's it for, anyway, in this hard-edged, worried world? Into this cultural uncertainty Gregory Orr's spirited meditation on the surprisingly tensile strength of poetry in the face of profound suffering and grief presents a welcome fresh view of the ancient human instinct to cry out and to praise.

  Patricia Hampl

  Grief, Views, Profound

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• Instant success are seldom instant and if you talk to the people behind these successes, you'll find out that they came after months of fear, uncertainty and confusion along with a flagrant lack of adoption.

  Guy Kawasaki

  People, Confusion, Adoption

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• In this world of uncertainty and woe, one thing remains unchanged: Fresh, canned, pureed, dried, salted, sliced, and served with sugar and cream, or pressed into juice, the tomato is reliable, friendly, and delicious. We would be nothing without it.

  Laurie Colwin

  Friendly, Would Be, Tomatoes

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• We are closed in, and the key is turned / On our uncertainty.

  William Butler Yeats

  Keys

  William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.173, Wordsworth Editions

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• To ensure attaining an objective, one should have alternate objectives. An attack that converges on one point should threaten, and be able to diverge against another. Only by this flexibility of aim can strategy be attuned to the uncertainty of war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Should Have

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• When mortals are alive, they worry about death. When they're full, they worry about hunger. Theirs is the Great Uncertainty. But sages don't consider the past. And they don't worry about the future. Nor do they cling to the present. And from moment to moment they follow the Way.

  Bodhidharma

  Past, Worry, Alive

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.75, Macmillan

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• Every intervention of man in the environment around him incurs some risk as to both favorable and unfavorable consequences. Every intervention is taken in the face of partial ignorance as to what its effects will be and involves uncertainty as to the ultimate outcome.

  Gilbert F. White

  Taken, Ignorance, Men

  Gilbert F. White (1986). “Geography, Resources and Environment, Volume 1: Selected Writings of Gilbert F. White”, p.285, University of Chicago Press

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• The upheaval of our world and the upheaval in consciousness is one and the same. Everything becomes relative and therefore doubtful. And while man, hesitant and questioning, contemplates... his spirit yearns for an answer that will allay the turmoil of doubt and uncertainty.

  Carl Jung

  Men, Our World, Doubt

  Carl Gustav Jung (2001). “Modern Man in Search of a Soul”, p.215, Psychology Press

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• The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.

  Eric Hoffer

  Attitude, Doubt, Conviction

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Although the outlook is clouded by a number of uncertainties, the central tendencies of the projections .. imply continued good economic performance in the United States.

  Alan Greenspan

  Clouds, Numbers, United States

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• There's a certain kind of scepticism that can't bear uncertainty.

  Rupert Sheldrake

  Bears, Belief, Kind

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