Certainty Quotes

I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now.

Every economy is uncertain. Referring to this or any economy as 'uncertain' is an unnecessary and pessimistic redundancy.

To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.

The person who is motivated by necessity is interested in what's known and what's secure. The person who is motivated by possibility is equally interested in what's not known. He wants to know what can evolve, what opportunities might develop.

Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying

If one could only say just once: 'this is clear', all would be saved

Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all, all shalldie.

The public, with its mob yearning to be instructed, edified and pulled by the nose, demands certainties; it must be told definitely and a bit raucously that this is true and that is false. But there are no certainties.

It is the job of leaders to eliminate uncertainty.

Between history and the eternal I have chosen history because I like certainties. Of it, at least, I am certain, and how can I deny this force crushing me.

We must doubt the certainty of everything which passes through the senses, but how much more ought we to doubt things contrary to the senses, such as the existence of God and the soul.

Nothing was or is farther from my intentions, than to enlist myself as the champion of a fixed opinion, where I have only expressed doubt.

Slender certainty is better than portentous falsehood.

If you understood a business perfectly and the future of the business, you need very little in the way of a margin of safety.

If to enjoy even an enjoyable present we must have the assurance of a happy future, we are “crying for the moon.” We have no such assurance. The best predictions are still matters of probability rather than certainty, and to the best of our knowledge every one of us is going to suffer and die. If, then, we cannot live happily without an assured future, we are certainly not adapted to living in a finite world where, despite the best plans, accidents will happen, and where death comes at the end.

You have been professing yourself reluctant to throw off your load of illusion because truth was uncertain. Well, it is certain now, yet the burden still weighs you down, while other people are given wings on freer shoulders, people who have not worn themselves out with research, nor spent a decade and more reflecting on these questions.

Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong.

...one cannot lodge in if.

The only unchangable certainty in life is that nothing is unchangable or certain.

You know nothing for sure...except the fact that you know nothing for sure.

The only certainties in life are death and taxes.

It is not certain that everything is uncertain.

When regard for truth has been broken down or even slightly weakened, all things will remain doubtful.

Logic ignores the almost, just as the sun ignores the candle.

There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one.

Doubt is not a very agreeable status, but certainty is a ridiculous one.

Love is many things. It is varied. One thing love is not, is unsure.

Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.

Securities, certitudes and peace do not lead to discoveries.

Seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied.

... I feel certain that his tale is true. Feeling that certainty, I befriend him. As long as that certainty shall last, I will befriend him. And if any consideration could shake me in this resolve, I should be so ashamed of myself for my meanness, that no man's good opinion - no, nor no woman's - so gained, could compensate me for the loss of my own.