94 Quotes About Certainty

If you’re looking for the truth in life, then these certainty quotes are for you. True, honest, and true-to-you words that will give you strength when you need it most.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end...
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If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. Francis Bacon
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I like the scientific spirit–the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine–it always keeps the way beyond open–always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake–after a wrong guess. Walt Whitman
I imagine that the intelligent people are the ones so...
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I imagine that the intelligent people are the ones so intelligent that they don't even need or want to look 'intelligent' anymore. Criss Jami
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To better understand God we must first shatter our own idea of God - maybe even day after day. Maybe he's too great to stay compressed in the human mind. Maybe he splits it wide open; this is why pretentious intellectualism so often fails to comprehend the concept of God: it is only accepting of what it can explain while in the process finding higher sources offensive. What we may confidently assert is that faith is the opening that allows God, this unpredictable, unseen power, to travel in and out of the mind without all the pains of confusion. . Criss Jami
It's not about whether or not someone is a bigot,...
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It's not about whether or not someone is a bigot, but whether or not the argument which that someone is arguing is worth being a bigot about. Criss Jami
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It is debatable whether blind faith is truly faith at all. Faith is the perceptive gray area where scientific facts meet an individual's experiential truths - the extreme of the former is left feeling in the dark whereas the latter is caught blinded by the light. By proper scientific method, it is intellectually dishonest for me to declare the existence of God with utmost certainty, but to my individual spirit, I would be intellectually dishonest to deny the existence of God even for a second. This leaves the best of both worlds, as the believer is called to be able to give reasons for his faith, a deviation from mere fantasy. . Criss Jami
In God's eyes, a man who teaches one truth and...
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In God's eyes, a man who teaches one truth and nothing else is more righteous than a man who teaches a million truths and one lie. Criss Jami
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No one knows for sure about the future. But if you feel reluctant to plan something about it, then someone with guts would define it for you. Toba Beta
Peaceful disputes are maintained when men sincerely believe that they...
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Peaceful disputes are maintained when men sincerely believe that they are morally, logically correct about the issues at hand. It is when neither side is really certain that wars are instigated. Criss Jami
The devil's happy when the critics run you off.
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The devil's happy when the critics run you off. Criss Jami
How do you ever hold on to anybody?
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How do you ever hold on to anybody? Elizabeth Wein
Looking up at the stars and smoking in silence.
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Looking up at the stars and smoking in silence. Elizabeth Wein
When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret...
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When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret anything - that is the definition of conviction. Criss Jami
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He who asserts belief with absolute certainty knows nothing of faith and makes himself into a fool. He who is wise, upon realizing they have done this, recants and searches themselves for further enlightenment. Cristina Marrero
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The South African artist William Kentridge speaks to this type of certainty: 'To say that one needs art, or politics, that incorporate ambiguity and contradiction is not to say that one then stops recognizing and condemning things as evil. However, it might stop one being so utterly convinced of the certainty of one's own solutions. There needs to be a strong understanding of fallibility and how the very act of certainty or authoritativeness can bring disasters.' The outcome of the current crisis is already determined. Nick Flynn
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From the house of unbeliefto true religionis a single breath; From the world of doubtto certaintyis a single breath; Enjoy this precious single breath, for the harvestof our whole livesis that same one breath. Unknown
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So the paradox goes: No man who is really ignorant is ever aware that he is ignorant. That is its finest, most faulty manifestation; there can be no true ignorance without first some claim of intelligence or consciousness, or superiority or enlightenment. Criss Jami
It sometimes requires ignorance and arrogance to know something for...
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It sometimes requires ignorance and arrogance to know something for sure. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Because you're always learning, the chief lesson remains: you still...
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Because you're always learning, the chief lesson remains: you still know nothing. Criss Jami
Success comes not from having certainty, but being able to...
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Success comes not from having certainty, but being able to live with uncertainty. Jeffrey Fry
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A world full of "certainties"All the plans, all the vanities. Where black covers the white Suited in "confidence"- the constant fight. A million roads I dream to take One destination, knowing not I turn where. A green veil covers for two years, some two decades. But the "plan" awaits, new roads to make. I pant, I struggle, I do my best While they say, " You are, dear, but so inadequate". Sanhita Baruah
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When nothing is certain in your life, you have a blank canvas to work with. You can determine a new future for yourself with passionate actions. You can pursue anything that you put your mind to. When things seem uncertain it is the best time to take action. Avina Celeste
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We ought to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its antecedent state and as the cause of the state that is to follow. An intelligence knowing all the forces acting in nature at a given instant, as well as the momentary positions of all things in the universe, would be able to comprehend in one single formula the motions of the largest bodies as well as the lightest atoms in the world, provided that its intellect were sufficiently powerful to subject all data to analysis; to it nothing would be uncertain, the future as well as the past would be present to its eyes. The perfection that the human mind has been able to give to astronomy affords but a feeble outline of such an intelligence. PierreSimon Laplace
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If art made you think, then this was Art. Staring at the ball, made of layers and layers of cloth, I wondered about the glass marble at its heart. What if you wanted to reach that marble? Make sure it was still whole? You'd have to remove the layers. You'd have to risk breaking the ball for a chance at freeing it. Fear, knowledge, certainty - you'd have to be willing to let them all go. Justina Chen
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If they're friends, then they've got your back .. . whether you're there or not. Friends won't "forget" about you. Svetlana Chmakova
Oh no. Maybe I'd gotten too cocky. I was still...
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Oh no. Maybe I'd gotten too cocky. I was still relatively new to this friend business. Had I screwed up even asking? Should I have waited for her to offer up details? Gwenda Bond
A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's...
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A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty. Rudyard Kipling
She knows her timing, always knows. The time to strike...
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She knows her timing, always knows. The time to strike or the time to starve. Her eyes as a clock, she watches she waits she learns, and in the second she blinks, she changes her mind just like that. Anthony Liccione
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Every great dream, meet an opposing views. The certainty within our spirit made the dream reality. Lailah Gifty Akita
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The Greeks made Space the subject-matter of a science of supreme simplicity and certainty. Out of it grew, in the mind of classical antiquity, the idea of pure science. Geometry became one of the most powerful expressions of that sovereignty of the intellect that inspired the thought of those times. At a later epoch, when the intellectual despotism of the Church, which had been maintained through the Middle Ages, had crumbled, and a wave of scepticism threatened to sweep away all that had seemed most fixed, those who believed in Truth clung to Geometry as to a rock, and it was the highest ideal of every scientist to carry on his science 'more geometrico. . Hermann Weyl
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A certain bygone philosophy-which certainly must have quite forgotten all about the real child-used to speak of the child's nature as a tabula rasa, or 'blank page, ' upon which experience and training might write what they pleased. As a matter of fact, the child's nature at birth, like that of a calf or a chick, is pretty well scribbled over by the experience of its ancestors. It is far from being blank, for as soon as the little organism comes into the world, it begins to do certain things and do them with much zeal and determination, as every one knows who knows real children. Edward O. Sisson
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They say, "Look before you leap." So look. But do not look for too long. Do not look into the void of uncertainty trying to predict each and every possible outcome, to evaluate every possible mistake, to prevent each possible failure. Look for the opportunity to leap, and leap faster than your fear can grab you. Leap before you talk yourself out of it, before you convince yourself to set up a temporary camp that turns into a permanent delay on your journey into your own heart. Vironika Tugaleva
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If anyone doesn't agree with you, the truth is on your side. Michael Bassey Johnson
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Such is true joy’s absolute certainty, Its slow lit fuse that burns holes In the shabby shroud of death forever. Scott Hastie
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Nothing consoles and comforts like certainty does. Amit Kalantri
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Customers loves certainty, make sure you give it to them. Amit Kalantri
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It must be an odd person indeed that can say for certain they are normal. Initially NO
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The future is certain. It is just not known. Johnny Rich
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I'll make a book on learning how to be a complete moron someday, and I'm sure no one will buy it, because everyone will have mastered that already by the time I gather enough moronism to process it into digestible upgrade instructions for your average village cyborg-idiot. Will Advise
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A prophet is always underestimated, and part of what makes one a prophet is that he doesn't really mind it. Criss Jami
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All life is preoccupied with death. Death is the only certain future. Yet in the face of reason, everyone holds out hope for the highly improbable. Johnny Rich
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At the core of all well-founded belief lies belief that is unfounded. Ludwig Wittgenstein
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Naturally, I always place my word over anyone else's simply because I know why I said what I said. Criss Jami
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It's okay not to know all the answers. It's better to admit our ignorance than to believe answers that might be wrong. Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what's already there. Neil Degrasse Tyson
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Things happen, and nothing is for sure, but you just have to keep going, believing that one day, you'll find something that is. A.J. Darkholme
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The scientist believes in proof without certainty, the bigot in certainty without proof. Ashley Montagu
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The great systems that inform the world about the truth and life invariably claim to be absolutely truthful and well-balanced. In reality they are quaking bridges built out of yearning. Unknown
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In some cases, I am able to respect what so many call bigots. Such people have a more solid foundation for drawing their lines when it comes to the security of their ways and quite possibly the security of mankind. They rely on something that has worked to get man this far without placing ideals blindly driven by emotion first; they have a sure line and they say, 'No.' That, in a sense, is something I find to be highly respectable. Criss Jami
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Silence might be a shout for the truth. It might be the speech that someday, in its truest, most uncontaminated, unadulterated state, all will be revealed. Criss Jami
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Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow. Tony Schwartz
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It is better to doubt that a concept is stupidly flying under your head than profoundly flying over your head. Criss Jami
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The changes we make in life often happen when we have a degree of certainty. However, the pain of our past failures and the fears of our peers often fuel our uncertainty. This inability to predict the future is why people find themselves stuck and unable to move forward. They don't want to feel the emotions of failure. They prefer to talk themselves into settling for an "okay" life, rather than the life they really want. However, failure is a matter of perspective! Is it not failure when you don't take a chance on the one thing you need? There is no happiness in regret, staying safe or settling for anything less than what you can have through action. Shannon L. Alder
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If you build the faith to trust a friend as God, then your heart can never be broken. Michael Bassey Johnson
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Hope is certainty of the desired want. Lailah Gifty Akita
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My mother and father were always pushing me away from secondhand answers–even the answers they themselves believed. I don’t know that I have ever found any satisfactory answers of my own. But every time I ask it, the question is refined. That is the best of what the old heads meant when they spoke of being “politically conscious”–as much a series of actions as a state of being, a constant questioning, questioning as ritual, questioning as exploration rather than the search for certainty. . TaNehisi Coates
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It is not always necessary to search for the cause behind everything, because every cause is unfounded. A cause only looks like a cause from a certain viewpoint. Unknown
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[Mathematics] is security. Certainty. Truth. Beauty. Insight. Structure. Architecture. I see mathematics, the part of human knowledge that I call mathematics, as one thing–one great, glorious thing. Whether it is differential topology, or functional analysis, or homological algebra, it is all one thing.. They are intimately interconnected, they are all facets of the same thing. That interconnection, that architecture, is secure truth and is beauty. That's what mathematics is to me. Paul R. Halmos
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My confidence is in the idea that I may be wrong on this or that. No man in this life should ever have to bear the burden of perfection. Criss Jami
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Stop living the life with possibilities and probabilities, live the life with certainties. Amit Kalantri
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A common fallacy in much of the adverse criticism to which science is subjected today is that it claims certainty, infallibility and complete emotional objectivity. It would be more nearly true to say that it is based upon wonder, adventure and hope. Cyril Norman Hinshelwood
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An uncertain evil causes anxiety because, at the bottom of one's heart, one goes on hoping till the last moment that it may not be true; a certain evil, on the other hand, instills, for a time, a kind of dreary tranquillity. Alberto Moravia
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It can be a good thing if deeper theology, or philosophy, only makes one more uncertain. It may lead to a healthy doubt; he may throw his hands up saying, 'God, I just don't know anymore. If you're out there, I'm giving it all to you.' From there, after the surrender, he is allowing God himself, rather than theories, books, and documents, to take over and lead him into all truth. Criss Jami
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I mean that if you are not absolutely sure of a thing, it is so difficult to commit yourself to a definite course of action. Agatha Christie
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Just because you feel lost doesn't mean that you're doing something wrong. Feeling certain that you are correct in every decision and situation is an addiction. If you think that the journey of self-discovery will bring you more solid facts and certainties about yourself and the world, you will be frustrated. The more you see, the more lost you will feel. That is natural. The more you discover of yourself, the more confused you will become. This is natural. The wiser you get, the more you will see that there are many paths walked by just as many people, and that just because yours is different from someone else's doesn't mean one of you is wrong. This is natural. Over time, you will develop humility, compassion, and a higher tolerance for confusion. If you allow the feeling of being lost to drive you into a search for absolute truths and correct answers, you may feel more secure when you get there, but in reality, you will be taking a step back. Allow yourself to be lost, and you will see so much more of the forest of your soul than if you beeline back for the trail. Explore. Get lost. Embrace the inevitability of confusion. Vironika Tugaleva
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A certain way to have financial security in life is not enough savings, but enough ability. Amit Kalantri
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Beauty is an advantage, smile is guarantee. Amit Kalantri
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When the uncertainty is known, certainty is guaranteed. Until we unravel the uncertainties of our lives, we shall always be uncertain with the life we live Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
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Deeply convinced of the reality of the divine will, he (Lincoln) had no patience at all with any who were perfectly sure they knew the details of the divine will. Elton Trueblood
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It appears, from all this, that our eyes are uncertain. Two persons look at the same clock and there is a difference of two or three minutes in their reading of the time. One has a tendency to put back the hands, the other to advance them. Let us not too confidently try to play the part of the third person who wishes to set the first two aright; it may well happen that we are mistaken in turn. Besides, in our daily life, we have less need of certainty than of a certain approximation to certainty. Let us learn how to see, but without looking too closely at things and men: they look better from a distance. Unknown
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In the presence of Esch, values have hidden their faces. Order, loyalty, sacrifice–he cherishes all these words, but exactly what do they represent? Sacrifice for what? Demand what sort of order? He doesn't know. If a value has lost its concrete content, what is left of it? A mere empty form; an imperative that goes unheeded and, all the more furious, demands to be heard and obeyed. The less Esch knows what he wants, the more furiously he wants it. Esch: the fanaticism of the era with no God. Because all values have hidden their faces, anything can be considered a value. Justice, order– Esch seeks them now in the trade union struggle, then in religion; today in police power, tomorrow in the mirage of America, where he dreams of emigrating. He could be a terrorist or a repentant terrorist turning in his comrades, or a party militant or a cult member a kamikaze prepared to sacrifice his life. All the passions rampaging through the bloody history of our time are taken up, unmasked, and terrifyingly displayed in Esch's modest adventure. Milan Kundera
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My compulsive thoughts aren't even thoughts, they're absolute certainties and obeying them isn't a choice. Paul Rudnick
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Certainty. Life's last and kindest gift. Milan Kundera
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I remember laughing at that moment, and I remember my son frowning at me in puzzlement. What I remember best of all, though, was the sudden certainty that the gods were with me, that they would fight for me, that my sword would be their sword. ‘We’re going to win, ’ I told my son. I felt as if Odin or Thor had touched me. I had never felt more alive and never felt more certain. I knew there would be no more mistakes and that this was no dream. I had come to Bebbanburg and Bebbanburg would be mine. . Bernard Cornwell
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The secret of the whole matter is that a habit is not the mere tendency to repeat a certain act, nor is it established by the mere repetition of the act. Habit is a fixed tendency to react or respond in a certain way to a given stimulus; and the formation of habit always involves the two elements, the stimulus and the response or reaction. The indolent lad goes to school not in response to any stimulus in the school itself, but to the pressure of his father's will; when that stimulus is absent, the reaction as a matter of course does not occur. Edward O. Sisson
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I could see it all. The hand on the shoulder, then the hug. The mouths that find each other through the tears, the moment when guilt and the certainty that things must go no further gives way to lust and the certainty that they cannot stop. S.J. Watson
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I know with unqualified certainty that I want to die. But I also know with equivalent certainty that I won't do anything about it. That I will only remain here and wait for death to indulge me. Sara Baume
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I'm a girl." When Deryn opened her eyes, the lady boffin was staring at her with no change of expression. "Indeed, " she Scott Westerfeld
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What kind of husband would I be if I bet against my own marriage?' I smiled. 'The stupid kind. Didn't you listen to your dad when he told you not to bet against me? Jamie Mcguire
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In order for a god to be all-knowing, he must know even the fact of his own omniscience. But can he do this? He may know the totality of facts constituting the world; call this Y. But in order to know that he has mastered Y, he must also know that 'There are no facts unknown to me' – and this is beyond Y.It seems impossible that a god (or anyone) could ever be sure that nothing exists beyond his ken. It makes no sense to imagine [a god] arriving at this limit, peering beyond it (at what?), and satisfying himself no further facts exist. But without this certainty he cannot be sure of his own omniscience, and so does not know everything. A theist might argue that his god has created all the facts in existence. But an omniscient god would have to be sure of even this – that he is the sole creator, and that there are no facts unknown to him. And how could he come to this knowledge? . Roland Puccetti
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Sometimes a woman is afraid to be without security or without certainty, for even a short time. She has more excuses than dogs have hairs. She must just simply dive in and stand not knowing what will happen next. Unknown
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To build refuges of my own making is to construct fortresses of sand at ocean’s edge, where the relentless tides of time will leave my most magnificently constructed walls as perfectly flat sand. And now that I am subject to the very tides that destroyed these walls of mine, I am left with the reality that my single and sole refuge can only be the God who created both tides and sand. Craig D. Lounsbrough
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There are no facts only interpretations. Friedrich Nietzsche
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'For example' is not proof. Jewish Proverb
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A half truth like half a brick is always more forcible as an argument than a whole one. It carries better. Stephen Leacock
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You are all you will ever have for certain . June Havoc
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Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is. Voltaire
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To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting. Stanislaus
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Modest doubt is call'd The beacon of the wise. William Shakespeare
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What men want is not knowledge but certainty. Bertrand Russell
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We often call a certainty a hope, to bring it luck. Elizabeth Bibesco
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We have to provide more visibility, more certainty to the investors and reduce the cost of failure. Emmanuel Macron
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U.S. intelligence services routinely use collection methods against foreigners that foreseeably - with certainty - ingest high volumes of U.S. communications as well. Barton Gellman
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Nobody knows the future with certainty. We can, however, identify ongoing patterns of change. Alvin Toffler