100 Quotes About Uncertainty

Uncertainty is a fact of life. This is true for every single human being on the planet. We deal with it constantly, and it can come in many forms, from financial worries to health issues and everything in between. People who experience uncertainty often feel as if they’re not in control of their lives, and that can be a source of stress and anxiety for them and those around them Read more

Luckily, we’ve put together a list of quotes about uncertainty that can help you cope with whatever it is you’re going through right now.

When all is said and done, the weather and love...
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When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure. Alice Hoffman
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I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity. Gilda Radner
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!
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We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty! Douglas Adams
You are a child of the universe, no less than...
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You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Max Ehrmann
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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
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Life isn’t meant to be lived perfectly…but merely to be LIVED. Boldly, wildly, beautifully, uncertainly, imperfectly, magically LIVED. Mandy Hale
Risk means 'shit happens' or 'good luck
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Risk means 'shit happens' or 'good luck Toba Beta
I took a test in Existentialism. I left all the...
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I took a test in Existentialism. I left all the answers blank and got 100. Woody Allen
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I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here. I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell. . Richard Feynman
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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
Beyond all sciences, philosophies, theologies, and histories, a child's relentless...
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Beyond all sciences, philosophies, theologies, and histories, a child's relentless inquiry is truly all it takes to remind us that we don't know as much as we think we know. Criss Jami
A sign of a lover of wisdom is his delight...
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A sign of a lover of wisdom is his delight in not running his mouth about things he doesn't know. Criss Jami
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There's a kind of saying that you don't understand its meaning, 'I don't believe it. It's too crazy. I'm not going to accept it.'… You'll have to accept it. It's the way nature works. If you want to know how nature works, we looked at it, carefully. Looking at it, that's the way it looks. You don't like it? Go somewhere else, to another universe where the rules are simpler, philosophically more pleasing, more psychologically easy. I can't help it, okay? If I'm going to tell you honestly what the world looks like to the human beings who have struggled as hard as they can to understand it, I can only tell you what it looks like. Richard Feynman
I always make sure that the world will prove me...
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I always make sure that the world will prove me right. It gives me the freedom to contradict myself. 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
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It always seems as though the definition of love will remain debatable by an opinionated world. 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
People need to stop accepting the evidence of reality, and...
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People need to stop accepting the evidence of reality, and start questioning it. Lionel Suggs
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I'm convinced that most men don't know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for man's atrocities, but wouldn't dream of imprisoning a mother for her son's crime? Criss Jami
The more you go with the flow of life and...
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The more you go with the flow of life and surrender the outcome to God, and the less you seek constant clarity, the more you will find that fabulous things start to show up in your life. Mandy Hale
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It (trying to keep the law) grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainly out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse. William Paul Young
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
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Stored personal memories along with handed down collective memories of stories, legends, and history allows us to collate our interactions with a physical and social world and develop a personal code of survival. In essence, we all become self-styled sages, creating our own book of wisdom based upon our studied observations and practical knowledge gleaned from living and learning. What we quickly discover is that no textbook exist how to conduct our life, because the world has yet to produce a perfect person — an ideal observer — whom is capable of handing down a concrete exemplar of epistemic virtues. We each draw upon the guiding knowledge, theories, and advice available for us in order to explore the paradoxes, ironies, inconsistencies, and the absurdities encountered while living in a supernatural world. We mold our personal collection of information into a practical practicum how to live and die. Each day we define and redefine who we are, determine how we will react today, and chart our quest into an uncertain future. Kilroy J. Oldster
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I don't think that I am happy, but then again, I don't know. Sometimes I get so caught up in the process of living-- of eating, dressing, taking the train to work, that I don't give it enough thought. Maybe happiness is being content. But is it really? Samantha Schutz
I am a world of uncertainties disguised as a girl.
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I am a world of uncertainties disguised as a girl. Nicole Lyons
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Embrace relational uncertainty. It's called romance. Embrace spiritual uncertainty. It's called mystery. Embrace occupational uncertainty. It's called destiny. Embrace emotional uncertainty. It's called joy. Embrace intellectual uncertainty. It's called revelation. Mark Batterson
I should have been bolder and kissed her at the...
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I should have been bolder and kissed her at the end. I should have been more cautious. I had talked too much. I had said too little. Patrick Rothfuss
In these times I don't, in a manner of speaking,...
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In these times I don't, in a manner of speaking, know what I want; perhaps I don't want what I know and want what I don't know. Marsilio Ficino
Grief is an amputation, but hope is incurable haemophilia: you...
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Grief is an amputation, but hope is incurable haemophilia: you bleed and bleed and bleed. Like Schrödinger’s cat inside a box you can never ever open. David Mitchell
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His Presbyterian minster father had believed in a divine design, and Mozasu believed that life was like this game where the player could adjust the dials yet also expect the uncertainty of factors he couldn't control. He understood why his customers wanted to play something that looked fixed but which also left room for randomness and hope. Min Jin Lee
But when you're concerned that the miserable, boring wasteland in...
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But when you're concerned that the miserable, boring wasteland in front of you might stretch all the way into forever, not knowing feels strangely hope-like. Allie Brosh
The living used to wonder what happened after death. She...
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The living used to wonder what happened after death. She said that whole religions were born and evolved around this one simple uncertainty. Carrie Ryan
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He took his hands off the oars and pulled in the mooring rope. If I make a couple of loops, he thought, I can strap the axe on to my back. He had a mental picture of what could happen to a man who plunged into the cauldron below a waterfall with a sharp piece of metal attached to his body. G O O D MORNING.Vimes blinked. A tall dark robed figure was now sitting in the boat.' Are you Death?'IT'S THE SCYTHE, ISN'T IT? PEOPLE ALWAYS NOTICE THE SCYTHE.'I'm going to die?' P O S S I B L Y.' Possibly? You turn up when people are possibly going to die?' O H, YES. IT'S QUITE THE NEW THING. IT'S BECAUSE OF THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE.'What's that?' I' M NOT SURE.'That's very helpful. . Terry Pratchett
It is uncertainty which fills life with beauty, excitement, and...
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It is uncertainty which fills life with beauty, excitement, and joy. Debasish Mridha
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What makes us leave what we love best? What is it inside us that keeps erasing itself When we need it most, That sends us into uncertainty for its own sake And holds us flush there until we begin to love it And have to begin again? What is it within our own lives we decline to live Whenever we find it, making our days unendurable, And nights almost visionless? I still don't know yet, but I do it. Charles Wright
If I knew what to do I'd do more than...
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If I knew what to do I'd do more than write a song for you Criss Jami
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Regardless of your faith, you can never escape uncertainty. Shannon L. Alder
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If our future generations were much wilier than us, then it might be them who have led us all this time, to make decisions which fit to their pre-existence, left us live in the world of uncertainty or by faith. Toba Beta
The death of God left the angels in a strange...
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The death of God left the angels in a strange position. Donald Barthelme
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Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds -- justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can't go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner. Anne Rice
Progress daily in your own uncertainty. Live in awareness of...
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Progress daily in your own uncertainty. Live in awareness of the questions. Bremer Acosta
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People too often tolerate uncertainty prior to taking action; worse, some people believe that omniscience or infallibility are prerequisites for being certain, so they conclude that certainty (and therefore knowledge) is never possible. To any person who proclaims that "you can never be certain of anything", ask them: "are you sure?" and watch what happens. Mike Klepper
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Did I know myself less, I might perhaps venture to handle something or other to the bottom, and to be deceived in my own inability; but sprinkling here one word and there another, patterns cut from severalpieces and scattered without design and without engaging myself too far, I am not responsible for them, or obliged to keep close to my subject, without varying at my own liberty and pleasure, and giving up myself to doubt and uncertainty, and to myown governing method, ignorance. Michel De Montaigne
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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
When in doubt, throw doubt out and have a little...
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When in doubt, throw doubt out and have a little faith.... E.a. Bucchianeri
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There is a time in the life of every boy when he for the first time takes the backward view of life. Perhaps that is the moment when he crosses the line into manhood. The boy is walking through the street of his town. He is thinking of the future and of the figure he will cut in the world. Ambitions and regrets awake within him. Suddenly something happens; he stops under a tree and waits as for a voice calling his name. Ghosts of old things creep into his consciousness; the voices outside of himself whisper a message concerning the limitations of life. From being quite sure of himself and his future he becomes not at all sure. If he be an imaginative boy a door is torn open and for the first time he looks out upon the world, seeing, as though they marched in procession before him, the countless figures of men who before his time have come out of nothingness into the world, lived their lives and again disappeared into nothingness. The sadness of sophistication has come to the boy. With a little gasp he sees himself as merely a leaf blown by the wind through the streets of his village. He knows that in spite of all the stout talk of his fellows he must live and die in uncertainty, a thing blown by the winds, a thing destined like corn to wilt in the sun. Sherwood Anderson
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No one ever said that you would live to see the repercussions of everything you do, or that you have guarantees, or that you are not obliged to wander in the dark, or that everything will be proved to you and neatly verified like something in science. Nothing is: at least nothing that is worthwhile. I didn't bring you up only to move across sure ground. I didn't teach you to think that everything must be within our control or understanding. Did I? For, if I did, I was wrong. I fyou won't take a chance, then the powers you refuse because you cannot explain them, will, as they say, make a monkey out of you. Mark Helprin
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I'm comfortable with the unknown -- that's the point of science. There are places out there, billions of places out there, that we know nothing about. And the fact that we know nothing about them excites me, and I want to go out and find out about them. And that's what science is. So I think if you’re not comfortable with the unknown, then it’s difficult to be a scientist… I don’t need an answer. I don’t need answers to everything. I want to have answers to find. . Brian Cox
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To understand this new frontier, I will have to try to master one of the most difficult and counterintuitive theories ever recorded in the annals of science: quantum physics. Listen to those who have spent their lives immersed in this world and you will have a sense of the challenge we face. After making his groundbreaking discoveries in quantum physics, Werner Heisenberg recalled, "I repeated to myself again and again the question: Can nature possibly be so absurd as it seemed to us in these atomic experiments?" Einstein declared after one discovery, "If it is correct it signifies the end of science." Schrödinger was so shocked by the implications of what he'd cooked up that he admitted, "I do not like it and I am sorry I had anything to do with it." Nevertheless, quantum physics is now one of the most powerful and well-tested pieces of science on the books. Nothing has come close to pushing it off its pedestal as one of the great scientific achievements of the last century. So there is nothing to do but to dive headfirst into this uncertain world. Feynman has some good advice for me as I embark on my quest: "I am going to tell you what nature behaves like. If you will simply admit that maybe she does behave like this, you will find her a delightful, entrancing thing. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' because you will get 'down the drain, ' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that. Marcus Du Sautoy
It has always seemed that a fear of judgment is...
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It has always seemed that a fear of judgment is the mark of guilt and the burden of insecurity. Criss Jami
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It is for your own good to love a dare-devil rather than a holy coward. A dare-devil is a unique devil, battling your fears, your pains, conquering your uncertainties, carrying you his arms, and flying out of the corrosive fire. The coward is a trickster serpent, which vanishes in your time of despair, and appears in time of equanimity. Michael Bassey Johnson
If you're scared, do something.
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If you're scared, do something. Elizabeth Wein
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The most difficult step ever is the first step. It comes with doubts, uncertainties, and all sort of fears. If you defy all odd and take it, your confidence will replicate very fast and you'll become a master! Israelmore Ayivor
Oh, get off it with that. So sensitive about language....
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Oh, get off it with that. So sensitive about language. Mate, love, nest, whatever. Point is, it stinks, especially when it goes bad. I get wanting to run away. Jackson Lanzing
Before you can act you must choose. Before you can...
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Before you can act you must choose. Before you can choose you must know. Before you can know you must feel. And before you can feel you must be trained. David Amerland
What's going to happen to us?
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What's going to happen to us? Tsukumizu
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Fear is caused by the uncertainty of the future. Sorrow is caused by the remembrance of the past. Try to keep your thoughts in the present, for the future we will never know and the past we may never understand. Jeffrey Fry
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It is foolishness to want what never was or will never will be, lament the passage of time, and live in fearfulness of an uncertain future. The moods generated by regret including depression and self-loathing congeal in our sentient consciousness creating the painful landscape of the self. Kilroy J. Oldster
I'm afraid of everything I don't know.
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I'm afraid of everything I don't know. Kelly Thompson
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Letting go of who you're supposed to be and discovering who you really are is a journey of many experiences, but certainty is not one of them. No matter how long you wait, it'll never feel safe enough. Plunge in anyway. Vironika Tugaleva
Was this really friendship? I have my doubts.
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Was this really friendship? I have my doubts. Wataru Watari
I make it a point not to talk about the...
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I make it a point not to talk about the past. But you're special. Yuhta Nishio
It doesn't count if it's from friends, right?
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It doesn't count if it's from friends, right? 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
War is when people kill one another, right? Why would...
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War is when people kill one another, right? Why would they do that? Tsukumizu
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We stayed here for only a few hours. We rested and went on. But the camera snatched this fraction of a second from the eternal flow of time and froze it forever. At this moment we didn’t know that in a few hours we would fall into an ambush. At this moment, while we were filling our canteens from the stream, we didn’t yet know that we would stay in the mountains for three days without a drop of water. We didn’t yet know anything … . Vladislav Tamarov
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.. . buzzed up by the knowledge that none of my family knew where I was, who I was with nor when I'd be home again. I didn't even know exactly who I was with or when I'd be home again or where home really was anymore. Sara Baume
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When times are tough and people are frustrated and angry and hurting and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good, but what is good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. What works in the real world is cooperation. William J. Clinton
If you suffer lingering doubts; if the consolation you cling...
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If you suffer lingering doubts; if the consolation you cling to is ‘it will probably be okay, ’ then run the other way because what you’re contemplating is not a good choice. Richelle E. Goodrich
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She tried to remember all the times she had spoken to him. She replayed every moment she could remember at the beach last week. Not once had she led him to believe that she liked him improperly. And yet, last night, he had appeared as if she had invited him. She had given herself so willingly, so lasciviously, that he must have thought she had desired him all along. Perhaps she had, or perhaps she had not realised how pleasurable intimacy could be. Mahita Vas
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We're in a free fall into the future. We don't know where we're going. Things are changing so fast. And always when you're going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along. But all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It's a very interesting shift of perspective . Joyfully participate in the sorrows of the world and everything changes. Joseph Campbell
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Exiting from any long-term relationship comes at great personal expense, which explains why so many people are understandably reluctant to endure the cost of severance. Beginnings and endings are always dramatic and occasionally traumatic. Youthful brio allows us to engage in transformation. As we age, we carefully weigh the spectacle of continuing enduring harrowing situations or seeking melodramatic renovation of our core being. Analysis of the respective cost benefit ratio, consideration of the known versus the unknown, can delay or permanently deter us from altering our environment, leading our persona to become more rigid as we mature. Transformations in life are disconcerting to people who resist change. Kilroy J. Oldster
The misconception of something being a certainty sometimes gets to...
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The misconception of something being a certainty sometimes gets to me until I remember we can change most things consciously. Jay Woodman
Change is neither good nor bad. It only creates a...
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Change is neither good nor bad. It only creates a different situation. Daniel Egger
When in doubt, be ridiculous.
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When in doubt, be ridiculous. Sherwood Smith
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In these dark and uncertain times, there can be great value in imagining a bit of star in each human soul. Not just that it gives some hope for humanity at a time when man’s inhumanity to man seems ever on the increase; but also because it points to an inner brightness that can light the way in dark times. Michael Meade
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No peace is possible between the novelist and the agélaste [those who do not laugh]. Never having heard God's laughter, the agélastes are convinced that the truth is obvious, that all men necessarily think the same thing, and that they themselves are exactly what they think they are. But it is precisely in losing the certainty of truth and the unanimous agreement of others that man becomes an individual. The novel is the imaginary paradise of individuals. It is the territory where no one possesses the truth, neither Anna nor Karenin, but where everyone has the right to be understood, both Anna and Karenin. Milan Kundera
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Life is exciting because of uncertainty. Certainty make it very dull and boring. Debasish Mridha
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Life is not for the faint hearted Nicky Verd
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And of course I didn't know who would marry me now that I'd been where I had been. I didn't know at all. Sylvia Plath
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Nothing is what one thinks it is. Cloth is stone and circus is an art. There are no certainties. Walter Moers
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Life is a long travel. The end of the journey is often unpredictable. Lailah Gifty Akita
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Like the body craves oxygen, the mind is desperate for certainty. It believes that without a safe foothold on reality, it will die. But the fascinating thing is that the illusion of certainty is exactly the opposite of safety because it hardens and narrows the vision to make everything fit its own scope. Then when new information arrives which would be its ally, the mind pushes it away in favor of the leaky life raft to which it clings, sinking all the while beneath the waves of change. In fact, the only antidote for this is to embrace 'I don’t know' so deeply that a powerful, dynamic safety emerges. This is like learning to surf so well that a tsunami wave shows up as a challenge to test our mastery. Jacob Nordby
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Still, if I don't believe in the possibility, I might go mad from fear. Libbie Hawker
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During the flames of controversy, opinions, mass disputes, conflict, and world news, sometimes the most precious, refreshing, peaceful words to hear amidst all the chaos are simply and humbly 'I don't know. Criss Jami
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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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When the future is fogged and ahead lays opportunity but risk, it is better to tread a careful path through the uncertainty than to wait for the mist to clear, if it ever does. Anonymous
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It’s not enough to wish, dream, hope. Even children know this. We must set sail into the sea of uncertainty. We must meet fear face-to-face. We must take our dreams as maps for a greater journey. Dreams, to come true, need a good story. So go live one. Vironika Tugaleva
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Life is uncertain. Lord grant us gracious courage to face the uncertainty of life. Lailah Gifty Akita
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Grow or Die - Don’t let your fear of uncertainty keep you from achieving your dreams, it is far riskier to stagnate. Malti Bhojwani
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We need leaders who can meet and adapt to new challenges, build strategic partnerships, build and sustain human capital organizations, and have the courage to act and react to the challenges Thomas Narofsky
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In telling a story one of the most successful devices for easily creating uncanny effects is to leave the reader in uncertainty whether a particular figure in the story is a human being or an automaton and to do it in such a way that his attention is not focused directly upon his uncertainty, so that he may not be led to go into the matter and clear it up immediately. Ernst Jentsch
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We all think of doing something distinctive in life. We all do dream of becoming great and leaving distinctive footprints but, when we get that dream, we must get a clear understanding of what it takes to be great. We must get the real picture of what it takes to live and leave distinctive footprints. We need to understand the real reasons why we must pursue to the end notwithstanding how arduous the journey to greatness may be and the tangible and intangible costs we may have to pay. We must have a nimble mind, move with tenacity and dare without retreating. Though we may be ignorant of the certainty, uncertainty and serendipity we may meet, we must think ahead! Vision shall always be a vision until we take that step of fortitude to make it a reality. When you dream of what is distinctive, make it happen!. Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
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We must content ourselves with the mystery, the absurdity, the contradictions, the hostility, but also the generosity that our environment offers us. It's not much, but it's always better than the deadly, defeatist certainty of the paranoid. Philip K. Dick
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That had always been the beauty of the wind. It could only be seen through its actions, its effect on others. A gentle reminder that reality does not only exist in the seeable, the palpable, the understandable, but also in the figments and daydreams, the steadfast beliefs and unexplainable uncertainties. Reality is seen and yet unseen. Wholly and absolutely relative. The wind had taught him that. Kelseyleigh Reber