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Certainty Quotes

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Certainty Quotes

“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids? A man cannot know himself better than by attending to the feelings of his heart and to his external actions, from which he may with tolerable certainty judge "what manner of person he is." I have therefore determined to keep a daily journal.”

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Author:James Boswell
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“Out of the element of participation follows the certainty of faith; out of the element of separation follows the doubt in faith. And each is essential for the nature of faith. Sometimes certainty conquers doubt, but it cannot eliminate doubt. The conquered of today may become the conqueror of tomorrow. Sometimes doubt conquers faith, but it still contains faith. Otherwise it would be indifference.”

MayStillsSometimesWould BeTodayFaithDoubtTomorrowEssentialsElementsSeparationCertaintyConquerIndifferenceParticipationConqueror
Book:Dynamics of Faith
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“Theoretically, I grant you, there is no possibility of error in necessary reasoning. But to speak thus "theoretically," is to uselanguage in a Pickwickian sense. In practice, and in fact, mathematics is not exempt from that liability to error that affects everything that man does.”

MenDoeFactsSpeakPracticePossibilityMathematicsErrorsCertaintyReasoningGrantsLiability
Book:Reasoning and the logic of things: the Cambridge conferences lectures of 1898
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“If I were twenty or thirty years younger, I would start afresh in this field with the certainty of accomplishing much. But I should have to learn from the bottom up, forgetting the theatre entirely and concentrating on the special medium of this new art. My mistake, and that of many others, lay in employing "theatrical" techniques despite every effort to avoid them. Here is something quite, quite fresh, a penetrating form of visual poetry, an untried exponent of the human soul. Alas, I am too old for it!”

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Author:Eleanora Duse
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“I know with certainty, that [an honest man] is not to put his hand into the fire, and hold it there, till it be consumed: And thisevent, I think I can foretell with the same assurance, as that, if he throw himself out at the window, and meet with no obstruction, he will not remain a moment suspended in the air.”

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Book:An Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding: And An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
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“The whole social structure is now tumbling down, dethroning its God, undermining all its certainties. All this, wonderfully enough, is being done in the name of the health, wealth, and happiness of all mankind.”

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Book:Conversion: The Spiritual Journey of a Twentieth Century Pilgrim
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“People fear leaving their safe harbor of the known and venturing off into the unknown. Human beings crave certainty - even when it limits them.”

PeopleHumansHuman BeingsKnownSafeLimitsLeavingCertaintyCraveHarborsSafe Harbor
Book:The Greatness Guide: One of the World's Most Successful Coaches Shares His Secrets for Personal and Business Mastery
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“I speak "with absolute certainty" only so far as my own personal belief is concerned. Those who have not the same warrant for their belief as I have, would be very credulous and foolish to accept it on blind faith. Nor does the writer believe any more than her correspondent and his friends in any "authority" let alone "divine revelation"!”

BelieveDoeWould BeBeliefSpeakMy OwnAcceptingDivineAuthorityConcernedAbsolutesBlindFoolishCertaintyRevelationsBlind FaithWarrantsAbsolute CertaintyDivine RevelationPersonal Beliefs
Author:H. P. Blavatsky
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“There are two options for any society: total prohibition as in a totalitarian state, or total license. Both avoid the ardours of decision. Both have the attraction of certainty. The difficult option is to decide where the line should be drawn and this, surely, is the responsiblity of any civilized and democratic country.”

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Book:Time to Be in Earnest
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“It takes twenty or so years before a mother can know with any certainty how effective her theories have been--and even then thereare surprises. The daily newspapers raise the most frightening questions of all for a mother of sons: Could my once sweet babes ever become violent men? Are my sons really who I think they are?”

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Book:American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie
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“The attitude of mourning is a faithless attitude, an ignorant attitude. The more we know, the more fully we shall trust, for we shall feel with utter certainty that we and our dead are alike in the hands of perfect Power and perfect Wisdom, directed by perfect Love.”

KnowsFeelsHandsDeathPerfectAttitudeIgnorantCertaintyMourningPerfect LoveFaithless
Book:The Other Side of Death: Scientifically Examined and Carefully Described
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“Full employment does not mean literally no unemployment; that is to say, it does not mean that every man and woman in the country who is fit and free for work is employed productively every day of his or her working life ... Full employment means that unemployment is reduced to short intervals of standing by, with the certainty that very soon one will be wanted in one's old job again or will be wanted in a new job that is within one's powers.”

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Author:William Beveridge
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“The best antidote against evils of all kinds, against the evil thoughts that haunt the soul, against the needless perplexities which distract the conscience, is to keep hold of the good we have. Impure thoughts will not stand against pure words and prayers and deeds. Little doubts will not avail against great certainties. Fix your affections on things above, and then you will less and less be troubled by the cares, the temptations, the troubles of things on earth.”

KindLittlesSoulCareEarthEvilPrayerDoubtTroublePureConscienceAffectionDeedsAll KindsTemptationCertaintyAntidotePerplexityEvil ThoughtsImpure Thoughts
Author:Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
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“Man's quest for knowledge is an expanding series whose limit is infinity, but philosophy seeks to attain that limit at one blow, by a short circuit providing the certainty of complete and inalterable truth. Science meanwhile advances at its gradual pace, often slowing to a crawl, and for periods it even walks in place, but eventually it reaches the various ultimate trenches dug by philosophical thought, and, quite heedless of the fact that it is not supposed to be able to cross those final barriers to the intellect, goes right on.”

MenPhilosophyFactsAbleWalksPeriodsLimitsCrossesUltimatePhilosophicalSeriesFinalsBlowVariousIntellectCertaintySupposed To BeBarriersPaceInfinityQuestsProvidingExpandingCircuitsTrenchesSlowingShort Circuit
Book:His Master's Voice
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“For the female of the species is more deadly than the male. A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty. Take my word for it, the silliest woman can manage a clever man; But it takes a very clever woman to manage a fool. I never made a mistake in my life; At least, never one that I couldn't explain away afterwards”

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Author:Rudyard Kipling
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“Men have no right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands is the care of our own time.”

MenWellsHandsCareMoralGenerationsCertaintyWell Being
Book:The Works of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke: With a Biographical and Critical Introduction, and Portrait After Sir Joshua Reynolds
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“Very few people would choose to have even the most fabled assortment of goods if it meant getting cancer within the year. But the choice involves not the certainty of cancer very soon but an increased probability of cancer at some time in the future. The cancers are no less real; millions will die painfully and prematurely because of what we do to our environment. But the choice is not an easily visualizable one, and our capacity of denial comes strongly into play - as it tends to whenever we must weigh future costs against immediate benefits.”

PeopleIfsYearsRealPlayDiesChoicesMillionsEnvironmentCostBenefitsCapacityEnvironmentalCancerCertaintyDenialGoodsPollutionProbabilityOur Environment
Author:Paul L Wachtel
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“Fundamentalists believe that we don't believe in anything. In their view of the world, they are in possession of absolute certainties, while we are descending into decadence. We will be able to triumph over terrorism not by waging war on it, but through a conscious, fearless way of life.”

WorldWayBelieveWarAbleViewsConsciousAbsolutesDon't BelievePossessionTerrorismCertaintyFearlessTriumphDecadenceDescendingAbsolute CertaintyWaging War
Author:Salman Rushdie
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