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Certainty Quotes

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Certainty Quotes

“Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possiblities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom. Thus, while diminishing our feeling of certainty as to what things are, it greatly increases our knowledge as to what the may be; it removes the somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who have never travelled into the region of liberating doubt, and it keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familar things in an unfamilar aspect”

MayPhilosophyFeelingsAbleAnswersWonderDoubtAliveAspectIncreaseRaisesTyrannyCertaintyRemoveRegionsCustomsArrogantOur ThoughtsLiberatingSense Of WonderDogmatism
Book:The Problems of Philosophy
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“It infuriated him to think that there were still people in the state who believed in a loving and merciful God. There are mystics who are said to have experienced God directly. He was a mystic, too, and what he had experienced was vacancy--a complete certainty in the existence of a dying, cooling world, of human beings who had evolved from animals for no purpose at all.”

PeopleThinkingWorldHumansSaidStillsStatesPurposeHuman BeingsAnimalExistenceDyingCertaintyMysticMercifulCoolingVacancyMerciful God
Book:The Power and the Glory
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“Some care is needed in using Descartes' argument. "I think, therefore I am" says rather more than is strictly certain. It might seem as though we are quite sure of being the same person to-day as we were yesterday, and this is no doubt true in some sense. But the real Self is as hard to arrive at as the real table, and does not seem to have that absolute, convincing certainty that belongs to particular experiences.”

ThinkingPersonsDoeRealSelfHardSeemsMightCareCertainDoubtParticularNeededArgumentAbsolutesTablesYesterdayCertaintyNo DoubtConvincingReal Self
Book:The Problems of Philosophy
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“When he thought of her, it rather amazed him, that he had let that girl with her violin go. Now, of course, he saw that her self-effacing proposal was quite irrelevant. All she had needed was the certainty of his love, and his reassurance that there was no hurry when a lifetime lay ahead of them. Love and patience- if only he had had them both at once- would surely have seen them both through.”

IfsSelfGirlCoursesSawsNeededLaysLifetimeCertaintyAmazedIrrelevantHis LoveProposalViolinThat GirlReassurancePatience And Love
Author:Ian Mcewan
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“The absurd man will not commit suicide; he wants to live, without relinquishing any of his certainty, without a future, without hope, without illusions … and without resignation either. He stares at death with passionate attention and this fascination liberates him. He experiences the “divine irresponsibility” of the condemned man.”

MenWantAttentionDivineIllusionSuicidePassionateCommitAbsurdCertaintyStaringFascinationResignationWithout HopeIrresponsibilityRelinquishingRelinquishing Control
Author:Jean-Paul Sartre
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“Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing...Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation.”

KnowsWayShouldLooksMayMeanSaidCertainCommonSadnessExpressionExpectationsMarkCommon SenseCertaintyMathematicalUncertaintyBad ThingsUncertainSighCalculatingBreathless
Author:Oswald Chambers
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“This pause in time, within time ... When did I first experience the exquisite sense of surrender that is only possible with another person? The peace of mind one experiences on one's own, one's certainty of self in the serenity of solitude, are nothing in comparison to the release and openness and fluency one shares with another, in close companionship.”

MindFirstsPersonsSelfShareSolitudeSurrenderReleaseCertaintyComparisonPeace Of MindOpennessSerenityPausesCompanionshipExquisiteFluency
Author:Muriel Barbery
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“The kind of hope that I often think about…I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us, or we don’t. It is a dimension of the soul It’s not essentially dependent upon some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

ThinkingWorldMindWellsKindSoulStatesTurnsSituationParticularConvictionObservationCertaintyMake SenseDimensionsDependentState Of MindHaving Hope
Author:Vaclav Havel
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“The frog is almost five hundred million years old. Could you really say with much certainty that America, with all its strength and prosperity, with its fighting man that is second to none, and with its standard of living that is highest in the world, will last as long as...the frog?”

MenWorldYearsLongLastsAmericaFightingMillionsFiveHighestStandardsHundredProsperityCertaintyFrogsStandards Of LivingYossarian
Book:Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition
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“There are stories, like maps that agree... too consistent among too many languages and histories to be only wishful thinking.... It is always a hidden place, the way into it is not obvious, the geography is as much spiritual as physical. If you should happen upon it, your strongest certainty is not that you have discovered it but returned to it. In a single great episode of light, you remember everything.”

IfsThinkingWayShouldStoriesLightHappensRememberSpiritualLanguageAgreeObviousCertaintyConsistentMapsStrongestEpisodesGeographyWishful ThinkingRemembers Everything
Book:Against the Day
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“All writers - all beings - are exiles as a matter of course. The certainty about living is that it is a succession of expulsions of whatever carries the life force...All writers are exiles wherever they live and their work is a lifelong journey towards the lost land.”

WritingMatterCoursesLostForceJourneyLandCertaintyCarrieExileLifelongSuccessionExpulsionLifelong Journey
Book:An Angel at My Table: The Complete Autobiography
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“This is what it is to be human: to see the essential existential futility of all action, all striving -- and to act, to strive. This is what it is to be human: to reach forever beyond your grasp. This is what it is to be human: to live forever or die trying. This is what it is to be human: to perpetually ask the unanswerable questions, in the hope that the asking of them will somehow hasten the day when they will be answered. This is what it is to be human: to strive in the face of the certainty of failure. This is what it is to be human: to persist.”

TryingHumansActionFacesDiesAsksForeverEssentialsAskingStriveCertaintyExistentialPersistLive ForeverFutility
Book:The Star Dancers
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“So we stand there, part of a crowd a thousand people strong, beaming up at the sky with wonder. I knew with a sudden certainty that wherever I am in the future - up in my treehouse, alone in the school cafeteria, or trying to figure out what my teachers are talking about, a part of me will always be right here, right now, wish that giant eye in the sky shining down on me, telling me it's going to be alright.”

PeopleTryingEyeSchoolStrongWishTalkingWonderTeacherSkyFiguresRight NowThousandShiningCrowdsCertaintyGiantsAlrightCafeteriaShining DownSchool CafeteriaTreehouses
Author:Wendy Mass
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“She loved Bram in a clear-eyed way she’d never loved her ex-husband, no rose-colored glasses or mindless giddiness, no Cinderella fantasies or false certainty that he’d put her life in order. What she felt for Bram was messy, honest, and soul-deep. He felt like…part of her, the best and the worst. Like someone she wanted to struggle through life with; share triumphs and catastrophes; share holidays, birthdays, every days”

WaySoulWantedOrderFeltFantasyStruggleClearShareWorstHonestHusbandRoseGlassesCertaintyTriumphHolidayCatastropheExesMessyMindlessEx HusbandColored GlassRose Colored Glasses
Author:Susan Elizabeth Phillips
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“Those of us who write and study history are accustomed to its approximations and ambiguities. This is why we do not take literally the tenth-hand reports of frightened and illiterate peasants who claim to have seen miracles or to have had encounters with messiahs and prophets and redeemers who were, like them, mere humans. And this is also why we will never submit to dictation from those who display a fanatical belief in certainty and revelation.”

WritingHumansHandsBeliefStudyAtheismMiracleClaimsMereAtheistCertaintyProphetEncountersRevelationsReportsFrightenedDisplaySubmitAccustomedAmbiguityPeasantsMessiahIlliterateRedeemerApproximationDictation
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“True. The one certainty about riding, Braygan, is that - at some time - you will fall off. It is a fact. Another fact you might like to consider, in your life of perpetual terror, is that you will die. We are all going to die, some of us young, some of us old, some of us in our sleep, some of us screaming in agony. We cannot stop it, we can only delay it.”

FactsMightYoungDiesFallSleepTerrorCertaintyRidingPerpetualAgonyDelay
Book:White Wolf: A Novel of Druss the Legend
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“Here is the point about myself and my co-thinkers. Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not hold our convictions dogmatically. We believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived without religion. And we know for a fact that the corollary holds true - that religion has caused innumerate people not just to conduct themselves no better than others, but to award themselves permission to behave in ways that would make a brothel-keeper or an ethnic cleanser raise an eyebrow.”

PeopleKnowsWayBelieveFactsBeliefPrinciplesRaisesConvictionCertaintyBehaveAwardsEthicalThinkerPermissionEyebrowsKeepersBrothelsGod Is Not Great
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“My mother has made choices in her life, as we all must, and she is at peace with them. I can see her peace. She did not cop out on herself. The benefits of her choices are massive-a long, stable marriage to a man she still calls her best friend; a family that has extended now into grandchildren who adore her; a certainty in her own strength. Maybe some things were sacrificed, and my dad made his sacrifices, too-but who amongst us lives without sacrifice?”

MenLongMadeStillsI CanMotherChoicesSacrificeDadBenefitsMy DadCertaintyMassiveStableCopAdoreGrandchildrenWithout Sacrifice
Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
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“Finnick!" Something between a shriek and a cry of joy. A lovely if somewhat bedraggled young woman--dark tangled hair, sea green eyes--runs toward us in nothing but a sheet. "Finnick!" And suddenly, it's as if there's no one in the world but these two, crashing through space to reach each other. They collide, enfold, lose their balance, and slam against a wall, where they stay. Clinging into one being. Indivisible. A pang of jealousy hits me. Not for either Finnick or Annie but for their certainty. No one seeing them could doubt their love.”

IfsWorldTwoEyeRunningYoungJoyLosesDarkSpaceDoubtSeeingSeaCryHairWallBalanceGreenLovelyCertaintyYoung WomenSheetsClingingSlamTangledIndivisibleAnnieCollideGreen EyesFinnickTangled Hair
Book:Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3)
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“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. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant.”

KnowsMenInspirationalHumansHas BeensValuesMoralProgressMoralityEthicsCurrentsPositive AtheismCertaintyCivilizedSkepticalSkepticInferiorityDoubtedHuman ProgressMoral ValuesUncivilized
Book:Minority Report
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“A testimony is a most precious possession because it is not acquired by logic or reason alone, it cannot be purchased with earthly possessions, and it cannot be given as a present or inherited from our ancestors. We cannot depend on the testimonies of other people. We need to know for ourselves. President Gordon B. Hinckley said, ‘Every Latter-day Saint has the responsibility to know for himself or herself with a certainty beyond doubt that Jesus is the resurrected, living Son of the living God.”

PeopleKnowsNeedsSaidReasonJesusGivenPresidentResponsibilityDoubtSonDependsLogicSaintPossessionCertaintyLatterAncestorTestimonyLatter DaysLatter Day SaintsPrecious PossessionsEarthly PossessionsGordon B Hinckley
Author:Dieter F. Uchtdorf
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“Okay. I'll deal with Benjamin. You're safe, okay? Nothing's gonna happen." His mouth pulled tight against itself. And now I was having some sort of heart attack. Because when he looked at me like that, my chest started to feel like it was turned inside out. "Promise." And that—the promise, the way he said it with utter certainty—was enough to make me tear up again.”

WayFeelsHeartSaidEnoughHappensDealsTearsPromiseSafeMouthsOkayCertaintyChestsHeart Attack
Author:Lilith Saintcrow
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“Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won’t suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back – and at some point everyone looks back – she will hear her heart saying, “What have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage; the certainty that you wasted your life.”

PeopleWayLooksHeartPersonsDoneDreamSufferingRiskTalentLosingMiracleCertaintyDisappointedBuriedHeritageFearfulCavesTaking RisksPitifulDisillusioned
Book:By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept: A Novel of Forgiveness
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