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Certainty Quotes

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Certainty Quotes

“Mitchell Sanders was right. For the common soldier, at least, war has the feel-the spiritual texture-of a great ghostly fog, thick and permanent. There is no clarity. Everything swirls. The old rules are no longer binding, the old truths no longer true. Right spills over into wrong. Order blends into chaos, love into hate, ugliness into beauty, law into anarchy, civility into savagery. The vapors suck you in. You can't tell where you are, or why you're there, and the only certainty is overwhelming ambiguity.”

FeelsWarSpiritualLawHateOrderCommonChaosSoldierClarityCertaintyPermanentWhere You AreOverwhelmingAnarchyThickFogUglinessCivilityAmbiguityTextureSpillsBindingSavageryVaporSwirls
Book:The Things They Carried
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“What is history? Any thoughts, Webster?' 'History is the lies of the victors,' I replied, a little too quickly. 'Yes, I was rather afraid you'd say that. Well, as long as you remember that it is also the self-delusions of the defeated. ... 'Finn?' '"History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation." (quoting Patrick Lagrange)”

WellsLittlesLongSelfRememberLyingMemoriesCertaintyDelusionImperfectionDefeatedInadequacyQuotingDocumentationSelf Delusion
Author:Julian Barnes
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“On the eve of long voyages or an absence of many years, friends who are tenderly attached will seperate with the usual look, the usual pressure of the hand, planning one final interview for the morrow, while each well knows that it is but a poor feint to save the pain of uttering that one word, and the meeting will never be. Should possibilities be worse to bear than certainties?”

KnowsShouldYearsWellsLooksLongHandsPainPoorPossibilityBearsPressureMeetingsFinalsAbsencePlanningCertaintyInterviewsUsualOne WordVoyagesMorrow
Book:Master Humphrey's Clock
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“The more we try to live in the world of words, the more we feel isolated and alone, the more all the joy and liveliness of things is exchanged for mere certainty and security. On the other hand, the more we are forced to admit that we actually live in the real world, the more we feel ignorant, uncertain, and insecure about everything.”

WorldFeelsTryingRealHandsJoySecurityMereIgnorantCertaintyReal WorldIsolatedUncertainInsecure
Book:The Wisdom of Insecurity
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“Logic, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. The basic of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion - thus: Major Premise: Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as quickly as one man. Minor Premise: One man can dig a post-hole in sixty seconds; Therefore- Conclusion: Sixty men can dig a post-hole in one second. This may be called syllogism arithmetical, in which, by combining logic and mathematics, we obtain a double certainty and are twice blessed.”

ThinkingMenHumansMayArtScienceCan DoPiecesMajorsLogicMathematicsBlessedHolesConclusionCertaintyLimitationPostsReasoningOne ManSecondsSixtyMinorsStrictMisunderstandingPremisesCombiningIncapacityReason And LogicHole In One
Author:Ambrose Bierce
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“Probability is not a mere computation of odds on the dice or more complicated variants; it is the acceptance of the lack of certainty in our knowledge and the development of methods for dealing with our ignorance.”

AcceptanceIgnoranceDevelopmentMethodMereComplicatedCertaintyOddsProbabilityDiceComputation
Book:Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile
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“People are invariably surprised to hear me say I am both an atheist and an agnostic, as if this somehow weakens my certainty. I usually reply with a question like, “Well, are you a Republican or an American?” The two words serve different concepts and are not mutually exclusive. Agnosticism addresses knowledge; atheism addresses belief. The agnostic says, “I don't have a knowledge that God exists.” The atheist says, “I don't have a belief that God exists.” You can say both things at the same time. Some agnostics are atheistic and some are theistic.”

PeopleIfsWellsTwoDifferentBeliefAtheismRepublicanConceptsAtheistCertaintyAddressesAgnosticExclusiveAgnosticismAtheisticGod Exists
Book:Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists
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“No sooner had he thought this than he realized what was anchoring his happiness. It was purpose. He knew what he wanted to do. He knew the way he thought things should be, and Mr. Harinton was proving that other people--even adults--could feel the same way. Nicholas had something to aim for now. He might not know what he wanted to be when he grew up, but he knew with absolute certainty how he wanted to be.”

PeopleKnowsWayFeelsShouldMightWantedPurposeGrewProveGrew UpAdultsAbsolutesAimCertaintyAbsolute Certainty
Author:Trenton Lee Stewart
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“Was there another life she was meant to be living? At times she felt a keen certainty that there was ― a phantom life, taunting her from just out of reach. A sense would come over her while she was drawing or walking, and once while she was dancing slow and close with Kaz, that she was supposed to be doing something else with her hands, with her legs, with her body. Something else. Something else. Something else.”

BodyHandsFeltWalkingDancingLegsDrawingCertaintySupposed To BeMeant To BePhantomsWere Meant To BeAnother LifeTaunting
Author:Laini Taylor
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“All of us carry around countless bags of dusty old knickknacks dated from childhood: collected resentments, long list of wounds of greater or lesser significance, glorified memories, absolute certainties that later turn out to be wrong. Humans are emotional pack rats. These bags define us.”

HumansLongTurnsMemoriesGreaterChildhoodEmotionalAbsolutesListsWoundsCertaintyBagsSignificanceResentmentPacksRatsAbsolute Certainty
Book:Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
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“He'd gone to Louddon's fortress to take Madelyne captive. His plan was revenge; an eye for an eye. And that had been reason enough. Until she'd warmed his feet. Everything had changed at that moment. Duncan had known with a certainty he couldn't deny that they were henceforth bound together. He could never let her go.”

ReasonEnoughMomentsEyeTogetherKnownGonePlansFeetChangedBoundsDenyRevengeCertaintyThat MomentCaptivesFortressesDuncanEye For An EyeLet Her Go
Book:Julie Garwood Box Set: Gentle Warrior, Honor's Splendour, Lion's Lady, and a New Excerpt!
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“Sometimes, the stars line up, the gods smile, and love gets a fighting chance. Just a chance. That's all it can really hope for. No guarantees, no certainties”

SometimesFightingStarsLinesChanceAnd LoveCertaintyGuarantees
Book:The Rizzoli & Isles Series 11-Book Bundle: The Surgeon, The Apprentice, The Sinner, Body Double, Vanish, The Mephisto Club, The Keepsake, Ice Cold, The Silent Girl, Last to Die, Die Again
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“God is in the mountains. Impassive, immovable, jagged giants, separating the celestial from the terrestrial with eternal diagonal certainty. As if silently monitoring the beating heart of the creator from the universe's perfect birth. Stood in the thin air and the awe, one inhales God, involuntarily acknowledging that we are but fragments of a whole, a higher thing. The mountains remind me of my place, as a servant to truth and wonder. Yes, God is in the mountains. Perhaps the pulpit too and even in the piety of an atheist's sigh. I don't know; but I feel him in the mountains.”

IfsKnowsFeelsHeartWholeUniversePerfectWonderAirBirthHigherMountainEternalAtheistCreatorCertaintyServantGiantsAweSighFragmentsPietyCelestialPulpitSeparatingInhaleMonitoringThin AirDiagonal
Author:Russell Brand
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“The underlying struggle - between worlds of plenty and worlds of want; between the modern and the ancient; between those who embrace our teeming, colliding, irksome diversity, while still insisting on a set of values that binds us together, and those who would seek, under whatever flag or slogan or sacred text, a certainty and simplification that justifies cruelty toward those not like us.”

WorldWantStillsTogetherValuesStruggleModernDiversitySacredEmbraceAncientOneselfCrueltyCertaintyPlentyJustifyFlagsSlogansInsistingSimplificationSacred Texts
Book:Dreams From My Father
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“Christ alone, of all the philosophers, magicians, etc., has affirmed eternal life as the most important certainty, the infinity of time, the futility of death, the necessity and purpose of serenity and devotion. He lived serenely, as an artist greater than all other artists, scorning marble and clay and paint, working in the living flesh. In other words, this peerless artist, scarcely conceivable with the blunt instrument of our modern, nervous and obtuse brains, made neither statues nor paintings nor books. He maintained in no uncertain terms that he made ... living men, immortals.”

MenMadeImportantBookPurposeArtistTermChristBrainGreaterModernPaintingEternalInstrumentsPaintPhilosopherFleshDevotionNervousCertaintyEtcInfinitySerenityUncertainMagicianClayStatuesEternal LifeMarbleFutilityBluntChrist Alone
Author:Vincent Van Gogh
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“Five hundred years before Christ was born, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus told his students that "everything changes except the law of change". He said: "You cannot step in the same river twice." The river changes every second; and so does the man who stepped in it. Life is a ceaseless change. The only certainty is today. Why mar the beauty of living today by trying to solve the problems of a future that is shrouded in ceaseless change and uncertainty-a future that no one can possibly foretell?”

MenTryingYearsDoeSaidProblemTodayLawLife IsChristBornStepsFiveStudentsHundredRiversPhilosopherSolveCertaintyUncertaintyGreekMarsEvery SecondGreek Philosopher
Author:Dale Carnegie
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“The self-confidence of the warrior is not the self-confidence of the average man. The average man seeks certainty in the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness. The average man is hooked to his fellow men, while the warrior is hooked only to infinity.”

MenSelfEyeCourageFellowsAverageHumbleSelf ConfidenceCertaintyWarriorInfinityFellow ManHookedHumblenessAverage ManDon JuanJuan
Book:Tales of Power
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“We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty. People are terrified — how can you live and not know? It is not odd at all. You only think you know, as a matter of fact. And most of your actions are based on incomplete knowledge and you really don’t know what it is all about, or what the purpose of the world is, or know a great deal of other things. It is possible to live and not know.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWorldMatterFactsActionPurposeRoomsDealsDoubtProgressCertaintyOddTerrifiedIncompleteMatter Of FactIncomplete Knowledge
Author:Richard P. Feynman
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“I learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with a strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again.”

KnowsLifeFeelsMeanLongChangeLosesLossLearningTaughtStrangeLessonsLetting GoCertaintyInevitableNovelistsLife ChangingLife LessonI Have LearnedLong AgoChanging Your LifeMaking ChangesPositive Change
Author:Christina Baker Kline
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