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Certainty Quotes

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Certainty Quotes

“First, the probable cause of AIDS has been found: a variant of a known human cancer virus. Second, not only has the agent been identified, but a new process has been developed to mass produce this virus. Thirdly, with the discovery of both the virus and this new process, we now have a blood test for AIDS. With a blood test, we can identify AIDS victims with essentially 100% certainty.”

FirstsHumansHas BeensFoundCausesProcessKnownBloodProduceMassDiscoveryTestsVictimCancerAidsAgentsCertaintyVirusesProbable CauseBlood TestsNew Processes
Author:Margaret Heckler
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“Ideas which have been developed simultaneously or in immediate succession in the same mind mutually reproduce each other, and do this with greater ease in the direction of the original succession and with a certainty proportional to the frequency with which they were together”

MindHas BeensIdeasTogetherGreaterOriginalsCertaintyEaseFrequencySuccession
Book:Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology
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“In all determinations of morality, this circumstance of public utility is ever principally in view; and wherever disputes arise, either in philosophy or common life, concerning the bounds of duty, the questions cannot, by any means, be decided with greater certainty, than by ascertaining, on any side, the true interests of mankind. If any false opinion, embraced from appearances, has been found to prevail; as soon as farther experience and sounder reasoning have given us juster notions of human affairs, we retract our first sentiment, and adjust anew the boundaries of moral good and evil.”

IfsFirstsHumansMeanHas BeensPhilosophyEvilFoundGivenSidesInterestViewsCommonMoralOpinionGreaterMankindDutyCircumstancesMoralityEthicsDeterminationDecidedNotionBoundsAffairAppearanceBoundariesAriseCertaintyReasoningGood And EvilSentimentsDisputesUtilityCommon LifeSounder
Book:Moral and Political Philosophy
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“In philosophical terms, the opposite of rationalism is not irrationalism but empiricism, that is, a willingness to form beliefs on the basis of experience rather than from a priori deduction. Empirical evidence never yields the dogmatic certainty that accompanies logical deduction.”

FormBeliefTermEvidenceOppositesBasesPhilosophicalLibertarianCertaintyLogicalWillingnessYieldAccompanyRationalismDogmaticDeductionsEmpiricismEmpirical Evidence
Author:John Quiggin
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“The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve. We should be grateful for it and hope that it will remain valid in future research and that it will extend, for better or for worse, to our pleasure, even though perhaps also to our bafflement, to wide branches of learning.”

ShouldLawLanguagePleasureWonderfulResearchDeserveLogicMiracleMathematicsGratefulWidePhysicsCertaintyUncertaintyReasoningBranchesBe GratefulOntologyLaws Of PhysicsAppropriateness
Book:Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses
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“Those of us who work in this field see a developing potential for nearly a total control of human emotional status, mental functioning, and will to act. These human phenomena can be started, stopped or eliminated by the use of various types of chemical substances. What we can produce with our science now will affect the entire society." A "utopia" could be found - providing "a sense of stability and certainty, whether realistic or not.”

HumansUseFoundFieldsProduceEmotionalTypeSlaveVariousCertaintyDevelopingSubstanceRealisticChemicalsStabilityProvidingPsychiatryUtopia
Author:Nathan S. Kline
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“The good gardener knows with absolute certainty that if he does his part, if he gives the labour, the love, and every aid that his knowledge of his craft, experience of the conditions of his place, and exercise of his personal wit can work together to suggest, that so surely will God give the increase. Then with the honestly-earned success comes the consciousness of encouragement to renewed effort, and, as it were, an echo of the gracious words, 'Well done my good and faithful servant'.”

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Book:Wood and Garden: Notes and Thoughts, Practical and Critical, of a Working Amateur
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“I sat there beside him till morning - and as I watched his face in the starlight, then the first ray of the sun on his untroubled forehead and closed eyelids, what I experienced was not a prayer, I do not pray, but that state of spirit at which a prayer is a misguided attempt: a full, confident, affirming self-dedication to my love of the right, to the certainty that the right would win and that this boy would have the kind of future he deserved... I did not expect it to be as great as this - or as hard.”

LoveFirstsKindSelfHardStatesFacesSpiritWinningPrayerBoysMorningSunPrayingCertaintySatRaysDedicationForeheadsMisguidedAffirmingEyelidsStarlight
Author:Ayn Rand
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“What I love about cooking is that after a hard day, there is something comforting about the fact that if you melt butter and add flour and then hot stock, it will get thick! It's a sure thing! It's a sure thing in a world where nothing is sure; it has a mathematical certainty in a world where those of us who long for some kind of certainty are forced to settle for crossword puzzles.”

IfsWorldKindLongHardFactsFoodHotCookingAddCertaintyMathematicalSettlingThickSoupPuzzlesComfortingFlourSure ThingCrosswordsHard Days
Author:Nora Ephron
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“Like Dvoretsky, I think that (all other things being equal), the analytical method of studying chess must give you a colossal advantage over the chess pragmatist, and that there can be no certainty in chess without analysis. I personally acquired these views from my sessions with Mikhail Botvinnik, and they laid the foundations of my chess-playing life.”

ThinkingGivingViewsStudyEqualAdvantageMethodFoundationChessCertaintyAnalysisSessionColossalBeing EqualPragmatists
Author:Garry Kasparov
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“All those formal systems, in mathematics and physics and the philosophy of science, which claim to give foundations for certain truth are surely mistaken. I am tempted to say that we do not look for truth, but for knowledge. But I dislike this form of words, for two reasons. First of all, we do look for truth, however we define it, it is what we find that is knowledge. And second, what we fail to find is not truth, but certainty; the nature of truth is exactly the knowledge that we do find.”

GivingFirstsLooksTwoReasonPhilosophyFormCertainFailingTruth IsClaimsMathematicsFoundationPhysicsCertaintyDislikeFormalMistakenTemptedPhilosophy Of Science
Author:Jacob Bronowski
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“Think about what it feels like when you interact with someone who makes you notice what's good about yourself (raising your status), who is clear with his expectations of you (increasing certainty), who lets you make decisions (increasing autonomy), who connects with you on a human level (increasing relatedness), and who treats you fairly.”

ThinkingFeelsHumansMotivationalDecisionLevelsClearExpectationsTreatsCertaintyAbout YourselfAutonomy
Author:David Rock
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