Quotes About Certainty

The more sure I am that I'm right, the more likely I will actually be mistaken. My need to be right makes it more likely that I will be wrong! Likewise, the more sure I am that I am mistreated, the more likely I am to miss ways that I am mistreating others myself. My need for justification obscures the truth.

He stood looking out past the certainty of the empty porch, but he couldn't imagine his father standing anywhere else. It was like listening for the phone to ring, wanting it to ring so badly you convince yourself that you can feel the person on the other end of the line, feel them dialing your number, but then you wait and wait, and it never rings.

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

Concerning things which exist or will exist inevitably, or which cannot possibly exist or take place, no counsel can be given.

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

John Adams's maxim: "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."1

If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

It must be wonderful to be seventeen, and to know everything.

I am not a mathematician, but I was aware that for centuries, mathematics was considered the queen of the sciences because it claimed certainty. It was grounded on some fundamental certainties - axioms - that led to others.

There are two answers to every question - God's answer and everybody else's - and everybody else is wrong when they disagree with him.

The very act of questioning whether you exist proves you do, because you must be there for the doubt to be entertained in the first place.

Seeing me in love is a constant state: there are no questions, as the answer is simply there.

I don't think anyone is qualified to answer questions of eternal fate definitively, much less pinpoint it to a given day.

I'm quite confident, in some sense.

I have never seen any such quote anyplace, anywhere.

I need to know everything inside quote marks is true.

How can a rabbi not live with doubt? The Bible itself is a book of doubt.

I'm not a gambler.

There is a fine line between faith and confidence. Confidence has a self-reliance. Faith is really about giving in.

I don't tend to question things that much. If it feels right, I go for it.

When certain people have certain beliefs, they can be unyielding, and that's really what faith is. There's a large place in the world for faith, but when it comes to a scientific, political, and economic issue, dogma is not a very good place to start.

For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.

In the face of death, unfaith is far unsurer of itself than faith.

Uno sa sempre qual e' la sua decisione prima ancora di averla presa. In realta', lo sa fin dall'inizio. Ecco perche' i consigli non servono a niente.