Quotes About Certainty

what I know is unofficial, what [the inspector] knows is official. I have the right to private judgment, but he has none.

I am sure that it is the truth.

while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician.

and meanwhile take my assurance that the clouds are lifting and that I have every hope that the light of truth is breaking through

Winwood Reade is good upon the subject, said Holmes. He remarks that, while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty.

I ran then, following the power, ran with joy and a wild, winging certainty, right into the hearth of everything I loved. And there was no earth, no cold, no dust, nor stones nor water rushing past; but only this joy, this singing, awesome flight straight into the soul of God. Into fire.

Aidan quickly shook his head. It wouldn't

I am trying," he said with great care, "to ascertain what your place is in the events about to transpire, and to act accordingly. From whom did you get your information?" The world seemed to lurch again, but this time it was not my vision. A terrible sense of certainty pulled at my heart and mind as I realized what he was striving so heroically not to say--nevertheless, what he meant. He thought I was on the other side.

I'm neither a woman, nor a mother who showers praises on babies. But if I tell you that the baby was an exception, take my word for it.

But he said it couldn't have

Are you insane? You still not convinced that chances are better with me?

Our memory has no guarantees at all, and yet we bow more often than is objectively justified to the compulsion to believe what it says.

How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.

Con sólo temer a la mediocridad, ya se está a salvo: he aquí el consuelo que usted me ofrece. Mas yo le pregunto: ¿A salvo de qué? ¿No se estará a salvo en la certeza de no ser un mediocre? ¿Qué importa lo que uno teme o deja de temer? ¿Acaso lo más importante no es que las cosas sean efectivamente como tememos que sean?

belief is to knowledge as shadow is to original

Many people are so comfortable and rooted in this way of knowing reality that they are unable to engage in any meaningful dialogue, being so sure of the 'facts', and that their version of 'reality' is the true one and nothing else possibly could be.

People say you have to have faith because believing is irrational. So I end up thinking that the more irrational things seem, the more likely they are to be true.

The facts of religion were convincing only to those who were already convinced.

Et en fait tout homme qui a eu de vraies amours, de vraies révoltes, de vrais désirs, de vraies volontés, sait bien qu'il n'a besoin d'aucune garantie étrangère por être sûr de ses buts; leur certitude vient de son propre élan.

My eyes followed André. Maybe it is during those moments, as I watch him disappear, that he exists for me with the most overwhelming clarity: his tall shape grows smaller, each pace marking out the path of his return; it vanishes and the street seems to be empty; but in fact it is a field of energy that will lead him back to me as to his natural habitat: I find this certainty even more moving than his presence.

La tierra está a mi alrededor como una vasta hipótesis que ya no verifico.

God is rich in mercy. I know this wealth of His with the certainty of experience. I have touched it.

Le danger n'est pas que l'âme doute s'il y a ou non du pain, mais qu'elle se persuade par un mensonge qu'elle n'a pas faim. Elle ne peut se le persuader que par un mensonge, car la réalité de sa faim n'est pas une croyance, c'est une certitude.

In the end, you have to choose whether or not to trust someone. And i do choose to trust him. I do.