Quotes About Certainty

The game of science is, in principle, without end. He who decides one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test, and that they can be regarded as finally verified, retires from the game.

Our aim as scientists is objective truth; more truth, more interesting truth, more intelligible truth. We cannot reasonably aim at certainty. Once we realize that human knowledge is fallible, we realize also that we can never be completely certain that we have not made a mistake.

Theology, I still think, is due to lack of faith.

The quest for precision is analogous to the quest for certainty, and both should be abandoned.

The old scientific idea of episteme-of absoutely certain, demonstrable knowledge-has proved to be an idol. The demand for scientific objectivity makes it inevitable that every scientific statement must remain tentative for ever. It may indeed be corroborated, but every corroboration is relative to other statements which, again, are tentative. Only in our subjective experiences of conviction, in our subjective faith, can we be 'absolutely certain'.

I wish that I could thoroughly believe in some creed. I wish that I was ignorant enough to know one truth and discard all others.

I understand. I will

It doesn't make any sense... that's why I trust it!

But remember. Just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean it isn't real.

Just because you don't believe it[] [...]doesn't mean that it's not true.

The church's ... certainty is bound to certain norms and ... a feeling of subjective certainty does not guarantee irrefutable certainty ... it is not the certainty, but the truth in the certainty that makes us free ... there is a way of understanding Holy Scripture that does not estrange us from the gospel.

317 is a prime, not because we think so, or because our minds are shaped in one way rather than another, but because it is, because mathematical reality is built that way.

It is always the secure who are humble.

On a computer there is no consolation in discovering you're almost right. Almost means you're still just wrong.

We cannot go into court with merely suspicions; we must get facts.

Women are always passionately certain that they are right, and neither counsel nor entreaty can get them to believe that there can be any other side to a case than that which they take.

I suppose it is much more comfortable to be mad and know it, than to be sane and have one's doubts.

The hesitations and doubts that are present at many points (in contemporary theology) do not in themselves indicate a deep final uncertainty, an alienation from the gospel.

A feeling of subjective certainty does not guarantee irrefutable certainty. It is not the certainty, but the truth in the certainty that makes us free.

It means nothing if I say yes or no. If I say yes, you cannot verify it, if I say no, you are none the wiser. You have no business to believe me. I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.

Ask two people to tell you anything, you'll get two versions. Even easy things like directions, let alone important or semi-controversial topics like why a fight started or what a person was generally like. If you don't know something for yourself, you just can't be sure.

Still, Amelia had not allowed herself to be certain until dessert, when she'd asked him about the book that had had the greatest influence on his life, and he'd replied Principles of Accounting, Part II.

Most hoarders are capable of discarding things if they can convince themselves that the object will not be wasted, that it will go to a good home, or, as in this case, that the opportunity it presented is no longer available. But the amount of time and effort involved in attaining this certainty makes it impossible to keep up with the volume of stuff entering the home.

It was, of course, a grand and impressive thing to do, to mistrust the obvious, and to pin one's faith in things which could not be seen!