Quotes About Certainty

humans are more likely to accept a person's advice because of the communicator's level of certainty than because of his or her track record or résumé. Show me someone who lights up a room, commands respect, and charms everyone, and I'll point out the underlying energy that makes it all possible: confidence.

I am beginning to believe that nothing is quite so uncertain as facts. (Edward Curtis)

What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt—it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn't want to go anywhere else."—Hal Boyle.

The information we gain that conflicts with our original assessment or conclusion, we conveniently ignore or dismiss, while the information that confirms our original decision makes us increasingly certain that our conclusion was correct.

What do people agree merely by convention, and what is the truth?

Escribe sobre una época en la que supiste que habías hecho lo correcto.

If you telescope out 10 years and know with 100% certainty that it is a path of disappointment and regret, and if we define risk as "the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome," inaction is the greatest risk of all.

What do people agree merely by convention, and what is the truth?' There's a consensus of things that people believe to be true. Maybe the conventions are right, and maybe they're not. And we never want to let a convention be a shortcut for truth. We always need to ask: Is this true? And this is always what I get at with this indirect question: 'Tell me something that's true that very few people agree with you on.

Todo lo comúnmente aceptado como cierto es falso.» OSCAR WILDE, La importancia de llamarse Ernesto

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."—Bertrand Russell

for a Christian whose hope is in an invisible God, seeing the unseen is essential. 24

The final mode is misplaced faith.

E poi, meglio non scrivere e passare per finto che scrivere e togliere ogni dubbio.

Lei era tutto. Primo, costituiva una certezza attorno alla quale tutto girava, una certezza di libertà e un senso di sicurezza. E' stata quello che il grande poeta bengalese che cito sempre è riuscito così bene a descrivere, il palo al quale l'elefante si fa legare con un filo di seta. Se l'elefante dà uno strattone può scappare quando vuole, ma non lo tira. Ha scelto di essere legato con un filo di seta a quel palo.

Kierkegaard: «Ci sono due modi di farsi ingannare: uno è credere in qualcosa che non è vero; l'altro è non credere in qualcosa che è vero». Poi

Affascinato, come sono sempre stato, dalla ricca certezza del passato, e confuso dall'incertezza del futuro con le sue troppe possibilità, avevo preso il presente solo come materiale di cui godere una volta che fosse diventato passato. E così, il presente m'era sempre sfuggito.

Just because they disagree, doesn't mean you ain't right.

He is healthy, physically, his body is fine. But his mind, well, it seems he encountered realities greater than he could bear. Many people need the certainty of solid walls and clear windows, but then they meet mysteries they cannot solve." The priest knew this all too well. "Yes, there are many." "And when they envelop and overwhelm you, well, if you are not prepared…" He gestured toward Bemm.

You can only know what you know. Belief is not the same as knowledge. Belief is an assumption of knowledge despite a lack of evidence.

Doubt can lead you where certainty never will.

But then again, impossible never became rumour, did it?

Once we are born, only two things are certain. One is that we will die and the other that we will experience change.

We are all quite capable of believing in anything as long as it's improbable.

My old skill at self-delusion overrode my doubts as I told myself that Dexter probably believed in me. I could believe anything then. I still can as long as it is improbable.