Quotes About Certainty

if I didn't ask questions, the truth would still be the truth.

for the skeptic no proof is possible, and for the "believer" no proof is necessary.

Contrary to rationalism, there are no a priori concepts; but contrary to empiricism, there are axiomatic concepts about which we can be certain; contrary to both schools, perception is not awareness of images, impressions, or sense data, but of objects that exist independent of our awareness of them.

Descartes concludes that the only certain basis for knowledge is the principle, cogito ergo sum, and he treats the existence and nature of a mind-independent world as an inference from a prior awareness of his own consciousness and its contents. Moreover, he holds that our most certain ideas are abstract and innate, whereas ideas based on perception are subject to doubt and uncertainty.

Certainty is not to be had. But as we learn this we become not more moral but more resigned. We become nihilists.

To know the good is a dangerous thing; to know it for sure is usually fatal for somebody.

You're Insane-Molly You know what they say. It's the ones who are sure they are sane that aren't. -Holt

Allison Winn Scotch

Joe Solomon is many things, Cammie. But crazy? Crazy is the one that I don't think I'll ever believe. - Mr Smith

sabía que no era exactamente así, aquello no era verdad, pero la verdad también desaparecía, y yo seguía pensando lo mismo, y era agradable, me sentía alguien, segura, en momentos como ése, era curioso...

para seguir pensando, pero no te confíes. Voy

El cielo está a la vista durante buena parte del día, y, en la noche, las estrellas, con la cercanía familiar que las distingue en la zona ecuatorial, despiden esa aura protectora, vigilante, que nos llena de sosiego al darnos la certeza, fugaz, si se quiere, pero presente en el reparador trecho nocturno, de que las cosas siguen su curso con la fatal regularidad que sostiene a los hijos del tiempo, a las criaturas sumisas al destino, a nosotros los hombres.

In religious belief as elsewhere, we must take our chances, recognizing that we could be wrong, dreadfully wrong. There are no guarantees; the religious life is a venture; foolish and debilitating error is a permanent possibility. (If we can be wrong, however, we can also be right.)

Faith is not to be contrasted with knowledge: faith (at least in paradigmatic instances) is knowledge, knowledge of a certain special kind.

it struck me with the force of certainty that I wasn't the only one of us to be affected this way: that Theo was feeling it too, and this was why he was so cross. And Jonathan? Was he too infected with this deadly inertia? And where was it coming from?

Seeing is believing

She can be angry, but if she's going to fight me, she's got to be sure in her own self what she's mad about.

L'amour concentre la certitude et le doute : on est sûr d'être aimé autant qu'on en doute, non pas tour à tour, mais en une simultanéité déconcertante. Chercher à se débarrasser de ce versant dubitatif en posant mille questions à l'aimée, c'est nier la nature radicalement ambigüe de l'amour.

L'amore riunisce la certezza e il dubbio: si è sicuri di essere amati tanto quanto se ne dubita, e non a momenti alterni, ma in una simultaneità sconcertante. Provare a sbarazzarsi di questa sfumatura dubitativa facendo mille domande alla propria amata, significa negare la natura radicalmente ambigua dell'amore.

Remember, this is important: Never trust that you will be redeemed.

The weaker the data available upon which to base one's conclusion, the greater the precision which should be quoted in order to give the data authenticity.

The judgements about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of a mass destruction - WMD - were presented with a certainty that was not justified.

I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true. It's that simple!

I do believe in the infallibility of the Pope, because I think we have to believe in something.