Quotes About Certitude

If the math works, why then you should be sure of yourself. That's the whole point of math.

Une foi ; c'est là pour l'homme le nécessaire. Malheur à qui ne croit rien !

A faith; this is a necessity for man. Woe to him who believes nothing.

Yeah, you're probably right. Henley was

I've a devil of a habit for being right.

However unlikely it may seem, it is the truth and, therefore, one hundred percent likely.

If you have a college degree you can be absolutely sure of one thing — you have a college degree.

It sometimes requires ignorance and arrogance to know something for sure.

From men motivated by moral certitude, history teaches, no lasting good ever comes.

Some men are just as sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know.

A man's religion consists, not of the many things he is in doubt of and tries to believe, but of the few he is assured of and has no need of effort for believing.

Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay.

A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.

It is certain because it is impossible

Certum est, quia impossible est.

For it is essential to opinion that we assent to one of two opposite assertions with fear of the other, so that our adhesion is not firm: to science it is essential to have firm adhesion with intellectual vision, for science possesses certitude which results from the understanding of principles: while faith holds a middle place, for it surpasses opinion in so far as its adhesion is firm, but falls short of science in so far as it lacks vision.

The fact they could check becomes the prophecy they must believe.

When you know the answer, it's not being hardheaded. It's just being right.

We're starting to behave as if we've reached the end of human knowledge. And while that notion is undoubtedly false, the sensation of certitude it generates is paralyzing.

We live in an age where virtually no content is lost and virtually all content is shared. The sheer amount of information about every current idea makes those concepts difficult to contradict, particularly in a framework where public consensus has become the ultimate arbiter of validity. In other words, we're starting to behave as if we've reached the end of human knowledge. And while that notion is undoubtedly false, the sensation of certitude it generates is paralyzing.

Comfort is no test of truth. Truth is often far from being comfortable.

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

It was as true… as turnips is. It was as true… as taxes is. And nothing's truer than them.

It was as true... as taxes is. And nothing's truer than them.