Quotes About Certitude

Faith's most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain.

There is no profit in ifs. We go on from where we stand, we answer for our own evil, and leave to God our good.

And each, believing he was utterly and finally right, damned with equally positive conviction the rest of the world.

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

I don't talk in ifs.

Nothing is so certain as that which is certain after doubts. Nil tam certum quam quod ex dubio certum. Shaking settles and roots.

Belief in the traditional sense, or certitude, or dogma, amounts to the grandiose delusion, My current model -- or grid, or map, or reality-tunnel -- contains the whole universe and will never need to be revised. In terms of the history of science and knowledge in general, this appears absurd and arrogant to me, and I am perpetually astonished that so many people still manage to live with such a medieval attitude.

Certitude belongs exclusively to those who only own one encyclopedia.

Certitude is seized by some minds, not because there is any philosophical justification for it, but because such minds have an emotional need for certitude.

When there is no existential pressure for quick decisions, only prejudice asserts certitude.

Orthodoxies of all sorts are maintained by partly the intolerance I have been documenting and partly by — simple lack of curiosity. Heresy is not-tuned-in, if one already has certitude.

And does it not appear that virtual selves and virtual realities have infiltrated both psychology and physics because, as this book claims, all sufficiently advanced analysis must eventually abandon Aristotelian certitude and accept models — reality tunnels — based on probabilities?

She looked at me with clear eyes that were free of doubt or equivocation. "Of course. I knew that we would.

Rekla je da je istina u nepromjenjivosti matemati?kih istina, nedostatku proizvoljnosti i odsustvu dvosmislenost. U saznanju da odgovori mogu biti neuhvatljivi, ali ih je mogu?e prona?i. Bili su tamo, ?ekaju?i da budu ispisani na tabli. Nimalo nalik životu, drugim rije?ima, kazao je.

For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible.

I believe BECAUSE it's impossible.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. It is not enough that a thing be possible for it to be believed.

Faith means intense usually confident belief that is not based on evidence sufficient to command assent from every reasonable person.

knowledge, absolutely sure of its infallibility, is faith

It is not that I think or believe, but that I know.

I do not believe...I know.

They knew many things but had no idea why. And strangely this made them more, rather than less, certain that they were right.

I don't believe. I know.

Knowledge, absolutely sure of its infallibility, is faith.