Quotes About Uncertainty

You're going to fly a radioactive ice ball the size of the Death Star back here just as the shit is hitting the fan—then what?

Hiro feels even at this moment that something has been torn open in the world and that he is dangling above the gap, staring into a place where he does not want to be.

I'm ready to commit to her at any time. But for god's sake, I'm not even sure she's heterosexual. It'd be madness to put a lesbian in charge of my ejaculatory functions.

When you just wing it, you are aware of the risk and the uncertainty, and inclined to be more cautious. When you have a high-tech tool giving you an illusion of omniscience, I am concerned that it will lead to greater risk-taking. LYONS:

There followed one of those comical interludes in which the jihadists were confused about what to do next and fell to bitter recriminations.

So through no rational process whatsoever I was the leader, And I had no idea what I was going to say.

This is one of the most important moments in your life. Nothing will ever be the same. We might get rich. We might get killed. We might just have an adventure or lean something. But we have been changed. We are standing close the Heraclitean fire, feeling its heat on our faces.

In war, no matter how much you plan and prepare and practice, when the big day actually arrives, you still can't find your ass with both hands.

Like a horseman who reins in a wild stallion that has borne him, will he, nill he, across several counties; or a ship's captain who, after scudding before a gale through a bad night, hoists sail, and gets underway once more, navigating through unfamiliar seas- thus Dr. Daniel Waterhouse, anno domini 1685, watching King Charles II die at Whitehall Palace.

Two days later a Scout simply disappeared without explanation, possibly the victim of a micrometeoroid, or even of suicide.

Sometimes I wonder who'll come after me, he says. Oh, we have plenty of excellent people in the next generation. But after that -- well, I don't know. I guess all old people feel like the world is coming to an end.

The situation could not possibly be as dire as it seemed or they would all be dead.

Hmmm.... supposing is a dangerous practice

flame within them gets dim with the passage of time. So, if you have the fire, run, since you never know when it may be doused, leaving you stranded in darkness. —John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent (Step

It's time to go, Vitaly says. You're telling me it's time to go? I've been waiting for you to wake up for an hour. As Hiro approaches, Vitaly watches his sword uncertainly. Vitaly's eyes are dry and red, and on his lower lip he is sporting a chancre the size of a tangerine. Did you win your sword fight? Of course I won the fucking sword fight, Hiro says. I'm the greatest sword fighter in the world. And you wrote the software. Yeah. That, too, Hiro says.

The rule of thumb we've been using is that Deolaters are welcome as long as they're not certain they're right," I said. "As soon as you're sure you're right, there's no point in your being here.

As soon as you open the door wide enough to admit pink nerve-gas-farting dragons, you have let in all of those other possibilities as well.

I was wondering when I was going to end up like this.

Wait a minute, Juanita. Make up your mind. This Snow Crash thing—is it a virus, a drug, or a religion? Juanita shrugs.—What's the difference?

It was hard to tell whether he was looking at a water heater, an abandoned refrigerator, or a human being. When it moved a little, he decided the latter

I don't think that teenagers are the way they are because of their age. It's because they have nothing to lose. They simultaneously have a lot of time on their hands and yet are very impatient to get on with their lives.

As with all gut feelings, only time will tell whether this it is pathetic self-delusion.

Some things by their nature cannot be mapped.

Almost as miraculous as life itself was the number of ways it could end, or at least turn into a living hell.