Quotes About Uncertainty

Entrepreneurs have a name for luck: they call it risk.

The writer of a personal essay does not begin with an idea and then struggle to prove her point; she investigates, keeps an open mind, goes wherever the thought may lead, and, in fact, may end the essay having still not reached a final conclusion.

Prayer's a very tricky business.

It was so nice that Simon was here for it - tell him I enjoyed every minute - ' it was glorious writing that - almost like telling him I was glad he'd kissed me. But after I'd posted the letter I was worried in case he guessed what I'd meant.

I still didn't believe him. And for the moment, I didn't much care one way or the other. My whole mind had swung back to Simon.

I could see he was nervous; at least, I thought I could, but then it struck me how little I know of him, or of Topaz or Rose or anyone in the world, really, except myself.

What is this insurmountable barrier round him? What's it made of? Where did it come from?

Coming and going I am leaving. I will go and come. Leaving has come to me. We all, shall all, will all be left. Because I am here and where. And I will go or not or never. And I have seen what I will see. If I am where I will be. Because nothing comes between me.

No body knows how to feel and they're checking around for hints.

the half-concealed disasters that constitute a life.

Technology is crucial to civilization why? Because it helps us make our fate. We don't need God or miracles or the flight of the bumble bee. But it is also crouched and undecidable. It can go either way.

Mainly we looked at people in other cars, trying to work out from their faces how frightened we should be.

I couldn't help suspecting I had manufactured the whole thing, my need for him, simply to avoid what I considered to be the alternatives. This is one of my very annoying traits. I can't sit back and let something grow of its own momentum and eventually reveal its truth or horror. I must probe it from the outset.

There's just so much time set aside for baffled reaction. I believe we've reached the limit.

Is his manhood a sham? Does he love himself or hate himself? I don't think he knows. Or it changes minute to minute. Or the question is so implicit in everything he does that he can't get outside it to answer

She wanted this only, to snuff out the pulse of the shaky faith she'd held for much of her life.

Something lurked inside the truth.

The deeper we delve into the nature of things, the looser our structure may seem to become.

No, no, no, no. Who are you? What is this? Don't leave. They're leaving. They've left.

Let's enjoy these aimless days while we can, I told myself, fearing some kind of deft acceleration.

Either I'm taking something and I don't remember or I'm not taking something and I don't remember. My life is either/or. Either I chew regular gum or I chew sugarless gum. Either I chew gum or I smoke. Either I smoke or I gain weight. Either I gain weight or I run up the stadium steps." "Sounds like a boring life." "I hope it lasts forever," she said.

Everything was fine, would continue to be fine, would eventually get even better as long as the supermarket did not slip.

She saw the normative life of the planet, business people crossing streets beneath glass towers, the life of sitting on buses that take you logically to destinations, the unnerved surface of rolling plausibly along.

Marriage is something we make from available materials. In this sense it's improvised, it's almost offhand. Maybe this is why we know so little about it. It's too inspired and quicksilver a thing to be clearly understood. Two people make a blur.