Quotes About Uncertainty

He thought of getting out of bed but did not get out of bed. Why? What for? Everyone else seemed to know. Like there had been a meeting no one had told him about, where a secret was shared. Those who knew the secret did not wonder why they should get out of bed. He

You don't know that. And now we never will." "We're agents of the United States government, not some Third World dictator's private security force. That is not the way we work. We don't have

He told her she was right. That for all they knew, they still knew nothing. That for all they knew, there were still worlds after this one, eternities that followed the abyss. And he told her that if they died tomorrow, he would follow her across them. He would chase her through existence if that's what it took.

He wasn't scared exactly, but he had that knife's edge thinness he used to get on the job, the sense that things could go either way.

Seventy-five thousand?

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

If. The smallest word, which raises the biggest questions.

Why were there some people who seemed so sure of themselves that it made him feel small and ignorant by comparison, as if they had a script to life with all the answers on it? He felt he didn't even know the questions.

Just as we did with used cars, take a moment to brainstorm every single reason (fear, worry, question, concern) as to why someone would not buy from your company. What would hold them back? What would keep them from clicking "buy," swiping their credit card, or writing that big check?

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

One of the things about totalitarianism is that people disappear, and you can't find out what happened to them.

If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next—if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions—you'd be doomed. You'd be ruined as God. You'd be a stone. You'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You'd never love anyone, ever again. You'd never dare to.

If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next—if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions—you'd be doomed. You'd be ruined as God. You'd be a stone. You'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You'd never love anyone, ever again. You'd never dare to.

I can never tell when something is funny. I just have to do it onstage and find out.

I ain't much of a church man, Mark. Guess you might say I'm an agnostic. I don't know." "There's a good bit of agnostic in all of us, Calamity. None of us knows how much - only enough to trust to reach out a hand in the dark.

Be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart," Rilke wrote, advising a young poet, "and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms, like books written in a foreign tongue.… Live the questions for now. Perhaps then you will gradually, without noticing it, live your way into the answer.… [T]his is what you must work on however you can and not waste too much time and too much energy on clarifying your attitude to other people."9

The nature of the global business environment guarantees that no matter how hard we work to create a stable and healthy organisation, our organisation will continue to experience dramatic changes far beyond our control.

I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control.

I think it is quite dangerous for an organisation to think they can predict where they are going to need leadership. It needs to be something that people are willing to assume if it feels relevant, given the context of any situation.

Organisations are now confronted with two sources of change: the traditional type that is initiated and managed and external changes over which no one has control.

The future cannot be determined. I can only be experienced as it is occurring. Life doesn't know what it will be until it notices what it has become.

Whatever your personal beliefs and experiences, I invite you to consider that we need a new worldview to navigate this chaotic time. We cannot hope to make sense using our old maps. It won't help to dust them off or reprint them in bold colors. The more we rely on them, the more disoriented we become. They cause us to focus on the wrong things and blind us to what's significant. Using them, we will journey only to greater chaos.

The things we fear most in organisations – fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances – are the primary sources of creativity.

Was she insane?! She would lose her head before she was 20!