Quotes About Uncertainty

How did they let the world get so out of control?" "I don't know, honey. But I'm not sure anybody out there really knows what they're doing.

Lo único que me parecía tan impensable como irme era quedarme. No quería destrozar nada ni a nadie. Sólo quería marcharme silenciosamente por la puerta de atrás, sin discusiones ni secuelas, y no parar de correr hasta llegar a Groenlandia.

Then he said, "Strange…," which is something you never want to hear from either your palm-reader or your dentist.

There is no old age like anxiety

The world is always changing. Learn how to allow for it. Someone makes a promise, and then they break it. A play gets good notices, and then it folds. A marriage looks strong, and then they divorce. For a while there's no war, and then there's another war. If you get too upset about it all, you become a stupid, unhappy person—and where's the good in that?

Oh, the deliciously blinding yearnings of the young—which inevitably take us right to the edges of cliffs, or trap us in cul-de-sacs of our design.

You must learn to take things more lightly, my dear. The world is always changing. Learn how to allow for it. Someone makes a promise, and then they break it. A play gets good notices, and then it folds. A marriage looks strong, and then they divorce. For a while there's no war, and then there's another war. If you get too upset about it all, you become a stupid, unhappy person--and where's the good in that?

your fear will always show up—especially when you're trying to be inventive or innovative. Your fear will always be triggered by your creativity, because creativity asks you to enter into realms of uncertain outcome, and fear hates uncertain outcome.

Exactly because the human heart is such a mystery, love renders all our plans and all our intentions a great big gamble.

Artists, by nature, are gamblers. Gambling is a dangerous habit. But whenever you make art, you're always gambling.

Eventually I may have to become a more solid citizen again, I'm aware of this. But not yet.... Please. Not just yet.

The world ain't straight. You grow up thinking things are a certain way. You think there are rules. You think there's a way that things have to be. You try to live straight. But the world doesn't care about your rules, or what you believe. The world ain't straight. Never will be. Our rules, they don't mean a thing. The world just happens to you sometimes. And people just gotta keep moving through it, best they can.

By unnerving definition, anything that the heart has chosen for its own mysterious reasons it can always unchoose later - again, for its own mysterious reasons. And a shared private heaven can quickly descend into a failed private hell.

Si la fe fuese racional, no sería fe. La fe es la creencia en lo que no se puede ver ni tocar. La fe es caminar —de frente y a toda velocidad— hacia las tinieblas. Si realmente tuviéramos todas las respuestas en cuanto al significado de la vida y la naturaleza de Dios y el destino del alma, la religión no sería un acto de fe ni un valiente acto de humanidad; sería simplemente... una prudente póliza de seguros.

In a world of such abundant possibility, many of us simply go limp from indecision. Or we derail our life's journey again and again, backing up to try the doors we neglected on the first round, desperate to get it right this time. Or we become compulsive comparers - always measuring our lives against some other person's life, secretly wondering if we should have taken her path instead.

Everything is so goddamn scary.

The philosopher Odo Marquard has noted a correlation in the German language between the word zwei, which means "two," and the word zweifel, which means "doubt"—suggesting that two of anything brings the automatic possibility of uncertainty to our lives.

I believe that we are half-blind and full of errors. I believe that we understand very little, and what we do understand is mostly wrong. I believe that life cannot be survived—that is evident!—but if one is lucky, life can be endured for quite a long while. If one is both lucky and stubborn, life can sometimes even be enjoyed.

Yesterday I might have been a glorious monument to somebody, true enough-but tomorrow I could be a fireworks depository. Even in the Eternal City, says the silent Augusteum, one must always be prepared for riotous and endless waves of transformation.

The world ain't straight. You grow up thinking things are a certain way. You think there are rules. You think there's a way that things have to be. You try to live straight. But the world doesn't care about your rules, or what you believe. The world ain't straight, Vivian. Never will be. Our rules, they don't mean a thing. The world just happens to you sometimes, is what I think. And people just gotta keep moving through it, best they can." "I

And I hate to disappoint you, but it's best you learn now: most marriages are neither heavenly nor hellish, but vaguely purgatorial.

It was an adventure. You must learn in life to take things more lightly, my dear. The world is always changing. Learn how to allow for it. Someone makes a promise, and then they break it. A play gets good notices, and then it folds. A marriage looks strong, and then they divorce. For a while there's no war, and then there's another war. If you get too upset about it all, you become a stupid, unhappy person—and where's the good in that?

The world ain't straight. You grow up thinking things are a certain way. You think there are rules. You think there's a way that things have to be. You try to live straight. But the world doesn't care about your rules, or what you believe. The world ain't straight, Vivian. Never will be. Our rules, they don't mean a thing. The world just happens to you sometimes, is what I think. And people just gotta keep moving through it, best they can.

But a lot of people don't know exactly what their passion is, or they may have multiple passions, or they may be going through a midlife change of passion—all of which can leave them feeling confused and blocked and insecure.