Quotes About Uncertainty

Many questions were troubling the explorer, but at the sight of the prisoner he asked only: Does he know his sentence? No, said the officer, eager to go on with his exposition, but the explorer interrupted him: He doesn't know the sentence that has been passed on him? No, said the officer again, pausing a moment as if to let the explorer elaborate his question, and then said: There would be no point in telling him. He'll learn it on his body.

After tormenting myself for a long time, I am stopping. I am unable and in the near future will scarcely be able to complete the remaining pieces.

those who are ignorant naturally consider everything possible.

Logic is doubtless unshakable, but it cannot withstand a man who wants to go on living.

Am I to leave this world as a man who shies away from all conclusions?

What do I have in common with the Jews? I don't even have anything in common with myself.

People under suspicion are better moving than at rest, since at rest they may be sitting in the balance without knowing it, being weighed together with their sins.

I waver, continually fly to the summit of the mountain, but cannot stay up there for more than a moment. Others waver too, but in lower regions, with greater strength; if they are in danger of falling, they are caught up by the kinsman who walks beside them for that purpose. But I waver on the heights; it is not death, alas, but the eternal torments of dying.

Everything appears to me to be an artificial construction of the mind. Every mark by someone else, every chance look throws everything in me over on the other side, even what has been forgotten, even what is entirely insignificant. I am more uncertain than I ever was; I feel only the power of life. And I am senselessly empty.

I wish I had a strong hand for the sole purpose of thrusting it into this incoherent construction that I am. And yet what I am saying here is not even precisely my opinion, not even precisely my opinion at this moment. When I look into myself I see so much that is obscure and still in flux that I cannot even properly explain or fully accept the dislike I feel for myself.

to be sure, all that pointless standing about and waiting day after day always starting all over again without any prospect of change, will wear a man down and make him doubtful, and ultimately incapable of anything but that despairing standing about.

Extraordinary,' said the Burgomaster, 'extraordinary. And now do you think of staying here in Riva with us?' 'I think not', said the Hunter with a smile, and, to excuse himself, he laid his hand on the Burgomaster's knee. 'I am here, more than that I do not know, further than that I cannot go. My ship has no rudder, and it is driven by the wind that blows in the undermost regions of death.' (The Hunter Gracchus)

A Little Fable Alas, said the mouse, the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must ...

For a man under suspicion movement is better than rest, for the man who is at rest can always, without knowing it, be on the scales being weighed together with his sins.

they had so much to worry about at present that they had lost sight of any thought for the future.

16 February. Can't see my way clear. As though everything I possessed had escaped me, and as though it would hardly satisfy me if it all returned.

Where was the judge he'd never seen? Where was the high court he had never reached?

Scratch your flesh raw between your toes, but you won't find the answer.

There are possibilities for me, certainly, but under what stone do they lie?

Absurdo, completamente absurdo, una misma se confunde cuando juega con esos absurdos

He was always inclined to take life as lightly as he could, to cross bridges when he came to them, pay no heed for the future, even when everything seemed under threat. But here that did not seem the right thing to do.

Ja sam kraj ili po?etak.

In that case, I'll miss the thing by waiting fot it. (Epígraf a Laszló Krasznahorkai, «Tango Satánico», citació de Kafka, «El castell»)

En el portón me detuvo para preguntarme: «¿Hacia dónde cabalga el señor?». «No lo sé -respondí-. Sólo quiero irme de aquí, solamente irme de aquí. Sólo así puedo alcanzar mi meta.» «¿Conoce, pues, su meta?», preguntó él. «Sí -contesté yo-. Lo he dicho ya. Salir de aquí, ésa es mi meta.»