Quotes About Uncertainty

We who would seek new land must be willing to sacrifice the sight of shore for a long, long time.

El color de la verdad es gris.

And if I live badly, whilst I'm waiting to decide how to live?

Every judgment bears within it the testimony of our weakness. In my case, the judgments I have to make sometimes about things are as irresolute as the emotions that those things arouse. This explains that boundless uncertainty which upsets my acts when they must be based on a judgment.

Die Unannehmlichkeiten an einer allzugut vorbereiteten Reise ist, dass das Abenteuer darin nicht genügend Raum hat

Je sens en moi, confusément, des aspirations extraordinaires, des sortes de lames de fond, des mouvements, des agitations incompréhensibles, et que je ne veux pas chercher à comprendre, que je ne veux même pas observer, par crainte de les empêcher de se produire.

I took her hand trembling. Whatever I hope to become later is for you. But Jerome, I may leave you too. My soul went into my words: I shall never leave you. She raised her shoulders slightly: Aren't you strong enough to walk alone? We must each of us find God by ourselves.

I have been scarcely been able to pray since I have been here: I have the childish feeling that God is no longer in the same place.

I am the soul in limbo.

She was speaking again, her voice like the chirp of a bird who has flown into a black tunnel but does not yet know it.

In order to discover new lands, one must be willing to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

Now that difference was a cold lump within her, a lump which had grown with every moment of time since they had snapped out of hyper to enter this system. Were the old calculations really to be trusted? Was this the home planet from which her species had lifted into space at the beginning of man's climb to the stars?

uncomfortable like this,' the

Arriva un momento – pinsò – nel quale t'adduni, t'accorgi che la tua vita è cangiata. Ma quando è successo? – ti domandi. E non trovi risposta, fatti impercettibili si sono accumulati fino a determinare la svolta. O macari fatti ben visibili, di cui però non hai calcolato la portata, le conseguenze. Spii e rispii, ma la risposta a quel «quando» non la sai trovare. Come se avesse importanza, poi!

For many years I have been tormented by the certainty that the most extraordinary discoveries await us in the sphere of time . We know less about time than about anything else

But how can I put a name to what it is that I want? How am I to know that I really don't want what I want, or that I really don't want what I don't want? These are intangibles that the moment you name them their meaning evaporates like jellyfish in the sun.

Don't rely on the properties of things you can't control.

Entropy is a term from physics that refers to the amount of disorder in a system.

Despite thorough testing, good documentation, and solid automation, things go wrong. Deliveries are late. Unforeseen technical problems come up.

Well, software doesn't quite work that way. Rather than construction, software is more like gardening—it is more organic than concrete. You plant many things in a garden according to an initial plan and conditions. Some thrive, others are destined to end up as compost.

I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned. Richard Feynman

Where is the real Less? Less the young man terrified of love? The dead-serious Less of twenty-five years ago? Well, he has not packed him at all. After all these years, Less doesn't even know where he's stored.

A man he almost stayed with, almost loved, and now he does not even recognize him on the street. Either Less is an asshole, or the heart is a capricious thing. It is not impossible both are true.

And yet what she has said--the lying brain--this is familiar; this has happened to him. Not exactly like this, not utter terrifying madness, but he knows his brain has told him things he has traveled around the world to forget. That the mind cannot be trusted is a certainty.