Quotes About Uncertainty

Not the least of my problems is that I can hardly even imagine what kind of an experience a genuine, self-authenticating religious experience would be. Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me.

I never took it for granted that they believed any of even the most basic affirmations of the Christian faith concerning such matters as God and Jesus, sin and salvation, but always tried to speak to their skepticism and to honor their doubts. I made a point of never urging on them anything I did not believe myself. I was candid about what, like them, I was puzzled by and uncertain of. I tried to be myself. I tried to be honest.

Every retreat is a kind of funeral cortège, and the thing that has died is confidence.

It should not matter, but it does. I want to know how many hours of the night are gone and how many remain and that there is no good reason for my wanting to know does not stop the wanting.

Tracy stood up and found that the room was swaying around him in a manner that would have been more disconcerting if it had been less familiar.

We are, all of us, growing volcanoes that approach the hour of their eruption, but how near or distant that is, nobody knows- not even God.

Man kann auch in die Höhe fallen, so wie in die Tiefe. (One can as well fall into height as into depth)

Faith: not wanting to know what the truth is.

One has to take a somewhat bold and dangerous line with this existence: especially as, whatever happens, we are bound to lose it.

And if you are not a bird, then beware of coming to rest above an abyss.

Indeed, at hearing the news that 'the old god is dead', we philosophers and 'free spirits' feel illuminated by a new dawn; our heart overflows with gratitude, amazement, forebodings, expectation - finally the horizon seems clear again, even if not bright; finally our ships may set out again, set out to face any danger; every daring of the lover of knowledge is allowed again; the sea, our sea, lies open again; maybe there has never been such an 'open sea'.

i have never pondered over questions that are not questions.

It is not doubt but certainty that drives you mad...

We have forsaken the land and gone to sea! We have destroyed the bridge behind us – more so, we have demolished the land behind us! Now, little ship, look out! Beside you is the ocean; it is true, it does not always roar, and at times it lies there like silk and gold and dreams of goodness. But there will be hours when you realize that it is infinite and that there is nothing more awesome than infinity.

What strange, perplexing, questionable questions!

Where are we headed? Are we not endlessly plunging —backwards, sideways, forwards, in all directions? Is there an up and a down anymore? Do we not wander as if through an endless nothingness? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Hasn't it grown colder?

It is obvious that my head does not stand properly on my shoulders; for it is well known that everyone else knows better than I what I should do and not do: only I, poor rogue, do not know what I should be at. Are we not all like statues with the wrong heads on them? Isn't that so, my dear neighbor? - But no, you, precisely you, are the exception.

A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting.

S-ar putea s? existe chiar fanatici puritani ai conÅŸtiinÅ£ei care s? doreasc? a muri culcaÅ£i mai degrab? pe un Nimic cert decât pe un Ceva nesigur. Dar acesta e nihilism, însemnul unui suflet dezn?d?jduit ÅŸi dezgustat de moarte, oricât de curajoase ar p?rea atitudinile unei astfel de virtuÅ£i.

there may even be puritanical fanatics of conscience, who prefer to put their last trust in a sure nothing, rather than in an uncertain something.

it is improbable that you are not mistaken, but why should it be the truth?

Granted that we want the truth: WHY NOT RATHER untruth? And uncertainty? Even ignorance? The problem of the value of truth presented itself before us—or was it we who presented ourselves before the problem?

It is important to accept that the world is not in any way striving toward a stable condition, equilibrium or eternal sunshine.

no one talks more passionately about his rights than he who in the depths of his soul doubts whether he has any