Quotes About Uncertainty

It gets darker and darker, and then Jesus is born." That line came back to me, from out of nowhere, and I decided to practice radical hope, hope in the face of not having a clue.

The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.

Every day we're in the grip of the impossible conundrum: the truth that it's over in a blink, and we may be near the end, and that we have to live as if it's going to be okay, no matter what.

may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.

E. L. Doctorow once said that "writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

it may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.

Nothing worked consistently anymore, not the illusion or the self-made glue that had held them together, not even the armature of habit. For years, when she

Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't—and, in fact, you're not supposed to—know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing.

Life is not a submarine. There are no plans.

I have to. I've changed my mind so often." Neither of us spoke for a minute. "That's the worst reason to do something," I said.

Old age on a good day is a dance we don't know the steps to: we falter. We may not be going in the direction we'd anticipated, or have any clue at all about which way to turn next.

There's nothing wrong in doubting. It sometimes leads to greater faith.

you ride a winged horse, you'd better have a wide net when you fall. And that takes money!

What I know I wish I didn't. What I'd give anything to know, I have to wait and see.

True hope is severed from expectation.

Sometimes things work out differently than you expect, and sometimes that's when the best things happen.

Life is frightening, Claudine corrected her. And beautiful and full of strange and unexpected opportunities. This is one of them.

E comes and goes," she said guardedly. "Sometimes 'e's around fer two or free days, then 'e'll be gorn again. Mebbe gorn for weeks, mebbe back sooner. I'nt reg

She had a certain pity for people who wavered, she entirely understood fear. . . .

not everything comes with an easy answer, or without a price.

For how many people does fear of the future take away the present as well?

As one grew older, one remembered only the energy, the optimistic side of being young. Time removed many of the agonies of uncertainty, self-doubt, loneliness, and the confusion that can hurt so much. Maybe it was just as well. Age brought its own diffucult pains.

Which was worse, to intrude or to pretend not to have seen, because you had no idea what to do?

It was the unknown that paralyzed the will to fight.