Quotes About Uncertainty

A parentologist is a person who writes a book about parenting that is very clear about answers to, 'How am I supposed to raise my child?' Some of these well-intentioned people may be a bit too sure-footed on the sometimes slippery slope of parenting.

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

There are infinite shades of grey. Writing often appears so black and white.

Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It's because I'm not quite an atheist and it worries me. There's that little bit that holds on: 'Well, I'm almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months.'

I couldn't wait to get out of school, but once I did, I didn't actually know what I wanted to do with myself. I don't really know how it happened, but I just started writing music and realized that's what I wanted to do.

All paths lead to the same place, and that place is whatever comes next.

I have the distinct feeling I'm not in Oz anymore,' said Brrr.

Perplexity isn't as noble as conviction, but perhaps more good is done in the name of muddling through uncertainty than is done hacking away with the righteous sword of self-confidence.

It's heaven to know that it's still possible to run, though she doesn't know what she's running from.

and Ama Clutch was gone, and the overly subordinate pillowcase took a small spill of human juice from the edge of her slackened mouth.

If you're ever dragged from your chambers at midnight, blindfolded and gagged, without being told whether you're off to a firing squad or a surprise birthday party, you'll find that you turn and return to that pivotal moment.

Those boys and us—we only seem to be sharing a life here. The young are entirely separate. They are someplace else right now. They won't join us in our lives, really, until they are grown. And by then, who will they become? People I don't know. And I may not even be here when they get here.

who knows what we want? We're all mysteries, even to ourselves.

Being vulnerable to desolation also arises from being unable to picture a set of choices with which to change your lot in life

Not everyone is born a witch or a saint. Not everyone is born talented, or crooked, or blessed; some are born definite in no particular at all.

but, being unable to decide yes, she decided no.

I assume we'll be a little bit surprised—that's what tomorrows promise. Something unexpected. That's about all we can believe in, most days.

How many times in a life, he thought, will I lie down in a darkness whose character I cannot imagine, to see what daybreak reveals of my new circumstances? Or is that every day of my life?

He set out once more, with a sense that his life would be rich in setting outs, and perhaps poorer in homecomings.

He did not approve of anarchy (well, he knew he was in lazy doubt about everything; doubt was much more energy efficient than conviction).

I may not be sure if monsters exist but I'd rather live my life in doubt than be persuaded by a real experience of one.

It is existentially, hyperbolically, quintessentially unknowable.

I need some advice I can use. Advice? Don't use your energies fretting. The morning is wiser than the night, my ducky. The train will be back in the station by dawn. If it's not, you're welcome to starve with the rest of us. But don't worry. If it gets too much for you, just outside this cottage is a convenient well. A more efficient method to drown yourself is hard to find. Splish splash.

Whimsy is fate, too: just less knowable.