#certainty

There is a time in the life of every boy when he for the first time takes the backward view of life. Perhaps that is the moment when he crosses the line into manhood. The boy is walking through the street of his town. He is thinking of the future and of the figure he will cut in the world. Ambitions and regrets awake within him. Suddenly something happens; he stops under a tree and waits as for a voice calling his name. Ghosts of old things creep into his consciousness; the voices outside of himself whisper a message concerning the limitations of life. From being quite sure of himself and his future he becomes not at all sure. If he be an imaginative boy a door is torn open and for the first time he looks out upon the world, seeing, as though they marched in procession before him, the countless figures of men who before his time have come out of nothingness into the world, lived their lives and again disappeared into nothingness. The sadness of sophistication has come to the boy. With a little gasp he sees himself as merely a leaf blown by the wind through the streets of his village. He knows that in spite of all the stout talk of his fellows he must live and die in uncertainty, a thing blown by the winds, a thing destined like corn to wilt in the sun. ↗

— Sherwood Anderson

#future #ghosts #life #manhood #nothingness

the living used to wonder what happened after death. She said that whole religions were born and evolved around this one simple uncertainty. ↗

— Carrie Ryan

#living #religion #uncertainty #wonder #death

...surely by now you must know: It’s love; it’s love—but will there ever be good news?... ↗

— John Geddes

#love #uncertainty #unrequited #love

That it's no good loving me because I'm never going to get married anyway and he'd just end up hating me later instead of sooner. ↗

— Suzanne Collins

#uncertainty #unloved #unrequited #love

It (trying to keep the law) grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainly out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse. ↗

— Wm. Paul Young

#control #control-freaks #god #law #law-and-gospel

There is no certainty; there is only adventure. ↗

— Roberto Assagioli

#certainty #only

I really think that living is the process of going from complete certainty to complete ignorance. ↗

— Richard Dreyfuss

#complete #going #i #ignorance #living

The data does not support that high-income tax cuts are the main drivers of growth, so I don't think that uncertainty over what the tax rate will be for someone that makes a million dollars a year has that big an impact on the economic growth rate in the country. ↗

— Austan Goolsbee

#country #cuts #data #does #dollars

Benjamin Franklin said there were only two things certain in life: death and taxes. But I'd like to add a third certainty: trash. And while some in this room might want to discuss reducing taxes, I want to talk about reducing trash. ↗

— Ruth Ann Minner

#add #benjamin #benjamin franklin #certain #certainty

As a painter today you have to work without that essential platform. But if one does not deceive oneself and accepts this lack of certainty, other things may come into play. ↗

— Bridget Riley

#certainty #come #deceive #does #essential