#certainty

The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next. ↗

— Ursula K. Le Guin

#intolerable #knowing #life #makes #next

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

Was it a doubt - a fear - a wandering uncertainty seeking rest, but finding none - so tear-blinded were its eyes - Mr. Thornton, instead of being shocked, seemed to have through that very stage of thought himself, and could suggest where the exact ray of light was to be found, which should make the dark places plain. Man of action as he was, busy in the world's great battle, there was a deeper religion binding him to God in his heart, in spite of his strong willfulness, through all his mistakes, than Mr. Hale ever dreamed. ↗

— Elizabeth Gaskell

#men-of-action #uncertainty #business

My language limitations here are real. My vocabulary is adequate for writing notes and keeping journals but absolutely useless for an active moral life. If I really knew this language, there would surely be in my head, as there is in Webster's or the Dictionary of American Slang, that unreducible verb designed to tell a person like me what to do next. ↗

— Grace Paley

#morality #uncertainty #change

Human nature turns out to be more complicated than the idea that people will get along if only the rules are clear enough. Uncertainty, the ultimate evil that modern law seeks to eradicate, generally fosters cooperation, not the opposite. ↗

— Philip K. Howard

#government #law #rules #uncertainty #death

If the opposite of certainty is doubt, humility must lie somewhere between the two, ↗

— Ron Suskind

#doubt #humility #education

If it is true that we need a degree of certainty to get by, it is also true that too much of the stuff can be lethal. ↗

— Terry Eagleton

#dogmatism #life #life

And of course I didn't know who would marry me now that I'd been where I had been. I didn't know at all. ↗

— Sylvia Plath

#uncertainty #marriage

It is an incurable act of desperation that men seek for certainty! It is like seeking for an unshakable place inside a shaking ship! ↗

— Mehmet Murat ildan

#men

Technology tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. People generally prefer the predictable. Few recognize how destructive this can be, how it imposes severe limits on variability and thus makes whole populations fatally vulnerable to the shocking ways our universe can throw the dice. ↗

— Frank Herbert

#technology #uncertainty #technology