#certainty

It always seems as though the definition of love will remain debatable by an opinionated world. ↗

— Criss Jami

#conflict #confusion #debate #definition #disagreement

He fell silent. For several moments they all did, and the quiet had the feel of a deliberate thing. Then Eddie said, "All right, we're back together again. What the hell do we do next? ↗

— Stephen King

#uncertainty #uncertainty

We each appear to hold within ourselves a range of divergent views as to our native qualities.. And amid such uncertainty, we typically turn to the wider world to settle the question of our significance.. we seem beholden to affections of others to endure ourselves. ↗

— Alain de Botton

#affirmation #insecurity #self-esteem #status #uncertainty

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

Well, you know, any defense force worth its salt has to be able to deal with uncertainty, has to be able to deal with events that we may not have planned for. ↗

— Leon Panetta

#any #deal #defense #events #force

If I knew what to do I'd do more than write a song for you ↗

— Criss Jami

#confusion #love #lyrics #musician #poet

To try is to invite uncertainty. Where confidence goes, success usually follows. ↗

— Wayne Gerard Trotman

#confidence #doubt #positive-attitude #positive-thinking #positivity

You must always be puzzled by mental illness. The thing I would dread most, if I became mentally ill, would be your adopting a common sense attitude; that you could take it for granted that I was deluded ↗

— Ludwig Wittgenstein

#uncertainty #attitude

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

It has always seemed that a fear of judgment is the mark of guilt and the burden of insecurity. ↗

— Criss Jami

#being-strong #burden #discernment #fear #guilt