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I like the scientific spirit--the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine--it always keeps the way beyond open--always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake--after a wrong guess.
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doubt
science
life
scientific
guess
certainty
skepticism
humble
evidence
mistake
ideas
surrender
thought
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Walt Whitman |
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To learn which questions are unanswerable, and : this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.
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policy
certainty
humility
knowledge
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Ursula K. Le Guin |
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A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty.
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men
women
guesses
certainty
gender
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Rudyard Kipling |
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"I'm a girl." When Deryn opened her eyes, the lady boffin was staring at her with no change of expression. "Indeed," she said. Deryn's mouth feel open. "You mean you...Did you barking ?" "I had no idea at all. But I make it a policy never to appear surprised." Dr. Barlow sighed, staring out the window. "Though on this occasion, it is proving rather more demanding than usual. A girl, you say? And you're quite certain?"
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leviathant
goliath
deryn
scott-westerfeld
certainty
sharp
girl
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Scott Westerfeld |
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At the core of all well-founded belief lies belief that is unfounded.
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certainty
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Ludwig Wittgenstein |
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"My mother and father were always pushing me away from secondhand answers--even the answers they themselves believed. I don't know that I have ever found any satisfactory answers of my own. But every time I ask it, the question is refined. That is the best of what the old heads meant when they spoke of being "politically conscious"--as much a series of actions as a state of being, a constant questioning, questioning as ritual, questioning as exploration rather than the search for certainty."
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meaning
life
certainty
questioning
questions
searching
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Ta-Nehisi Coates |
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Certainty. Life's last and kindest gift.
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sleep
death-and-dying
death
czech-literature
20th-century-literature
gallows-humor
certainty
bliss
endings
cynicism
gifts
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Milan Kundera |
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In the presence of Esch, values have hidden their faces. Order, loyalty, sacrifice--he cherishes all these words, but exactly what do they represent? Sacrifice for what? Demand what sort of order? He doesn't know. If a value has lost its concrete content, what is left of it? A mere empty form; an imperative that goes unheeded and, all the more furious, demands to be heard and obeyed. The less Esch knows what he wants, the more furiously he wants it. Esch: the fanaticism of the era with no God. Because all values have hidden their faces, anything can be considered a value. Justice, order--Esch seeks them now in the trade union struggle, then in religion; today in police power, tomorrow in the mirage of America, where he dreams of emigrating. He could be a terrorist or a repentant terrorist turning in his comrades, or a party militant or a cult member a kamikaze prepared to sacrifice his life. All the passions rampaging through the bloody history of our time are taken up, unmasked, and terrifyingly displayed in Esch's modest adventure.
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sacrifice
esch
sleepwalkers
imperative
broch
cult
post-modern
modern
certainty
purpose-of-life
order
symbolic
existentialism
fanaticism
novel
values
loyalty
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Milan Kundera |
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The South African artist William Kentridge speaks to this type of certainty: 'To say that one needs art, or politics, that incorporate ambiguity and contradiction is not to say that one then stops recognizing and condemning things as evil. However, it might stop one being so utterly convinced of the certainty of one's own solutions. There needs to be a strong understanding of fallibility and how the very act of certainty or authoritativeness can bring disasters.' The outcome of the current crisis is already determined.
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faith
certainty
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Nick Flynn |
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For everyone nowadays knows, absolutely certain, that nothing will ever happen to me. Others die, I go on.
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mortality
immortality
life
certainty
delusion
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Ray Bradbury |
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What could Maria call the time that opened ahead of her? The certainty of her hope? This rejuvenated air she was breathing? This incandescence, this bursting of a love at last without object?
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time
hope
love
breathing-room
certainty
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Marguerite Duras |
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I remember laughing at that moment, and I remember my son frowning at me in puzzlement. What I remember best of all, though, was the sudden certainty that the gods were with me, that they would fight for me, that my sword would be their sword. 'We're going to win,' I told my son. I felt as if Odin or Thor had touched me. I had never felt more alive and never felt more certain. I knew there would be no more mistakes and that this was no dream. I had come to Bebbanburg and Bebbanburg would be mine.
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thor
best
bebbanburg
frowning
puzzlement
touched
were
mine
odin
certainty
laughing
me
gods
son
moment
mistakes
remember
sudden
fight
swords
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Bernard Cornwell |
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Lately Kevin has been bothering himself with the idea that nothing is certain, nothing can be proven. Not one thing, not in all the world. The sun will rise tomorrow. The sun rose this morning. The sun is in the sky. There's a sun at all. The world is like a box of Kleenex, every doubt pulling another along behind it. You can always find a new reason to distrust the facts.
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doubt
certainty
proof
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Kevin Brockmeier |
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If there was no imperative, it was not love.
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fate
love
certainty
predestined
|
Rachel Kushner |
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Looking up at the stars and smoking in silence.
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silence
stars
romance
elizabeth-wein
ellen-mcewen
the-pearl-thief
julie
certainty
smoking
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Elizabeth Wein |