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4546411 I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance. moving-on memories future past homelessness belonging leaving attachment uncertainty roots home reminiscence memory Beryl Markham
9b188b0 We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty! humour doubt life uncertainty Douglas Adams
f05e63b Maturity, one discovers, has everything to do with the acceptance of 'not knowing. maturity uncertainty Mark Z. Danielewski
3d13292 Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed--sometimes it covers you just fine, and other times it leaves you cold and shaking; and worst of all, you never know which of the two it's going to be. uncertainty Jodi Picoult
f1e88e8 Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds -- justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can't go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner. daring risk courage seeking uncertainty questions knowledge Anne Rice
d507ea2 In an era of stress and anxiety, when the present seems unstable and the future unlikely, the natural response is to retreat and withdraw from reality, taking recourse either in fantasies of the future or in modified visions of a half-imagined past. anxiety conservatism delusion uncertainty psychology Alan Moore
7647974 When in doubt, be ridiculous. fast-thinking uncertainty decision Sherwood Smith
462b6bd No one ever said that you would live to see the repercussions of everything you do, or that you have guarantees, or that you are not obliged to wander in the dark, or that everything will be proved to you and neatly verified like something in science. Nothing is: at least nothing that is worthwhile. I didn't bring you up only to move across sure ground. I didn't teach you to think that everything must be within our control or understanding. Did I? For, if I did, I was wrong. I fyou won't take a chance, then the powers you refuse because you cannot explain them, will, as they say, make a monkey out of you. science uncertainty Mark Helprin
c47dc37 And I said, 'That last thing is what you can't get, Carlo. Nobody can get to that last thing. We keep on living in hopes of catching it once and for all. honesty narrowness uncertainty Jack Kerouac
379ac68 Whether it is good or evil, whether life in itself is pain or pleasure, whether it is uncertain-that it may perhaps be this is not important-but the unity of the world, the coherence of all events, the embracing of the big and the small from the same stream, from the same law of cause, of becoming and dying. unity life siddhartha uncertainty Hermann Hesse
1b041e2 "I told Ersken, "Lately it's been like living on the knife's edge, never knowing which side I'll fall off on" Ersken clapped me on the shoulder as we stepped into the street. "Cheer up, Beka. Maybe you were going to fall off that razor's edge before, but not today," he said, as good humored as always. "Today we're doing to jump." humor walking-the-line uncertainty joke Tamora Pierce
3828992 Sometimes when persons say it sounds actually less true. truth definitely emphasis exaggeration uncertainty Emma Donoghue
9a07ea4 ...to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery. And one does not get lost but loses oneself, with the implication that it is a conscious choice, a chosen surrender... presence uncertainty mystery surrender Rebecca Solnit
a41946e But nothing is solid and permanent. Our lives are raised on the shakiest foundations. You don't need to read history books to know that. You only have to know the history of your own life. uncertainty Ron Rash
5a171f3 When the uncertain future becomes the past, the past in turn becomes uncertain. past uncertainty Mohsin Hamid
79ce012 "You ask me why I don't love you, but surely you must believe I am very fond of you and if to desire to possess a person wholly, to admire and honour that person deeply, and to seek to secure that person's happiness in every way is to "love" then perhaps my affection for you is a kind of love. I will tell you this that your soul seems to me to be the most beautiful and simple soul in the world and it may be because I am so conscious of this when I look at you that my love or affection for you loses much of its violence." love uncertainty desire soul James Joyce
c20dcd8 They were close enough that he could feel the hurried beat of her heart. He could feel Charlotte's indecision in every word she didn't say and every move she didn't make. She was tense with uncertainty, quivering with irresolution. She might not be leaning into him, but she wasn't pulling away, either. night-jasmine uncertainty Lauren Willig
2d2bce0 The attentions of others matter to us because we are afflicted by a congenital uncertainty as to our own value, as a result of which affliction we tend to allow others' appraisals to play a determining role in how we see ourselves. Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgements of those we live among. self-doubt others value uncertainty Alain de Botton
6f7495d History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts. heroes history villain uncertainty hero villains Ian Fleming
c57a405 Looking at Tim, one cannot help feeling great waves of uncertainty, an absence of aim, of purpose, as if he is a person who simply doesn't matter. languor lassitude ennui uncertainty purpose Bret Easton Ellis
e3a86eb My voice is born repeatedly in the fields of uncertainty. uncertainty voice Terry Tempest Williams
57f8d7e Grief is an amputation, but hope is incurable haemophilia: you bleed and bleed and bleed. Like Schrodinger's cat inside a box you can never ever open. pain loss hope uncertainty David Mitchell
4a3dd83 He took his hands off the oars and pulled in the mooring rope. If I make a couple of loops, he thought, I can strap the axe on to my back. He had a mental picture of what could happen to a man who plunged into the cauldron below a waterfall with a sharp piece of metal attached to his body. GOOD MORNING. Vimes blinked. A tall dark robed figure was now sitting in the boat. 'Are you Death?' IT'S THE SCYTHE, ISN'T IT? PEOPLE ALWAYS NOTICE THE SCYTHE. 'I'm going to die?' POSSIBLY. 'Possibly? You turn up when people are possibly going to die?' OH, YES. IT'S QUITE THE NEW THING. IT'S BECAUSE OF THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE. 'What's that?' I'M NOT SURE. 'That's very helpful. uncertainty Terry Pratchett
2c42f9e On either side of a potentially violent conflict, an opportunity exists to exercise compassion and diminish fear based on recognition of each other's humanity. Without such recognition, fear fueled by uninformed assumptions, cultural prejudice, desperation to meet basic human needs, or the panicked uncertainty of the moment explodes into violence. prejudice war compassion humanity fear trust charter-for-compassion compassion-action-network cultural-differences cultural-diversity global-community military-conflict opportunity-quotes polarization slpendid-literarium stop-killing-each-other waging-peace peacism antiracism terrorists militarization assumptions compassion-heals-lives nonviolent-conflict-resolution police-reform police-shootings nonviolence overcoming-fear terrorism xenophobia uncertainty political-philosophy panic desperation Aberjhani
512504b 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. uncertainty technology Frank Herbert
8cbee40 Some make light of decisions, arguing that all possible decisions will occur. In such a world, how could one be responsible for his actions? Others hold that each decision must be considered and committed to, that without commitment there is chaos. Such people are content to live in contradictory worlds, so long as they know the reason for each. commitment uncertainty-principle uncertainty chance Alan Lightman
505e7cf "Every judgment teeters on the brink of error," Leto explained. "To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." wisdom uncertainty knowledge Frank Herbert
9ba9b66 I don't know why it is, Captain Short, but whenever you start agreeing with me, I get decidedly nervous. humor nervous uncertainty Eoin Colfer
6a21b3f 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. uncertainty Sylvia Plath
1e4f011 I ran rather than walked, anxious to lose my way. All I wanted was to be unsure. uncertainty Jonathan Safran Foer
4e4c338 He had the feeling that he must make a decision, and though he was used to making many decisions every day, this time he was beset with uncertainty; in fact he had no idea what was being asked of him uncertainty Amos Oz
9f6990b I push against the tree and run away, stumbling, the unreal night playing with me, gravity pulling from below, behind, above, making me fall. And I run through a world that is rotating, conscious of the earth's spin, of our planet twirling as it careens through nothingness, of the stars spiraling above, of the uncertainty of everything, even ground, even sky. Mumtaz never calls out, although a thousand and one voices scream in my mind, sing, whisper, taunt me with madness. madness unreal nothingness uncertainty night Mohsin Hamid
4e9935f Re-reading a collection of my stuff, I was rather startled to find that it was 'perhaps. words writing uncertainty Christopher Hitchens
86f0f0f I was told that the disorder was not really in my eyes, but in my central nervous system. I might or might not experience symptoms of neural damage all my life. These symptoms, which might or might not appear, might or might not involve my eyes. They might or might not involve my arms or legs, they might or might not be disabling. Their effects might be lessened by cortisone injections, or they might not. It could not be predicted. The condition had a name, the kind of name usually associated with telethons, but the name meant nothing and the neurologist did not like to use it. The name was multiple sclerosis, but the name had no meaning. This was, the neurologist said, an exclusionary diagnosis, and meant nothing. I had, at this time, a sharp apprehension not of what it was like to be old but of what it was like to open the door to the stranger and find that the stranger did indeed have the knife. In a few lines of dialogue in a neurologist's office in Beverly Hills, the improbable had become the probable, the norm: things which happened only to other people could in fact happen to me. I could be struck by lightning, could dare to eat a peach and be poisoned by the cyanide in the stone. The startling fact was this: my body was offering a precise physiological equivalent to what had been going on in my mind. fear multiple-sclerosis uncertainty Joan Didion
59ff758 I don't know Who is cranking; I'm pleased He doesn't stop. life uncertainty Robert A. Heinlein
b81af89 We must content ourselves with the mystery, the absurdity, the contradictions, the hostility, but also the generosity that our environment offers us. It's not much, but it's always better than the deadly, defeatist certainty of the paranoid. uncertainty-in-life reality reconciliation uncertainty Philip K. Dick
c2bdce7 She's sure, absolutely sure, that what she's waiting for will happen, just the way she wants it to; and I'm so uncertain, so fearful my dreams will end up forgotten somewhere, someday, like a piece of string and a paperclip lying in a dish. sadness uncertainty forgetting Lois Lowry
0978b90 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. men-of-action uncertainty Elizabeth Gaskell
99ce5a5 There's no work so tirin' as danglin' about an' starin' an' not rightly knowin' what you're goin' to do next; and keepin' your face i' smilin' order like a grocer o' market-day for fear people shouldna think you civil enough. fatigue uncertainty George Eliot
4d9a672 Here I stand on the brink of war again, a citizen of no place, no time, no country but my own . . . and that a land lapped by no sea but blood, bordered only by the outlines of a face long-loved. time war love james-fraser lyrical uncertainty Diana Gabaldon
42e66d2 "You cannot know" he said simply. "Very little is certain in this life, my lady." uncertainty Robin Maxwell
aee6a11 No peace is possible between the novelist and the agelaste [those who do not laugh]. Never having heard God's laughter, the agelastes are convinced that the truth is obvious, that all men necessarily think the same thing, and that they themselves are exactly what they think they are. But it is precisely in losing the certainty of truth and the unanimous agreement of others that man becomes an individual. The novel is the imaginary paradise of individuals. It is the territory where no one possesses the truth, neither Anna nor Karenin, but where everyone has the right to be understood, both Anna and Karenin. laughter truth uniformity essay individual art uncertainty novel Milan Kundera
60d32f0 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. law uncertainty government rules Philip K. Howard
11cb837 Ideally, the pursuit of truth is said to be at the heart of the intellectual's business, but this credits his business too much and not quite enough. As with the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of truth is itself gratifying whereas consummation often turns out to be elusive. Truth captured loses its glamour; truths long known and widely believed have a way of turning false with time; easy truths are bore and too many of them become half truths. Whatever the intellectual is too certain of, if he is healthily playful, he begins to find unsatisfactory. The meaning of his intellectual life lies not in the possession of truth but in the quest for new uncertainties. Harold Rosenberg summed up this side of the life of the mind supremely well when he said that the intellectual is one who turns answers into questions. happiness truth playfulness playful intellectual intellectualism intellectuals uncertainty play questions Richard Hofstadter
3ed32d8 Sometimes your gaze alone scares me. Sometimes I've never seen you before. I no longer know what you're doing here, in this popular seaside resort, in this dull, crowded season, where you are even more alone than in your regional capital. The better to kill you, perhaps, or to drive you away, I don't know. I sometimes manage to feel I've never seen you before. That I don't know you, to the point of horror. That I have no idea why you're here, what you want from me, or what will become of you. Becoming is the only subject we never, ever broach. You must not know what you're doing here either, with this woman who is already old, mad with writing. Maybe this is just normal, maybe it's the same all over; it's nothing, you came simply because you were desperate, as you are every day of your life. And also during certain summers at certain times of day or night when the sun quits the sky and slips into the sea, every evening, always, you cannot help wanting to die. This I know. I see the two of us lost in similar natures. I can sometimes be overwhelmed by tenderness for the kind of people we are. Unstable, they say, a bit nutty. 'People who never go to the movies, or the theater, or parties.' Leftists are like that, you know, they have no clue how to enjoy life. Cannes makes them sick and so do the grand hotels of Morocco. Movies and theaters, it's all the same. relationships knowing-others uncertainty Marguerite Duras
733cf38 "...Look, I'm real sorry about Cheryl, I know you loved her a lot," Mandy apologized gloomily. "It's wrong that people have to keep killing off Pollution." "It's alright, I think she wants to be remediated," Alecto told her calmly, though his grief-stricken and depressed expression said more to Mandy than his words did. "You don't have to forget Cheryl, no matter what Mearth said to you," Mandy pointed out. "People shouldn't be forced to forget what they love, or to just get over the death of what they love. Cheryl was your friend and nobody can make you forget her if you don't want to." grief loss depression fear death friendship hope love grief-stricken removal remediation confusion lonliness pollution help uncertainty memory Rebecca McNutt
6a34146 "And where are you going?" "I dunno," said the Spangled Boy. "I'm running from, not to." Book: Wet Magic, Chapter 5." uncertainty E. Nesbit
cf57ab3 In your diary, you quoted old Jiko saying something about not-knowing, how not-knowing is the most intimate way, or did I just dream that? Anyway, I've been thinking about this a lot, and I think maybe it's true, even though I don't really like uncertainty. I'd much rather 'know', but then again, not-knowing keeps all the possibilities open. It keeps all the worlds alive. life not-knowing possibilities uncertainty Ruth Ozeki
0d0a061 these are precisely the conditions that killed love, after first blighting its growth: squalor, fear, uncertainty, overfamiliarity. love uncertainty Patrick McGrath
2c560b5 Death is certain. Life is always changing, like a puff of wind in the air, or a wave in the sea, or even a thought in the mind. life uncertainty Ruth Ozeki
4875864 When the uncertain future becomes the past, the past in turn becomes uncertain past life uncertainty Mohsin Hamid
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