Quotes about certainty

If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties.

— Francis Bacon

To be positive: to be mistaken at the top of one's voice.

— Ambrose Bierce

I have lived in this world just long enough to look carefully the second time into things that I am the most certain of the first time.

— Josh Billings

There is nothing so uncertain as a sure thing.

— Scotty Bowman

We delight in one knowable thing, which comprehends all that is knowable; in one apprehensible, which draws together all that can be apprehended; in a single being that includes all, above all in the one which is itself the all.

— Giordano Bruno

There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.

— Robert Burns

We are not certain, we are never certain. If we were we could reach some conclusions, and we could, at last, make others take us seriously.

— Albert Camus

One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or NO.

— Thomas Carlyle

Inquiry is fatal to certainty.

— William J. Durant

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

— Benjamin Franklin

Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

— Benjamin Franklin

There is nothing certain except the unforeseen.

— Fraude

When we are not sure, we are alive.

— Graham Greene

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections, and the truth of imagination.

— John Keats

The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.

— John F. Kennedy

A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty.

— Rudyard Kipling

The more I see the less I know for sure.

— John Lennon

It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.

— H. L. Mencken

Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul when hot for certainties in this our life!

— George Meredith

There is nothing certain in a man's life but that he must lose it.

— Owen Meredith

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Only one thing is certain -- that is, nothing is certain. If this statement is true, it is also false.

— Ancient Paradox

In these matters the only certainty is that there is nothing certain.

— Pliny The Elder

The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

— Pliny The Elder

Certainties are arrived at only on foot.

— Antonio Porchia

There is nothing certain, but the uncertain.

— Proverb

To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.

— Chinese Proverb

What men want is not knowledge, but certainty.

— Bertrand Russell

The present is the only reality and the only certainty.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Positiveness is an absurd foible. If you are in the right, it lessens your triumph; if in the wrong, it adds shame to your defeat.

— Laurence Sterne

Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.

— Mark Twain

There are only two things you HAVE TO do in life. You HAVE TO die. You HAVE TO live until you die. You make up all the rest.

— Source Unknown

If you have a choice between certainty and hope, choose certainty every time.

— Source Unknown

Doubt is not a pleasant mental state, but certainty is a ridiculous one.

— Voltaire

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth; and truth rewarded me.

— Sylvia Ashton Warner

He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder.

— Tad Williams

If you do know that here is one hand, we'll grant you all the rest.

— Ludwig Wittgenstein

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

— William Butler Yeats

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

— Francis Bacon