Quotes and Sayings about Uncertainty
"Never Have Your Dog Stuffed is really advice to myself, a reminder to myself not to avoid change or uncertainty, but to go with it, to surf into change."
- Alan Alda
(Related: Change, Advice, Uncertainty)
"If it is widely assumed that the new President cannot move forward simply because of a narrow victory, there can easily develop a sense of unease and uncertainty, adversely affecting every sector of American society, our economy and the perception of other nations."
- Richard V. Allen
(Related: Society, Perception, Victory, American, Economy, Nations, President, Sense, Uncertainty)
"Uncertainty is the refuge of hope."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Hope, Uncertainty)
"I always work out of uncertainty but when a painting's finished it becomes a fixed idea, apparently a final statement. In time though, uncertainty returns... your thought process goes on."
- Georg Baselitz
(Related: Time, Work, Thought, Idea, Painting, Uncertainty)
"The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainty of the law."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Power, Law, Uncertainty)
"The basic fault lines today are not between people with different beliefs but between people who hold these beliefs with an element of uncertainty and people who hold these beliefs with a pretense of certitude."
- Peter L. Berger
(Related: People, Beliefs, Fault, Today, Uncertainty)
"Well, as a former small businessperson - I understand what's going on, I think in the business community. And businesspeople around the country are looking at all the spending and all the debt. They're looking at all the policies coming out of this Congress and this administration the last two years, and they - it's created all this uncertainty."
- John Boehner
(Related: Business, Community, Congress, Country, Debt, Uncertainty, Years)
"Listen, I think what's best for the economy and to create jobs is to extend all of the current tax rates - for all Americans. It - it begins to reduce the uncertainty. And for small businesspeople, they can look up and begin to plan."
- John Boehner
(Related: Americans, Economy, Tax, Jobs, Uncertainty)
"I have known uncertainty: a state unknown to the Greeks."
- Jorge Luis Borges
(Related: State)
"Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty."
- Jacob Bronowski
(Related: Knowledge, Adventure, Uncertainty)
"There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing."
- Robert Burns
(Related: Uncertainty)
"The action we take and the decisions we make in this decade will have consequences far into this century. If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch."
- George W. Bush
(Related: Action, America, Consequences, Decisions, Tragedy, Uncertainty, Weakness, Will, World)
"I believe the most solemn duty of the American president is to protect the American people. If America shows uncertainty and weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. This will not happen on my watch."
- George W. Bush
(Related: People, America, American, Duty, President, Tragedy, Uncertainty, Weakness, Will, World)
"The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism."
- John C. Calhoun
(Related: Confusion, Error, Fanaticism, Old, Uncertainty)
"If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret."
- Jim Carrey
(Related: Pain, Regret, Uncertainty)
"Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating."
- Karl Von Clausewitz
(Related: Nature, Certainty, Clarity, Intellect, Uncertainty)
"Certainty is the mother of quiet and repose, and uncertainty the cause of variance and contentions."
- Edward Coke
(Related: Mother, Cause, Certainty, Quiet, Uncertainty)
"Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear."
- William Congreve
(Related: Fear, Uncertainty, Worth)
"Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing."
- William Congreve
(Related: Life, Expectation, Security, Uncertainty)
"If you just watch a teenager, you see a lot of uncertainty."
- Jamie Lee Curtis
(Related: Uncertainty)
"The real effect of the WTC calamity has been depressed spirits, anxiety, and uncertainty among publishers, and of course those emotions are not restricted to publishers."
- Richard Curtis
(Related: Anxiety, Calamity, Effect, Emotions, Spirits, Uncertainty)
"Although economists have studied the sensitivity of import and export volumes to changes in the exchange rate, there is still much uncertainty about just how much the dollar must change to bring about any given reduction in our trade deficit."
- Martin Feldstein
(Related: Change, Sensitivity, Trade, Uncertainty)
"It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is a hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn't get confined, permanently blocked, as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man."
- Richard P. Feynman
(Related: History, Hope, Direction, Ignorance, Man, Uncertainty)
"Scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate."
- Richard P. Feynman
(Related: God, Deep, End, Evil, Man, Mystery, Struggle, Theory, Uncertainty)
"The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers."
- Erich Fromm
(Related: Certainty, Man, Meaning, Quest, Uncertainty)
"The substantial uncertainty about the path of asset price movements going forward necessarily reduces the case for altering policy in advance of the move."
- Timothy Geithner
(Related: Policy, Uncertainty)
"Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process."
- Harold S. Geneen
(Related: Uncertainty, Will)
"Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine, and eminently unsatisfying."
- J. Paul Getty
(Related: Business, Routine, Uncertainty)
"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next."
- Ursula K. Le Guin
(Related: Life, Uncertainty)
"Uncertainty and fear and ignorance about immigrants, about people who are different, has a history as old as our Nation."
- Luis Gutierrez
(Related: History, People, Fear, Ignorance, Nation, Old, Uncertainty)
"The uncertainty of the danger belongs to the essence of terrorism."
- Jurgen Habermas
(Related: Danger, Terrorism, Uncertainty)
"This implies that the laws governing organic cohesion, the organization leading from the part to the whole, represent a biological uncertainty, indeed an uncertainty of the first order."
- Walter Rudolf Hess
(Related: First, Laws, Leading, Order, Uncertainty)
"The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless is mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly - indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection."
- Arianna Huffington
(Related: Mother, Idea, Imperfection, Uncertainty)
"For all of its uncertainty, we cannot flee the future."
- Barbara Jordan
(Related: Future, Uncertainty)
"Uncertainty is the worst of all evils until the moment when reality makes us regret uncertainty."
- Alphonse Karr
(Related: Reality, Regret, Uncertainty)
"Terrorism is a psychological warfare. Terrorists try to manipulate us and change our behavior by creating fear, uncertainty, and division in society."
- Patrick J. Kennedy
(Related: Change, Society, Fear, Behavior, Terrorism, Uncertainty)
"All that's left now is purely poetic work, putting more life into individual places, as I've made so sure of the fundamental mood and dimension of expression that it won't leave me groping around in uncertainty any more."
- Oskar Kokoschka
(Related: Life, Work, Expression, Now, Uncertainty)
"Investors don't like uncertainty."
- Kenneth Lay
(Related: Uncertainty)
"When there's uncertainty they always think there's another shoe to fall. There is no other shoe to fall."
- Kenneth Lay
(Related: Uncertainty)
"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next."
- Ursula K. LeGuin
(Related: Life)
"In this era of uncertainty and conflict, the United States - blessed with the world's strongest military, most ingenious economy, and most tolerant society - remains a model and leader to the world."
- Joe Lieberman
(Related: Society, Leader, Conflict, Economy, Military, states, Uncertainty, United, World)
"Uncertainty! fell demon of our fears! The human soul that can support despair, supports not thee."
- David Mallet
(Related: Soul, Despair, Support)
"The markets don't like instability and they don't like uncertainty."
- Peter Mandelson
(Related: Uncertainty)
"Faith means living with uncertainty - feeling your way through life, letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark."
- Dan Millman
(Related: Faith, Life, Heart, Feeling, Living, Uncertainty)
"To allow all U.S. workers to put part of their earnings into private investment accounts would definitely erode the Social Security system and cause uncertainty for new investors."
- Grace Napolitano
(Related: Cause, Investment, Security, Uncertainty, Workers)
"So in my uncertainty, I went to graduate school and there it all happened."
- Ted Nelson
(Related: School, Uncertainty)
"The 21st Century has begun as an era of uncertainty, with a heightened focus on security and public safety."
- Gavin Newsom
(Related: Focus, Public, Safety, Security, Uncertainty)
"Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability."
- William Osler
(Related: Art, Science, Medicine, Uncertainty)
"We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end."
- Blaise Pascal
(Related: End, Uncertainty)
"If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!"
- Blaise Pascal
(Related: Religion, Act, Certainty, Sea, Uncertainty)
"The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly Saddam can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
- Condoleezza Rice
(Related: Smoking, Uncertainty, Want, Weapons, Will)
"The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes."
- Salman Rushdie
(Related: Change, Idea, Progress, Ideas, Conservative, Culture, Uncertainty)
"I never appreciated 'positive heroes' in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides a more 'productive' literary raw material, but because that is the way we humans really are."
- Jose Saramago
(Related: Cliches, Doubt, Heroes, Literary, Literature, Uncertainty)
"Information is the resolution of uncertainty."
- Claude Shannon
(Related: Information, Resolution, Uncertainty)
"Uncertainty is a sign of humility, and humility is just the ability or the willingness to learn."
- Charlie Sheen
(Related: Ability, Humility, Uncertainty)
"There's a certain kind of scepticism that can't bear uncertainty."
- Rupert Sheldrake
(Related: Uncertainty)
"The glorious uncertainty of the law was a thing well known and complained of, by all ignorant people, but all learned gentleman considered it as its greatest excellency."
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan
(Related: People, Gentleman, Law, Uncertainty)
"If you don't think you want to go on a train and read the paper every day and work from nine to six at night, there was something about the uncertainty when I was younger which was very attractive."
- Ron Silver
(Related: Work, Day, Night, Uncertainty, Want)
"Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is make by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected."
- George Soros
(Related: Money, Obvious, State, Uncertainty)
"We measure our days out in steps of uncertainty not turning to see how far we've come. And peer down the highway from here to eternity and reach out for love on the run."
- Al Stewart
(Related: Love, Eternity, Measure, Uncertainty)
"Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty."
- Tacitus
(Related: Truth, Delay, Falsehood, Haste, Uncertainty)
"I don't think we should tell them what we're going to do in advance. Let them think. Worry. Wonder. Uncertainty is the most chilling thing of all."
- Vernon A. Walters
(Related: Uncertainty, Wonder, Worry)
"I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control."
- Margaret J. Wheatley
(Related: Leadership, Control, Past, Uncertainty, Years)
"Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle."
- Edward Witten
(Related: Physics, Uncertainty)