If you are not the victim, don't examine it entirely from your point of view because when YOU'RE not the victim, it becomes pretty easy to rationalize and excuse cruelty, injustice, inequality, slavery, and even murder. But when you're the victim, things look a lot differently from that angle. — Gary Yourofsky
In examining disease, we gain wisdom about anatomy and physiology and biology. In examining the person with disease, we gain wisdom about life. — Oliver Sacks
I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man. — Alexander Hamilton
By examining the tongue of the patient, physicians find out the diseases of the body, and philosophers the diseases of the mind. — Justin Martyr
I like to make people a little uncomfortable. It encourages them to examine who they are and why they think the way they do. — Sally Mann
If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience. — Woodrow Wilson
There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning. — Jiddu Krishnamurti
Ethical teaching is weakened if it is tied up with dogmas that will not bear examination. — Margaret E. Knight
What Is Quotation Quotes
Your life is a gift from the Creator. Your gift back to the Creator is what you do with your life. — Billy Mills
My God, what a clumsy olla putrida James Joyce is! Nothing but old fags and cabbage stumps of quotations from the Bible and the rest, stewed in the juice of deliberate, journalistic dirty-mindedness—what old and hard-worked staleness, masquerading as the all-new! — D. H. Lawrence
Joy is that kind of happiness that does not depend on what happens. — David Steindl-Rast
I am now to offer some thoughts upon that sameness or familiarity which we frequently find between passages in different authors without quotation. This may be one of three things either what is called Plagiarism, or Imitation, or Coincidence. — James Boswell
Life cannot be captured in a few axioms. And that is just what I keep trying to do. But it won't work, for life is full of endless nuances and cannot be captured in just a few formulae. — Etty Hillesum
You know what my favourite quotation is?.. It's from Chaucer... Criseyde says it, "I am myne owene woman, wel at ese." — Mary McCarthy
What seems distinctively modern as a unit of thought, of art, of discourse is the fragment; and the quotation is one kind of fragment. — Susan Sontag
Do not shun this maxim because it is common-place. On the contrary, take the closest heed of what observant men, who would probably like to show originality, are yet constrained to repeat. Therein lies the marrow of the wisdom of the world. — Arthur Helps
I was the type who looked at discussions of What Is Truth only with a view toward correcting the manuscript. If you were to quote "I am that I am," for example, I thought that the fundamental problem was where to put the comma, inside the quotation marks or outside. — Umberto Eco
To be amused at what you read - that is the great spring of quotation. — Charles Edward Montague
Certainty Quotes
I am not accustomed to saying anything with certainty after only one or two observations. — Andreas Vesalius
The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence. — Charles Bukowski
There is no such thing as permanence at all. Everything is constantly changing. Everything is in a flux. Because you cannot face the impermanence of all relationships, you invent sentiments, romance, and dramatic emotions to give them certainty. Therefore you are always in conflict. — U.G. Krishnamurti
Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty. — Eric Liddell
Crimes are more effectually prevented by the certainty than the severity of punishment — Cesare Beccaria
I don't know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream. — Vincent Van Gogh
Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. — Erich Fromm
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. — Stephen Jay Gould
The only reality I can possibly know is the world as I perceive it at this moment. The only reality you can possibly know is the world as you see it at this moment. And the only certainty is that those perceived realities are different. There are as many “real worlds” as there are people! — Carl Rogers
No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force. — Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
Absolute Certainty Quotes
When the human mind exists in the light of reason and no more than reason, we may say with absolute certainty that Man and all that made him will be in that instant gone. — Loren Eiseley
I never imagined it wouldn't work out for me. I had that absolute certainty in myself that has seen me through, I think, and my parents were absolutely behind me all the way. — Ewan McGregor
Whether gods exist or not, there is no way to get absolute certainty about ethics. Without absolute certainty, what do we do? We do the best we can. — Richard Stallman
One very important difference between color and monochromatic photography is this: in black and white you suggest; in color you state. Much can be implied by suggestion, but statement demands certainty... absolute certainty. — Paul Outerbridge
I can predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it. — Woodrow Wilson
I believe with total and absolute certainty that Argentina needs something new and not something new. — Javier Milei
If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there's still a 30% chance we're going to get it wrong. — Joe Biden
The existence of a first cause of the universe is a necessity of thought ... Amid the mysteries which become more mysterious the more they are thought about, there will remain the one absolute certainty that we are over in the presence of an Infinite, Eternal Energy from which all things proceed. — Herbert Spencer
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. — Lord Acton
I have concluded the evident existence of God, and that my existence depends entirely on God in all the moments of my life, that I do not think that the human spirit may know anything with greater evidence and certitude. — Rene Descartes
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love. Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom. Only the person who risks is truly free. — Leo Buscaglia
One of the most constant characteristics of beliefs is their intolerance. The stronger the belief, the greater its intolerance. Men dominated by a certitude cannot tolerate those who do not accept it. — Gustave Le Bon
We now know that human transformation does not happen through didacticism or through excessive certitude, but through the playful entertainment of another scripting of reality that may subvert the old given text and its interpretation and lead to the embrace of an alternative text and its redescription of reality. — Walter Brueggemann
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
My own opinion is that belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. — Robert Anton Wilson
Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found? — William James
It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay. — Eric Hoffer
On the other hand, for the whole human being who wills, feels, and represents, external reality is given simultaneously and with as much certitude as his own self. — Wilhelm Dilthey
Faith is not a question of basking in the certainty that there is a God and that God is taking care of us. Many of us are never granted this kind of assurance. Certitude is not the real substance of faith. Faith is a way of seeing things. — Ronald Rolheiser
I don't say that I'm an atheist. I don't like that term, because I think it mirrors the certitude of religion. I say I don't know. And if you don't know - and you don't - just man up and say you don't know. Don't turn to silly stories and ancient myths. — Bill Maher
I think most of us become nicer as we get older, less judgmental, less full of certitude; life tends to knock a few corners of us as we go through. Cancer, divorce, teenagers, and other plagues make us give up on expecting ourselves - or life - to be perfect, which is a real relief. — Molly Ivins
Economists are about as useful as astrologers in predicting the future (and, like astrologers, they never let failure on one occasion diminish certitude on the next). — Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
We [tend to] have more faith in what we imitate than in what we originate. We [often feel that we] cannot derive a sense of absolute certitude from anything which has its root in us. The most poignant sense of insecurity comes from standing alone; we are not alone when we imitate. — Bruce Lee
Certitude is seized by some minds, not because there is any philosophical justification for it, but because such minds have an emotional need for certitude. — Robert Anton Wilson
The moral certitude of the state in wartime is a kind of fundamentalism. And this dangerous messianic brand of religion, one where self-doubt is minimal, has come increasingly to color the modern world of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. — Chris Hedges
Peace is the fruit of love, a love that is also justice. But to grow in love requires work -- hard work. And it can bring pain because it implies loss -- loss of the certitudes, comforts, and hurts that shelter and define us. — Jean Vanier
Existential anxiety of doubt drives the person toward the creation of certitude of systems of meaning, which are supported by tradition and authority. Neurotic anxiety builds a narrow castle of certitude which can be defended with the utmost certainty. — Paul Tillich
In music everything is prolonged, everything is edified, and when the enchantment has ceased, we are still bathed in its clarity; solitude is accompanied by a new hope between pity for ourselves - which makes us more indulgent and more understanding - and the certitude of finding something again, that which lives for ever in music. — Nadia Boulanger
Faith comes to intelligence as a light that overflows it with joy and inspires it with a certitude that does away with question. — Etienne Gilson
In the old days, words like sin and Satan had a moral certitude. Today, they're replaced with self-help jargon, words like dysfunction and antisocial behavior, discouraging any responsibility for one's actions. — Don Henley
A mystic doesn’t say “I believe.” They say “I know.” A true mystic will ironically speak with that self-confidence but at the same time with a kind of humility. So when you see that combination of calm self-confidence, certitude, and humility all at the same time you have the basis for mysticism in general. — Richard Rohr
What makes friendship indissolute and what doubles its charms is a feeling we find lacking in love: I mean certitude. — Honore de Balzac
Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep inexpressible certitude of the contemplative experience awakens a tragic anguish and opens many questions in the depths of the heart like wounds that cannot stop bleeding. — Thomas Merton
It is an unfinished society that we offer the world-a society that is forever committed to change, to improvement and to growth, that will never stagnate in the certitude of ideology or the finalities of dogma. — Robert Kennedy
...the reason for [this age's] anxiety and unrest is because in one direction, 'truth' increases in scope and quantity - via science and technology - while in the other, certainty and confidence steadily decline. Our age is a master in developing truths while being wholly indifferent to certitude. It lacks confidence in the good. — Soren Kierkegaard
Mature psychological health cannot exist unless we are capable of doubting any form of conceptual certitude about ourselves or anything else. — Richard Moss
There is no other possibility for possessing certitude with regard to one's life apart from self-abandonmen t, in a continuous crescendo, into the hands of a love that seems to grow constantly because it has its origin in God. — Pope Benedict XVI
A desire for truth is by no means a need for certitude and it would be unwise to confuse one with the other. — Andre Gide
With the certitude of a true believer, Vellya Paapen had assured the twins that there was no such thing in the world as a black cat. He said that there were only black cat chaped holes in the universe. — Arundhati Roy
For every gain in deep certitude there is a corresponding growth of superficial "doubt." This doubt is by no means opposed to genuine faith, but it mercilessly examines and questions the spurious "faith" of everyday life, the human faith which is nothing but the passive acceptance of conventional opinion. — Thomas Merton
The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but from its certitude. No doctrine however profound and sublime will be effective unless it is presented as the embodiment of the one and only truth — Eric Hoffer
Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. — Robert Wilson
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of certitude quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about certitude to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of certitude quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
