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.
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.
To be positive: to be mistaken at the top of one's voice.
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.
There is nothing so uncertain as a sure thing.
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.
There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.
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.
One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or NO.
Inquiry is fatal to certainty.
In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
There is nothing certain except the unforeseen.
— Fraude
When we are not sure, we are alive.
I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections, and the truth of imagination.
The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.
A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty.
The more I see the less I know for sure.
It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.
Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul when hot for certainties in this our life!
There is nothing certain in a man's life but that he must lose it.
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
Only one thing is certain -- that is, nothing is certain. If this statement is true, it is also false.
In these matters the only certainty is that there is nothing certain.
The only certainty is that nothing is certain.
Certainties are arrived at only on foot.
There is nothing certain, but the uncertain.
— Proverb
To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.
What men want is not knowledge, but certainty.
The present is the only reality and the only certainty.
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.
Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.
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.
If you have a choice between certainty and hope, choose certainty every time.
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.
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.
If you do know that here is one hand, we'll grant you all the rest.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.