"People prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty"
Certainty quotes
155 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside certainty — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"I shall not mingle conjectures with certainties."
"I am walking like a bewitched corpse, with the certainty of being eaten by the infinite, of being annulled by the only existing Absurd."
"Madness is the result not of uncertainty but certainty."
"If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty."
"The present is the only reality and the only certainty."
"What can we say with certainty?"
"To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous."
"[Friedrich] Nietzsche said something marvellous, he said "Madness is not a consequence of uncertainty but of certainty", and this is fanaticism."
"If we have not found heaven within, it is a certainty we will not find it without."
"Just because someone seems to have more certainty, doesn't mean they're right."
"Reason can get you to probability, but only commitment can get you to certainty."
"One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or NO."
"That which most concerns and worries you - your survival - is the only certainty you have."
"We have been cocksure of many things that were not so."
"If you're invested in security and certainty, you are on the wrong planet."
"The only certainty is uncertainty"
"A chuck under the chin is worth two kisses."
"I act with complete certainty. But this certainty is my own."
"Even the stoics agree that certainty is very hard to come at; that our assent is worth little, for where is infallibility to be found?"
"The greatest certainty in life is death. The greatest uncertainty is the time."