57 Quotes On Certainty And Confidence

In a world full of constant change and unpredictability, finding solidity can often feel like a daunting task. Yet, understanding and harnessing certainty and confidence can be transformative forces in navigating life's challenges. Whether in personal growth, relationships, or professional endeavors, the power of self-assurance can illuminate our paths and drive us toward our goals. In this collection, we’ve meticulously gathered the top 57 quotes that encapsulate the essence of certainty and confidence, offering wisdom and insights from some of the most influential thinkers and doers. Embark on this inspirational journey to bolster your own sense of security and poise, and discover how these timeless words can complement and enhance your daily life.

1. “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

2. “In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.” - Bertrand Russell

3. “...but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” - Benjamin Franklin

4. “I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess.” - Walt Whitman

5. “A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty.” - Rudyard Kipling

6. “I believe in intuitions and inspirations...I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am.” - Albert Einstein

7. “To voice doubts was unthinkable, but that did not means that doubts did not exist.” - John Christopher

8. “Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure.” - H.L. Mencken

9. “I dedicate this novel to Gala, who was constantly by my side while I was writing it, who was the good fairy of my equilibrium, who banished the salamanders of my doubts and strengthened the lions of certainties...” - Salvador Dali

10. “The South African artist William Kentridge speaks to this type of certainty: 'To say that one needs art, or politics, that incorporate ambiguity and contradiction is not to say that one then stops recognizing and condemning things as evil. However, it might stop one being so utterly convinced of the certainty of one's own solutions. There needs to be a strong understanding of fallibility and how the very act of certainty or authoritativeness can bring disasters.'The outcome of the current crisis is already determined.” - Nick Flynn

11. “In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.” - David Hume

12. “My peak? Would I even have one? I hardly had had anything you could call a life. A few ripples. some rises and falls. But that's it. Almost nothing. Nothing born of nothing. I'd loved and been loved, but I had nothing to show. It was a singularly plain, featureless landscape. I felt like I was in a video game. A surrogate Pacman, crunching blindly through a labyrinth of dotted lines. The only certainty was my death.” - Haruki Murakami

13. “Why do people resist [engines, bridges, and cities] so? They are symbols and products of the imagination, which is the force that ensures justice and historical momentum in an imperfect world, because without imagination we would not have the wherewithal to challenge certainty, and we could never rise above ourselves.” - Mark Helprin

14. “It (trying to keep the law) grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.” - Wm. Paul Young

15. “Yet it is unassailably true that so long as we lack omniscience and do not know all of the future, all our generalizations are fallible or only probable. And the history of human error shows that a general consensus, or widespread and unquestioned feeling of certainty, does not preclude the possibility that the future may show us to be in error.” - Morris F. Cohen

16. “In these matters, the only certainty is that nothing is certain” - Pliny the Elder

17. “Certainty is the most vivid condition of ignorance and the most necessarycondition for knowledge.” - Kedar Joshi

18. “No one knows for sure about the future. But if you feel reluctant to plan something about it, then someone with guts would define it for you.” - Toba Beta [Betelgeuse Incident]

19. “We ought to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its antecedent state and as the cause of the state that is to follow. An intelligence knowing all the forces acting in nature at a given instant, as well as the momentary positions of all things in the universe, would be able to comprehend in one single formula the motions of the largest bodies as well as the lightest atoms in the world, provided that its intellect were sufficiently powerful to subject all data to analysis; to it nothing would be uncertain, the future as well as the past would be present to its eyes. The perfection that the human mind has been able to give to astronomy affords but a feeble outline of such an intelligence.” - Pierre Simon de Laplace

20. “To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.” - Ursula K. Le Guin

21. “I act with complete certainty. But this certainty is my own.” - Ludwig Wittgenstein

22. “Luck is a favorable thing out of an uncertainty. No such thing as luck when everything's certain.” - Toba Beta

23. “One of the few certainties in life is that persons of certainty should certainly be avoided.” - Willy Russell

24. “Positive, adj.: Mistaken at the top of one's voice.” - Ambrose Bierce

25. “At the core of all well-founded belief lies belief that is unfounded.” - Ludwig Wittgenstein

26. “From the house of unbeliefto true religionis a single breath;From the world of doubtto certaintyis a single breath;Enjoy this precious single breath,for the harvestof our whole livesis that same one breath.” - Omar Khayyám

27. “Think fast on facts.” - Toba Beta

28. “The surest sign that a man has a genuine taste of his own is that he is uncertain of it.” - W.H. Auden

29. “Science says the first word on everything, and the last word on nothing.” - Victor Hugo

30. “In God's eyes, a man who teaches one truth and nothing else is more righteous than a man who teaches a million truths and one lie.” - Criss Jami

31. “The devil's happy when the critics run you off.” - Criss Jami

32. “I always make sure that the world will prove me right. It gives me the freedom to contradict myself.” - Criss Jami

33. “I'm a girl."When Deryn opened her eyes, the lady boffin was staring at her with no change of expression. "Indeed," she said.Deryn's mouth feel open. "You mean you...Did you barking know?""I had no idea at all. But I make it a policy never to appear surprised." Dr. Barlow sighed, staring out the window. "Though on this occasion, it is proving rather more demanding than usual. A girl, you say? And you're quite certain?” - Scott Westerfeld

34. “Some make light of decisions, arguing that all possible decisions will occur. In such a world, how could one be responsible for his actions? Others hold that each decision must be considered and committed to, that without commitment there is chaos. Such people are content to live in contradictory worlds, so long as they know the reason for each.” - Alan Lightman

35. “If you do not know where you come from, then you don't know where you are, and if you don't know where you are, then you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong.” - Terry Pratchett

36. “A reasonable probability is the only certainty.” - E.W. Howe

37. “He who asserts belief with absolute certainty knows nothing of faith and makes himself into a fool. He who is wise, upon realizing they have done this, recants and searches themselves for further enlightenment.” - Cristina Marrero

38. “There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.” - Robert Burns

39. “...Granny Weatherwax, who had walked nightly without fear in the bandit-haunted forests of the mountains all her life in the certain knowledge that the darkness held nothing more terrible than she was...” - Terry Pratchett

40. “Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.” - Tony Schwartz

41. “If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty.” - Ludwig Wittgenstein

42. “Every time he tried to reconstruct the internal arguments that had led to his decision, they sounded feebler to him.” - J.K. Rowling

43. “When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret anything - that is the definition of conviction.” - Criss Jami

44. “The great systems that inform the world about the truth and life invariably claim to be absolutely truthful and well-balanced. In reality they are quaking bridges built out of yearning.” - Peter Høeg

45. “What can you do with a person who says that he is absolutely uncertain about everything, and that he is absolutely certain about that?” - Idries Shah

46. “Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.” - Alain De Botton

47. “I imagine that the intelligent people are the ones so intelligent that they don't even need or want to look 'intelligent' anymore.” - Criss Jami

48. “Every judgment teeters on the brink of error,” Leto explained. “To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.” - Frank Herbert

49. “The problem with the wise is they are so filled with doubts and questions, while fools are so certain about things.” - Shannon L. Alder

50. “Sometimes when persons say definitely it sounds actually less true.” - Emma Donoghue

51. “The rich world of his ancestors set the standards for Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s own life. It gave him a certainty of judgment and manner that cannot be acquired in a single generation.” - Eric Metaxas

52. “Faith can be a greater asset than certainty.” - Dawn Jayne

53. “In some cases, I am able to respect what so many call bigots. Such people have a more solid foundation for drawing their lines when it comes to the security of their ways and quite possibly the security of mankind. They rely on something that has worked to get man this far without placing ideals blindly driven by emotion first; they have a sure line and they say, 'No.' That, in a sense, is something I find to be highly respectable.” - Criss Jami

54. “What kind of husband would I be if I bet against my own marriage?'I smiled. 'The stupid kind. Didn't you listen to your dad when he told you not to bet against me?” - Jamie McGuire

55. “You’ve got to be sure of yourself beforeYou can ever win a prize.” - Napoleon Hill

56. “It is a noble responsibility to not back down when you know that you know that you know that you are right.” - Criss Jami

57. “It's not about whether or not someone is a bigot, but whether or not the argument which that someone is arguing is worth being a bigot about.” - Criss Jami