“The things one feels absolutely certain about are never true. That is the fatality of faith, and the lesson of romance.”

“None of us actually lives as though there were no truth. Our problem is more with the notion of a single, unchanging truth.The word 'true' suggest a relationship between things: being true to someone or something, truth as loyalty, or something that fits, as two surfaces may be said to be 'true.' It is related to 'trust,' and is fundamentally a matter of what one believes to be the case. The Latin word verum (true) is cognate with a Sanskrit word meaning to choose or believe: the option one chooses, the situation in which one places one's trust. Such a situation is not an absolute - it tells us not only about the chosen thing, but also about the chooser. It cannot be certain: it involves an act of faith and it involves being faithful to one's intentions.”

“The promise, made when I am in love and because I am in love, to be true to the beloved as long as I live, commits me to being true even if I cease to be in love. A promise must be about things that I can do, about actions: no one can promise to go on feeling in a certain way. He might as well promise to never have a headache or always to feel hungry.”

“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”

“Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.”

“We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.”