Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend, as partisans of certain religions do, to have attained it. But the history of science teaches that the most we can hope for is successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, an asymptotic approach to the Universe, but with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us.
Carl Sagan in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Submitted by Catalin Popescu
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Related quotes
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.
quote by Richard Stallman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Fundamental of Liar Chapter XCVIII: Absolutely Relative
Expensive is absolute, cheap is relative
Far is absolute, near is relative
Ugly is absolute, beauty is relative
Weird is absolute, crazy is relative
Stubborn is absolute, brave is relative
Stupid is absolute, smart is relative
Weak is absolute, strong is relative
Old is absolute, mature is relative
Lose is absolute, win is relative
Rich is absolute, poor is relative
Sad is absolute, happy is relative
Misfortune is absolute, lucky is relative
Safe is absolute, fear is relative
Love is absolute, hate is relative
Important is absolute, forgotten is relative
Easy is absolute, difficult is relative
Wrong is absolute, right is relative
Bad is absolute, good is relative
Lie is absolute, truth is relative
poem by Maria Sudibyo
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In our contemporary social and intellectual plight, it is nothing less than shocking to discover that those persons who claim to have discovered an absolute are usually the same people who also pretend to be superior to the rest. To find people in our day attempting to pass off to the world and recommending to others some nostrum of the absolute which they claim to have discovered is merely a sign of the loss of and the need for intellectual and moral certainty, felt by broad sections of the population who are unable to look life in the face.
quote by Karl Mannheim
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Only one absolute certainty is possible to man, namely that at any given moment the feeling which he has exists.
quote by Thomas H. Huxley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Simple Observation #50 - Where there is an......
Where there is an absolute certainty there really isn’t any shadow of a doubt
but if there’s something definitely unknown an air of uncertainty hangs about.
poem by George Krokos
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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.
quote by Ewan McGregor
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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That though we are certain of many things, yet that Certainty is no absolute Infallibility, there still remains the possibility of our being mistaken in all matters of humane Belief and Inquiry.
quote by Joseph Glanvill
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything, including those things that other people are certain are impossible.
quote by William Lyon Phelps
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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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.
quote by Loren Eiseley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Man is half blind.
Hope is not a certainty;
Guess is not a certainty.
So are perception and prediction.
Intuition is an illusion.
Yet they are the only aids
With which man walks, half blind.
15.06.2009
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof.
quote by Ashley Montagu
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.
quote by Bertrand Russell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In passing, we should note this curious mark of our own age: the only absolute allowed is the absolute insistence that there is no absolute.
quote by Francis Schaeffer
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Mileva And Certainty
Mileva loved him more than the Stars,
more than Time itself.
They both were physics majors
and dreamers who
wanted to take Newton
to new ground.
Both wanted Certainty:
he had his Cosmological Constant
and tried to prove that God does
not throw dice-
that the Universe was orderly.
She wanted Certainty, too,
and some say showed him how
and this is reflected in some of the ideas
which made him famous.
He got Quantum Physics
and The Theory of Uncertainty;
both then
had only Probabilities.
He divorced her
promising
his Nobel Prize money
and he spun away
into Relativity and Gravity;
both lost threads in the fabric
of Space and Time.
Both lost Certainty,
as we all now have,
we have now
only
Probabilities
and Relativities.
poem by Lonnie Hicks
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The humorous man recognizes that absolute purity, absolute justice, absolute logic and perfection are beyond human achievement and that men have been able to live happily for thousands of years in a state of genial frailty.
quote by Brooks Atkinson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When and how are obscure.
Death is a certainty;
But ‘when’ and ‘how’
Aren’t a certainty.
That is why we made gods
29.06.2008
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Never tell evil of a man, if you do not know it for certainty, and if you know it for a certainty, then ask yourself, 'Why should I tell it'
quote by Johann Kaspar Lavater
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Absolute Zero
Can we begin at the end?
To Save Some time
Bags and our War Planes are Gathered
The Clock is ticking you have no authority
Float like a dead man down the river
And there are no streets in this air.....
Etcetera is my worst enemy
Its wrong and I know
And I will go
To the Big Hand of the God Damned
The Middle Ground is Absolute Zero
What Can be found at Absolute Zero?
Can We Begin at the end?
To Save some time
Etcetera is my worst enemy
Its wrong and I know
And I will go
To the big hand of the God Damned
The Big Hand of the Small Man
The Middle Gorund is Absolute Zero
What can be found at Absolute Zero?
A Happy End is Absolute Zero
Nobody Wins at absolute Zero......
What's That?
Nothing
What's That?
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing
song performed by by Faith No More
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hope Through Faith
A faith in God is bigger than, the understanding of common man,
It’s a Hope that many don’t see, on this temporal side of Eternity.
The Christian’s hope, continues on, when all earthly hope is gone,
A hope beyond this present earth, hope in God, of Eternal Worth.
Our hope is more of a certainty, of the things that we do not see,
An eternal kingdom soon to come, ushered in by God’s own Son.
This certainty is the basis for, our inner peace and so much more,
A hope centered on Jesus Christ, this as we live out our daily life.
We’re given a sense of security, in an earthly Kingdom, yet to be,
And who do we receive this from, The Eternal Ruler sure to come,
Soon to return, in all His Majesty, to rule upon earth, into Eternity,
To reign over all, not just some, while on His Throne in Jerusalem.
It’s not just knowing God above, but accepting the Savior’s Love,
Who became a curse upon a tree, so all who believe live eternally,
To grant real Hope, to everyone, who believes in God’s Only Son,
Who became for all a Sacrifice, so that man could enter Paradise.
With present life, temporal friend, our worldly cares soon will end,
When we hear the Trumpet sound, we’ll be lifted from this ground,
To meet Christ, up in the clouds, gathered round His Holy crowds,
As present hope becomes reality, not just for now but for eternity.
(Copyright ©06/2009)
If Hitler had had the talents and the temperament of a genuine artist, if Stalin had had the capacity to become a first-rate theoretician, if Napoleon had had the makings of a great poet or philosopher they would hardly have developed the all-consuming lust for absolute power. Freedom gives us a chance to realize our human and individual uniqueness. Absolute power can also bestow uniqueness: to have absolute power is to have the power to reduce all the people around us to puppets, robots, toys, or animals, and be the only man in sight. Absolute power achieves uniqueness by dehumanizing others.
quote by Eric Hoffer
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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