Certainty

A principle is not a principle until it costs you something.
~ Bill Bernbach, Bill Bernbach said . . . (1989).

Up high, the flies are playing,
And frolicking, and swaying.
The frog thinks: Dance! I know
You'll end up here below.
~ Wilhelm Busch, Impending Doom (1880).

Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear.
~ William Congreve

Inquiry is fatal to certainty.
~ William James "Will" Durant

Tolerance grows only when faith loses certainty; certainty is murderous.
~ William James "Will" Durant, The Story of Civilization, Volume IV (1950). The Age of Faith

If you do right by them, and do not become careless and lax, they will do the right thing in return. One can never be 100 percent certain about people.
~ Gunther Gebel-Williams, in The New York Times (20 July 2001). Gunther Gebel-Williams, Circus Animal Trainer, Dies at 66

In dealing with Englishmen you can be sure of one thing only, that the logical solution will not be adopted.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge

Nothing in life is certain except Negative Patient Care Outcome and Revenue Enhancement.
~ William D. Lutz, in Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (November 2000).

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very little about which one can be certain.
~ W. Somerset Maugham

And are ye sure the news is true?
And are ye sure he's weel?
~ William Julius Mickle, The Sailor's Wife

The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.
~ Wilson Mizner

So long as men praise you, you can only be sure that you are not yet on your own true path but on someone else's.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human. First Sequel: Mixed Opinions and Maxims (March 1879).

I rise from bed the first thing in the morning, leaving my couch not because I am dissatisfied with it, but because I cannot carry it with me during the day.
~ Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye, Remarks (1886). Habits of a Literary Man

If we are but sure the end is right, we are too apt to gallop over all bounds to compass it; not considering the lawful ends may be very unlawfully attained.
~ William Penn

The best way to make a fire with two sticks is to make sure one of them is a match.
~ Will Rogers

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 Arthur William Russell, Quoted in Reader's Digest (August 1940).

Uncertainty in the presence of vivid hopes and fears is painful, but must be endured if we wish to live without the support of comforting fairy tales.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell

What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell

When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also add that some things are more nearly certain than others.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell

If you can measure it, don't. If you can weigh it, it isn't worth the bother. It isn't what you're after. It isn't going to get it.
~ William Saroyan

The circumstances of the world are so variable that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.
~ William Henry Seward

Be absolute for death; either death or life
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life.
~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. Act III, scene i

Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello

But yet, I'll make assurance double sure,
And take a bond of fate.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth

I cannot tell; things must be as they may.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V. Act II, scene i

My resolution's placed, and I have nothing
Of woman in me; now from head to foot
I am marble-constant, now the fleeting moon
No planet is of mine.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act V, scene ii

There's nothing level in our cursed natures
But direct villany.
~ William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens

If you're not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we'll discuss your options afterwards.
~ Bill Shankly (advice to a football player)

Nothing is certain in London but expense.
~ William Shenstone, Curiosities of Literature

It is worse to be irresolute than to be wrong.
~ William Strunk, Jr.

Of what am I wholly certain? That I am under a law to seek truth; that I am under a law to develop and to cultivate graciousness and love. I have not chosen these. I do not patronize these. They are as much a law of nature as gravitation. They are the essence of our spiritual nature.
~ William Laurence Sullivan

What we prepare for is what we shall get.
~ William Graham Sumner

O-tay!
~ William B. Thomas, Signature line of "Buckwheat" from the Our Gang/Little Rascals series of comedies (c. 1934)

When you had Willie Stargell on your team, it was like having a diamond ring on your finger.
~ Charles William "Chuck" Tanner

The river seeking for the sea
Confronts the dam and precipice,
Yet knows it cannot fail or miss;
You will be what you will to be!
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Custer and Other Poems (1896). Will

I am convinced that it is the light and the way.
~ George C. Williams, Princeton University Press (1966). Adaptation and Natural Selection

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.
~ Tad Williams, The Dragonbone Chair (1988).

Don't believe anything totally, and don't reject anything totally. Remember that most of the universe is in the 'maybe' state.
~ Robert Anton Wilson, in Kindred Spirit Magazine, Issue 40 (Interview; Autumn 1997). Radical Intelligence

I consider dogmatic belief and dogmatic denial very childish forms of conceit in a world of infinitely whirling complexity. None of us can see enough from one corner of space-time to know "all" about the rest of space-time.
~ Robert Anton Wilson, The Thing That Ate The Constitution (2002).

Only the madman is absolutely sure.
~ Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1984).

Whatever the thinker thinks, the prover proves.
~ Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising (1983).

Whenever people are certain they understand our peculiar situation here on this planet, it is because they have accepted a religious Faith or a secular Ideology (Ideologies are the modern form of Faiths) and just stopped thinking.
~ Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger, Vol. II (1991).

I only wish that I could be as sure of anything as my opponent is of everything.
~ William Windham

So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
~ William Wordsworth, My heart leaps up when I behold (26 March 1802)

Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide;
The Form remains, the Function never dies.
~ William Wordsworth, The River Duddon, A Series of Sonnets (1820). Afterthought