UNCERTAINTY/DOUBT/AMBIGUITY
1. According to studies, 90% of the problems of middle managers and above are ambiguous – it’s neither clear what the problem is nor what the solution is. The higher you go, the more ambiguous things get. Most people with a brain, given unlimited time and 100% of the information, could make accurate and good decisions. Most people, given access to how this specific problem has been solved hundreds of times before, could repeat the right decision. The real rewards go to those who can comfortably make more good decisions than bad with less than all the information, in less time, with few or no precedents on how it was solved before. ~Michael Lombardo & Robert Eichinger, in For Your Improvement: A Guide for Development and Coaching; Korn Ferry International.
2. Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating. ~Karl Von Clausewitz
3. An absolute can only be given in an intuition, while all the rest has to do with analysis. ~Henri Bergson
4. An image is a stop the mind makes between uncertainties. ~Djuna Barnes
5. As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know. ~Donald Rumsfeld
6. Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it. ~Andre Gide
7. Certainty is the mother of quiet and repose, and uncertainty the cause of variance and contentions ~Edward Coke
8. Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. ~Erich Fromm
9. Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
10. Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. ~Voltaire
11. Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty. ~Mark Twain
12. Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. ~Bertrand Russell
13. Faith means living with uncertainty - feeling your way through life, letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark. ~Dan Millman
14. For all of its uncertainty, we cannot flee the future. ~Barbara Jordan
15. For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. ~Vincent van Gogh
16. I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. ~Umberto Eco
17. I think the worst thing this nation could do for humanity would be to leave any uncertainty as to our will, our purpose and our capacity to carry out our purpose. ~Hubert H. Humphrey
18. If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish useful ideas from the worthless ones. ~Carl Sagan
19. If you cannot accurately predict the future, then you must flexibly be prepared to deal with various futures. ~Edward de Bono
20. If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
21. If you're not confused, you're not paying attention. ~Tom Peters
22. I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control. ~Margaret J. Wheatley
23. In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain. ~Pliny the Elder
24. Information is the resolution of uncertainty. ~Claude Shannon
25. It is better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot. ~Anatole France
26. It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong. ~G. K. Chesterton
27. It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science. ~Carl Sagan
28. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty. ~Jacob Bronowski
29. Leaders are people who can discern the inevitable and act accordingly. When people talk about business acumen, discernment is a big part of it. It’s a bit like gut instinct, but a little more developed. ~Donald Trump
30. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity. ~Gilda Radner
31. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. ~Francis of Assisi
32. Maturity of mind is the capacity to endure uncertainty. ~John Finley
33. Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear. ~Lao-tzu
34. Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality. ~Bertrand Russell
35. One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything. ~Georg C. Lichtenberg
36. Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we often might win, by fearing to attempt. ~Jane Addams
37. Scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate. ~Richard P. Feynman
38. Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever or whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing. ~Thomas H. Huxley
39. The basic fault lines today are not between people with different beliefs but between people who hold these beliefs with an element of uncertainty and people who hold these beliefs with a pretense of certitude. ~Peter L. Berger
40. The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand. ~Frank Herbert
41. The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth. ~Pierre Abelard
42. The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless as a mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly - indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection. ~Arianna Huffington
43. The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty. ~Seneca
44. The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism. ~John C. Calhoun
45. The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt
46. The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next. ~Ursula K. Le Guin
47. The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem. ~Theodore Rubin
48. The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers. ~Erich Fromm
49. The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt but in spite of doubt. ~Rollo May
50. The trouble with the world is that the stupid are so confident while the intelligent are full of doubt. ~Bertrand Russell
51. The way to regulate well in times of great uncertainty is by learning rather than controlling. Not learning the answers to known questions that serve the intent to control, but learning what questions about balancing and optimizing now merit asking, and then learning how those questions might be answered provisionally — until the present moment emerges into a new context of questions. ~Donald N. Michael
52. There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking. ~Alfred Korzybski
53. There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing. ~Robert Burns
54. To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control, that can lead you to be shattered in very extreme circumstances for which you were not to blame. That says something very important about the condition of the ethical life: that it is based on a trust in the uncertain and on a willingness to be exposed; it's based on being more like a plant than like a jewel, something rather fragile, but whose very particular beauty is inseparable from that fragility. ~Martha Nussbaum
55. To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous. ~Chinese Proverb
56. To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
57. Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing. ~William Congreve
58. Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity. ~R. I. Fitzhenry
59. Uncertainty is a sign of humility, and humility is just the ability or the willingness to learn. ~Charlie Sheen
60. Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security. ~John Allen Paulos
61. Uncertainty is the refuge of hope. ~Henri Frederic Amiel
62. Uncertainty is the worst of all evils until the moment when reality makes us regret uncertainty. ~Alphonse Karr
63. Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process. ~Harold S. Geneen
64. Unthinking faith is a curious offering to be made to the creator of the human mind. ~John A. Hutchinson
65. We measure our days out in steps of uncertainty not turning to see how far we've come. And peer down the highway from here to eternity and reach out for love on the run. ~Al Stewart (A Man for All Seasons)
66. We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. ~Blaise Pascal
67. What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him. ~Victor Frankl
68. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. ~Richard Bach
69. When an old and distinguished person speaks to you, listen to him carefully and with respect -- but do not believe him. Never put your trust into anything but your own intellect. Your elder, no matter whether he has gray hair or has lost his hair, no matter whether he is a Nobel laureate -- may be wrong. The world progresses, year by year, century by century, as the members of the younger generation find out what was wrong among the things that their elders said. So you must always be skeptical -- always think for yourself. ~Linus Pauling
70. When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities. ~David Hume
71. When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. ~Bertrand Russell
72. When the mind is in a state of uncertainty the smallest impulse directs it to either side. ~Terence
73. Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine, and eminently unsatisfying. ~J. Paul Getty