Are ideals confined to this deformed experiment upon a noble purpose tainted as it is with bargains and tied to a peace treaty which might have been disposed of long ago to the great benefit of the world if it had not been compelled to carry this rider on its back?

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.

The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly - indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.

The unique and supreme voluptuousness of love lies in the certainty of committing evil. And men and women know from birth that in evil is found all sensual delight.

When I talked to my medical friends about the strange silence on this subject in American medical magazines and textbooks I gained the impression that here was a subject tainted with Socialism or with feminine sentimentality for the poor.

I haven't been faithful to my wife. Our marriage has been tainted with my infidelities. I was irresponsible.

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth - and truth rewarded me.

Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities.

I feel sometimes as the renaissance man must have felt in finding new riches at every point and in the certainty that unexplored areas of knowledge and experience await at every turn.

I found it peculiar that those who wanted to take military action could - with 100 per cent certainty - know that the weapons existed and turn out to have zero knowledge of where they were.

Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.

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.

Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.

Sooner or later you must move down an unknown road that leads beyond the range of the imagination and the only certainty is that the trip has to be made.

It took me less than half a lifetime to realize that regret is one of the few guaranteed certainties. Sooner or later everything is touched by it despite our naive and senseless hope that just this time we will be spared its cold hand on our heart.

Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.