11 August 1972; p. 90
1970's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1970 - 1972)
“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me want to dream.”
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
Variant: I don't know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream.
Source: Van Gogh's Starry Night Notebook
“There is nothing so stable as change.”
Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
“The only certainty is that nothing is certain.”
Pliny the Elder book Natural History
Fuller version: This series of instances entangles unforeseeing mortality, so that among these things but one thing is in the least certainthat nothing certain exists, and that nothing is more pitiable, or more presnmptuous, than man! In Latin: Quae singula inprovidam mortalitatem involvunt, solum ut inter ista vel certu sit nihil esse certi nec quicquam miserius homine aut superbius.
Book II, sec. 5.
Naturalis Historia
“Life isn't nearly as stable as we want it to be.”
Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper
Source: My Sister's Keeper
“There is nothing stable in the world; uproar's your only music.”
John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet
“The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
“We are afraid of the enormity of the possible.”
Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay
A Short History of Decay (1949)
“The public…demands certainties…But there are no certainties.”
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer
Source: 1910s, Prejudices, First Series (1919), Ch. 3
Theodore Dalrymple (1949) English doctor and writer
The Terrorists Among Us http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_urbanities-terrorists.html (Summer 2006). <br class="br">City Journal (1998 - 2008)
