“Are you sure?’ I said that sure was just what I wasn’t anything but.”
P.G. Wodehouse book Jeeves in the Offing
Jeeves in the Offing (1960)
General sources
Context: Permit me, sir, to give you one piece of advice. Be not so positive; especially with regard to things which are neither easy nor necessary to be determined. When I was young I was sure of everything. In a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before. At present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to man.
Reply to a letter signed "Philosophaster" addressed to him in the London Magazine of 1774, in London Magazine 1775, p. 26
“Are you sure?’ I said that sure was just what I wasn’t anything but.”
P.G. Wodehouse book Jeeves in the Offing
Jeeves in the Offing (1960)
“I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer
Johan Cruyff (1947–2016) Dutch association football player
Eurosport.com, 13 February 2016 http://www.eurosport.com/football/liga/2015-2016/johan-cruyff-i-m-2-0-up-at-half-time-in-battle-against-lung-cancer_sto5174173/story.shtml.
“Of one thing I am perfectly sure: God's story never ends with 'ashes.”
Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary
Source: These Strange Ashes
“I am absolutely sure to be the most democratic man to ever become Prime Minister in Italy.”
Silvio Berlusconi (1936) Italian politician
ASCA (25 January 2002)
2002
Madeleine Stowe (1958) American actress
On her expressions in the scene where she asks "What are you looking at, Sir" and Hawkeye replies, "I'm looking at you, Miss."
Mohican Press interview (2005)