Via a somewhat circuitous route I came across the following declaration on the subject of uncertainty. It’s part of an editorial from a 2006 edition of the Canadian lifestyle magazine Hobo.
It provides neither an example of deathless prose nor the presentation of a dangerous idea. But for me it offered one of those neat little encapsulations that, from time to time, help to shortcut one’s own reflections on the nature & processes of order & chaos.
The beauty of uncertainty is that it motivates us to seek certainty. We are compelled to replace doubt with conviction, to replace confusion with clarity. Nothing is more disparaged than the person who is lost, hesitant and anxious, yet the true path to fulfilment comes from these conditions. The artist, scientist, entrepreneur, athlete and traveller all embrace uncertainty as their muse. What is going to happen next is more enticing than what is happening now. The thrill of anticipation, the mystery of the unknown, the open road, mistakes as portals of discovery, the inevitability of change, purpose from chaos, questions leading to answers, failure as the threshold of knowledge. All of these conditions inform the life of the adventurer, the human being who is engaged and becoming. The beauty of uncertainty is that it prepares us to embrace life in the face of death, allows us the strength to deal with the freedom to choose. To willingly exchange the fear of uncertainty for the security of certainty is to admit defeat…
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FURTHER THOUGHTS ON UNCERTAINTY
Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
Who knows whether the gods will add tomorrow to the present hour?
HORACE
Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing, through the overtaking and possessing of a wish discovers the folly of the chase.
WILLIAM CONGREVE
There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.
ROBERT BURNS
To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.
VOLTAIRE
When mortals are alive, they worry about death. When they're full, they worry about hunger. Theirs is the Great Uncertainty. But sages don't consider the past. And they don't worry about the future. Nor do they cling to the present. And from moment to moment they follow the Way.
BODHIDHARMA
If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.
JIM CARREY
Climate helps to shape the character of peoples, certainly no people more than the English. The uncertainty of their climate has helped to make the English, a long-suffering, phlegmatic, patient people rather insensitive to surprise, stoical against storms, slightly incredulous at every appearance of the sun, touched by the lyrical gratitude of someone who expects nothing and suddenly receives more than he dreamed.
H.E. BATES
