Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.
Roger Bacon

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
Bertrand Russell

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.
Bertrand Russell

Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this excessive nervousness on their behalf.
William James

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.
William James

Prayer is commitment. We don't merely co-operate with God with certain things held back within. We, the total person, co-operate. This means that co-operation equals committment.
E. Stanley Jones

There's a certain part of the contented majority who love anybody who is worth a billion dollars.
John Kenneth Galbraith

One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression.
Howard Zinn

The black groups that boycott certain films would do better to get the money together to make the films they want to see, or stay in church and leave us to our work.
Richard Pryor

Yes, I'm religious. God has shown me things, made certain ways clear to me.
Richard Pryor

I'm forbidden fruit. Once you go to certain households, mommy doesn't want you to see that dirty man who sticks his tongue out and spits out blood and all that stuff.
Gene Simmons

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.
George Eliot

But every historical statement and legitimization itself moves within a certain relation to history.
Martin Heidegger

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.
Lewis Mumford

Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision. The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part of his creation.
Norman Mailer

Whatever an artist's personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists.
Willem de Kooning

Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men.
Norman Mailer

We can never know for certain where our prayers are likely to go, nor from whom the answers will come. Just when we think we are at our nearest to God, we could be assisting the Devil.
Norman Mailer

Know why certain foods, such as truffles, are expensive. It's not because they taste best.
Marilyn vos Savant

Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy.
Robert Anthony