Uncertainty

situation which involves imperfect and/or unknown information, regarding the existing state, environment, a future outcome or more than one possible outcomes

Uncertainty is a term used in subtly different ways in a wide number of fields, including physics, philosophy, statistics, economics, finance, insurance, psychology, sociology, engineering, and information science. It applies to predictions of future events, to physical measurements already made, or to the unknown.

Quotes

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If you aren’t in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret. ~ Jim Carrey
  • There's no earthly way of knowing
    Which direction we are going
    There's no knowing where we're rowing
    Or which way the river's flowing
    Is it raining?
    Is it snowing?
    Is a hurricane a-blowing?
    Not a speck of light is showing
    So the danger must be growing
    Are the fires of hell a-glowing?
    Is the grisly reaper mowing?
    Yes, the danger must be growing
    'Cause the rowers keep on rowing
    And they're certainly not showing
    Any signs that they are slowing!
  • From that point, my universe went on crumbling; new cracks appeared all the time. I could see that the pleasant securities of childhood, all of those warm little human emotions, all of those trivial aims and purposes that we allow to rule our lives, were an illusion. We were like sheep munching grass, unaware that the butcher's lorry is already on its way. I got used to living with a deep, underlying feeling of uncertainty that no one around me seemed to share. It was rather like living on death row.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

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Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 826.
  • Quis scit, an adjiciant hodiernæ crastina summæ
    Tempora di superi?
    • Who knows whether the gods will add to-morrow to the present hour?
    • Horace, Carmina, IV. 7. 17.
  • Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo:
    Et subito casu, quæ valuere, ruunt.
    • All human things hang on a slender thread: the strongest fall with a sudden crash.
    • Ovid, Epistolæ Ex Ponto, IV. 3. 35.
  • Dum in dubio est animus, paulo momento huc illuc impellitur.
    • When the mind is in a state of uncertainty the smallest impulse directs it to either side.
    • Terence, Andria, I, 5, 32.
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