Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.

Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.

It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is a hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn't get confined permanently blocked as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man.

Mystery is gone to the certainty of technological principles. So the real terror the real aggression against life comes in the form of the pursuit of our technological happiness.

No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.

I'm sad to report that in the past few years ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control.

So in my uncertainty I went to graduate school and there it all happened.

Scientific views end in awe and mystery lost at the edge in uncertainty but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate.

A perfect storm is in the making: financial uncertainty economic downturn government cuts rising unemployment and a future that looks less clear the more we try to fathom it.

For all of its uncertainty we cannot flee the future.

Terrorism is a psychological warfare. Terrorists try to manipulate us and change our behavior by creating fear uncertainty and division in society.

In an ecology of love people can relate in trust and face the future without fear. They do not need to play it safe. They can take uncertainty in their stride.

Uncertainty and fear and ignorance about immigrants about people who are different has a history as old as our Nation.

Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain whether of our worth or worthlessness we are almost impervious to fear.

Fundamentalists are panicked by the apparent disintegration of the family the disappearance of certainty and the decay of morality. Fear leads them to ask if we cannot trust the Bible what can we trust?

The best thing about science is that hard empirical answers are always there if you look hard enough. The best thing about religion is that the very absence of that certainty is what requires - and gives rise to - deep feelings of faith.

I'm a scientist not a theologian. I don't know if there is a God or not. Religion requires certainty. Revere and respect Gaia. Have trust in Gaia. But not faith.

When prayer removes distrust and doubt and enters the field of mental certainty it becomes faith and the universe is built on faith.

Faith means living with uncertainty - feeling your way through life letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark.

Our nation's Social Security Trust Fund is depleting at an alarming rate and failure to implement immediate reforms endangers the ability of Americans to plan for their retirement with the options and certainty they deserve.

Life is full of change and uncertainty. We know this. We experience it on a daily basis.

To counter the avoidance of intellectual challenge and responsibility we must reduce the domination of certainty in education.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good I should run for my life.

For any culture which is primarily concerned with meaning the study of death - the only certainty that life holds for us - must be central for an understanding of death is the key to liberation in life.