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.

Benjamin Franklin said there were only two things certain in life: death and taxes. But I'd like to add a third certainty: trash. And while some in this room might want to discuss reducing taxes I want to talk about reducing trash.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

We are biological creatures. We are born we live we die. There is no transcendent purpose to existence. At best we are creatures of reason and by using reason we can cure ourselves of emotional excess. Purged of both hope and fear we find courage in the face of helplessness insignificance and uncertainty.

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.

The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty progress change - into crimes.

A liberal knows that the only certainty in this life is change but believes that the change can be directed toward a constructive end.

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed is really advice to myself a reminder to myself not to avoid change or uncertainty but to go with it to surf into change.

Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.

We have some worse scenarios for which we need to prepare as companies. For the moment we're planning for the worst and the worst is now and the car market is down more than 15 percent in France. There is so much uncertainty.

All business proceeds on beliefs or judgements of probabilities and not on certainties.

Without the element of uncertainty the bringing off of even the greatest business triumph would be dull routine and eminently unsatisfying.