CHAOS / UNCERTAINTY

Related States & Conditions | Syntonic | Dystonic

If a man will begin with certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he may end in certainties.
Francis Bacon
1561-1626, English Philosopher, Essayist, Politician
Advancement of Learning

There is nothing stable in the world – uproar's your only music.
John Keats
1795-1821, English Romantic Poet
Letter, 1818

There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.
Herman Melville
1819-1891, American Writer, Poet
Moby Dick

There is one thing certain, namely, that we can have nothing certain; therefore it is not certain that we can have nothing certain.
Samuel Butler
1835-1902, English Writer, Painter, Philosopher, Scholar

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.
Henry Adams
1838-1918, American Historian, Writer
The Education of Henry Adams

I tell you: one must have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in you.
Nietzsche
1844-1900, German Philosopher, Critic, Poet

Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.
George Santayana
1863-1952, Spanish/American Philosopher, Writer
Dominations and Powers , 1951

If a man will take his place before almost any fact and scrounge down into it, he will come upon something not adequately known.
Charles Cooley
1864-1929, American Sociologist
Life and the Student

In a confused time there is a possibility of seeing life more largely than in any other, because no one tradition dominates thought and the need to choose opens our perspective.
Ibid.

Barbarians fear the unknown for the same reason that Agnostics worship it – because it is a fact.
G. K. Chesterton
1874-1936, English Writer, Poet, Critic

I have come to the conclusion, after many years of sometimes sad experience, that you cannot come to any conclusion at all.
Vita Sackville-West
1892-1962, English Writer, Poet, Gardener
In Your Garden Again , 1953

I have a great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift.
Septima Clark
1898-1987, African-American Civil Rights Activist

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
Agnes de Mille
1908-1993, American Choreographer

Innumerable confusions and a feeling of despair invariably emerge in periods of great technological and cultural transition.
Marshall McLuhan
1911-1980, Canadian Educator

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.
Werner Von Braun
1912-1977, German/American Rocket Scientist

However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole.
Muriel Rukeyser
1913-1980, American Poet, Political Activist
in Julia Cameron, Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life , 1999

To have order, you must have randomness, because where you have no randomness order cannot manifest itself.
Alan Watts
1915-1973, British/American Philosopher, Writer
in R. G. Jahn and B. J. Dunne, Margins of Reality , 1987

The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.
John F. Kennedy
1917-1963, 35th US President

The future is uncertain … but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity.
Ilya Prigogine
1917-, Russian/Belgian Chemist, 1977 Nobel Laureate

A little uncertainty is good for everyone.
Henry Kissinger
1923-, German/American Historian, Statesman

In the high country of the mind, one has to become adjusted to the thinner air of uncertainty, and to the enormous magnitude of the questions asked.
Robert Pirsig
1928-, American Writer
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

We are often most in the dark when we are most certain, and the most enlightened when we are confused.
M. Scott Peck
1936-, American Psychiatrist, Writer
The Road Less Travelled , 1978

Life is. I am. Anything might happen. And I believe I may invest my life with meaning. The uncertainty is a blessing in disguise. If I were absolutely certain about all things, I would spend my life in anxious misery, fearful of losing my way. But since everything and anything are always possible, the miraculous is always nearby and wonders shall never, ever cease.
Robert Fulghum
1937-, American Writer
Maybe (Maybe Not): Second Thoughts from a Secret Life , 1993

An appreciation of process makes uncertainty bearable. A sense of freedom requires uncertainty, because we must be free to change, modify, assimilate new information as we go along. Uncertainty is the necessary companion of all explorers.
Marilyn Ferguson
1938-, American Writer, Mind Researcher
The Aquarian Conspiracy , 1980

What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers.
Matina Horner
1939-, American Psychologist, Educator

Eliminate something superfluous from your life. Break a habit. Do something that makes you feel insecure.
Piero Ferrucci
1946-, Italian Psychologist

Maps are useless where you're going, because the territory ahead is constantly shifting. You might as well try to map flowing water.
Deepak Chopra
1947-, Indian/American Physician, Writer
The Way Of The Wizard , 1995

… in the chaos there is the burgeoning of creative quantum leaps of major phase transitions. Therefore, not only embrace the chaos but also embrace the uncertainty in the inherent chaos.
Chopra

Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity.
Bill Gates
1955-, American Entrepreneur

When the moon
Of your mind becomes
Clouded over with confusion,
You are searching
Around for the light outside.
- Hozoin Gakuzengo Inye

Miracles result from our recognition that even the worst news is only a short story; the whole plot is an unfolding mystery. Be humble in your perpetual uncertainty.
- Paul Pearsall
Making Miracles , 1991

What we imagine is order is merely the prevailing form of chaos.
- Kerry Thornley

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Wisdom for The Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing, © 2004