Though being clear on what we want and planning an exciting future can only be a good thing, we must learn to embrace uncertainty: life is truly unpredictable, and there’s things we simply have no control over.
When we resist uncertainty, we create unnecessary stress and anxiety; when we let go, we can find inner peace even during the toughest times. Here are sixty great quotes that will inspire you to accept life’s constant changes — big or small — and embrace the future.
Quotes about uncertainty
If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly acceptable, it turns into increased aliveness, alertness, and creativity.
— Eckhart Tolle
Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.
— Kahlil Gibran
Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.
— Steve Maraboli
Whatever happens to you belongs to you. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you because it will.
— Cheryl Strayed
Leave everything undefined, including yourself. Befriend uncertainty. Fall in love with mystery. Kneel at the altar of Not Knowing. Give your questions time to breathe. And the answers will find you.
— Jeff Foster
Life is full of change and uncertainty. We know this. We experience it on a daily basis.
— Carre Otis
Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.
— Gilda Radner
A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you.
— Joyce Meyer
Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine, and eminently unsatisfying.
— Jean Paul Getty
We think that we know what life has to offer, but life never fails to surprise us.
— Anmol Andore
The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.
— Erich Fromm
The future is uncertain, but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity.
— Ilya Prigogine
Uncertainty is a very good thing: it’s the beginning of an investigation, and the investigation should never end.
— Tim Crouch
I have devoted my life to uncertainty. Certainty is the death of wisdom, thought, creativity.
— Shekhar Kapur
Life is a desert of shifting sand dunes. Unpredictable. Erratic. Harmony changes into dissonance, the immediate outlives the profound, esoteric becomes cliched. And vice versa.
— Ella Leya
Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.
— Bob Goff
It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share.
— Pema Chodron
If you want to conquer the anxiety of life — live in the moment, live in the breath.
— Amit Ray
God has a purpose behind every problem. He uses circumstances to develop our character.
— Rick Warren
Faith means living with uncertainty – feeling your way through life, letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark.
— Dan Millman
The struggles we endure today will be the “good old days” we laugh about tomorrow.
— Aaron Lauritsen
Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
— Carl von Clausewitz
Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.
— William Congreve
True security lies in the unrestrained embrace of insecurity — in the recognition that we never really stand on solid ground, and never can.
— Oliver Burkeman
Life is unpredictable and you need to live every day to the fullest.
— Doug Hutchison
If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
— Eleanor Roosevelt
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
— Ursula Le Guin
I spent a lot of years trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and definite, black and white, good and bad. My inability to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability limited the fullness of those important experiences that are wrought with uncertainty: love, belonging, trust, joy, and creativity to name a few.
— Brene Brown
You cannot always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.
— Wayne Dyer
So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don’t sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we’ve satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.
— Lee Iacocca
We must meet the uncertainties of this world with the certainty of the world to come.
— Aiden Wilson Tozer
Everything is temporary; emotions, thoughts, people, and scenery. Do not become attached, just flow with it.
— Anonymous
Human spirit is the ability to face the uncertainty of the future with curiosity and optimism. It is the belief that problems can be solved, differences resolved. It is a type of confidence. And it is fragile. It can be blackened by fear and superstition.
— Bernard Beckett
Trusting that there is a next step is the first step to figuring out what the next step is.
— Jennifer Williamson
The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably deal with.
— Tony Robbins
There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.
— Unknown
Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic — this is the spiritual path.
— Pema Chodron
Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.
— John Allen Paulos
We must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
— Joseph Campbell
Life is no different than the weather. Not only is it unpredictable, but it shows us a new perspective of the world every day.
— Suzy Kassem
Faith is not the belief that everything will be alright tomorrow, but the belief that I possess the strength to make everything alright today.
— Charles Glassman
The beauty of life does not reside in certainty or conformity. It resides in the infinite possibilities of uncertainty.
— Debasish Mridha
There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.
— Bernard Williams
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
— Henry Ford
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. And if we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.
— Anatole France
Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don’t get so worked up about things.
— Kenneth Branagh
Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.
— Eckhart Tolle
Embrace the unpredictable and unexpected. It is the path to the infinitely creative in you.
— Deepak Chopra
Short quotes about uncertainty
The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty.
— Yoshida Kenko
We are twice armed if we fight with faith.
— Plato
I used to be scared of uncertainty; now I get a high out of it.
— Jensen Ackles
Nothing is lost; everything is transformed.
— Michael Ende
The whole future lies in uncertainty; live immediately.
— Seneca
Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.
— Squire Bill Widener
Faith is all about trusting God even when you don’t understand His plan.
— Joel Osteen
Maturity is the capacity to endure uncertainty.
— John Huston Finley
Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them.
— Elisabeth Elliot
Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.
— Eckhart Tolle
Surrender to what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be.
— Sonia Ricotti
Make sure to check out my collection of everything is temporary quotes as well!
