We panic when we feel like losing control. These uncertainty quotes will help to navigate the unknown with ease and confidence.
Uncertainty is scary. And the more you try to get rid of the feeling, the stronger the fear becomes.
At the age of 24, after working a decent job for two years, I decided that I wanted to see the world. So I applied for the Working Holiday Visa in New Zealand and quit my job. Three weeks before the day of departure, I found myself sitting in my room at 2 am, crying nonstop. The hostel I booked canceled my reservation.
Fixing the problem was easy enough. A quick search of an alternative would take less than five minutes. But the thing that broke me was the uncertainty I was about to experience in a completely strange country.
“What if I can’t find a job?” “How should I go anywhere without a driver’s license?” I thought I had prepared the best I could, and one small incident gave me a panic attack.
When I look back, that night was both hilarious and traumatic. I am alive, apparently. And most things turned out fine. (Though I don’t recommend jumping on a stranger’s car as I did.) The gap year is one of the best times of my life. It was scary but also full of surprises. The only regret I have is thinking too much and not living enough.
If you feel overwhelmed or anxious about the unknown, these uncertainty quotes will help you fight the fear. Wherever you are, know that you are not the only one that with doubts and worries. And I hope you will find strength and confidence in these motivational words.
Uncertainty quotes to navigate the unknown with ease
You will never know how far you can go by staying where you are.
If life were predictable, it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
– Eleanor Roosevelt
The fear of uncertainty is no stranger to Eleanor Roosevelt. As a child, she wrote that she was “always afraid of something: of the dark, of displeasing people, of failure.” And all of her accomplishments were done “across a barrier of fear.”
Despite her wealthy upbringing, Eleanor’s mom never liked her, and her dad was an alcoholic. At the age of 10, she became an orphan and had to fight through the ambiguity. It’s unclear how she survived those years of challenges, but she turned the fear into strength later in her life as a politician, a writer, and an advocate.
It’s true that some paths don’t take us to places. But they do show us how to navigate better.
Read also: 24 Eleanor Roosevelt quotes that will empower you to go forward
The future is unknown. So is your potential.
The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.
– Frank Herbert
Some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end.
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.
– Gilda Radner
Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.
– John Allen Paulos
I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.
– Maya Angelou
Read also: 28 Powerful Maya Angelou Quotes About Love, Life and Strength
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
– Ursula K. LeGuin
There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
– Zora Neale Hurston
One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
– Andre Gide
It’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.
– Richard P. Feynman
You are not ready for most of the things you’ve gone through. But here you are.
Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.
– Jacob Bronowski
You should never hesitate to trade your cow for a handful of magic beans.
– Tom Robbins
In the tale Jack and Beanstalk, Jack was barely surviving and had to sell his cow for money. He was unsure if he should trade the cow with a bunch of “magic beans” that promised no results.
But in the end, the risks he took started an adventure that fundamentally changed his life. Not all risks we take would pay off. But the biggest risk is not taking risk at all.
Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.
– Bob Golf
Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future but from wanting to control it.
– Kahlil Gibran
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
A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking because its trust is not on the branch but on its own wings.
– Charlie Wardle
Read also: 28 Believe In Yourself Quotes When It’s Hard To Do So
Give your questions time to breathe. And the answers will find you.
– Jeff Foster
Be patient with the process.
None of us know what might happen the next minute, yet still we go forward.
– Paulo Coelho
Let go of what you can’t control and focus on what you can.
Uncertainty matters. If you wait until the fear is gone, you will never start, and you will rarely do anything that matters.
– Seth Godin
Seth Godin went on to explain why uncertainty and fear are necessary in his interview with Creative Live. He explains that fear is a compass to know where your limits are.
To fight the fear of uncertainty, the first thing to do is to know that nothing is guaranteed. You can’t control the outcome, but you can still face the unknown the best you can. As Seth puts it, that’s how we learn to “dance with fear.”
There is nothing so uncertain as a sure thing.
– Scotty Bowman
Success is reached only after a life of battle and worry.
– Democritus
Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Live in the question.
– Rainer Maria Rilke
When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for you to stand upon, or you will be taught to fly.
– Patrick Overton
Enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence — a surprise.
– Vera Nazarian
Which of these uncertainty quotes speak to you?
I hope if you are stressed about what the future holds, these uncertainty quotes will bring you strength. Leave your thoughts or stories in the comment or share with someone who needs a confidence boost!