Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Seeking absolute certainty stops us from finding meaning, as uncertainty drives growth and exploration.
In plain terms
Wanting too much certainty stops you from growing.
What can you take from it?
Uncertainty drives growth and meaning.

Where it applies

  • career changes
  • education
  • personal growth

Putting it to work

  • embrace unknown
  • seek meaning over safety
  • take risks

Questions to consider

  • When did uncertainty teach you something?
  • Are you avoiding risk for safety?

Another view

Certainty provides necessary stability for mental health sometimes.

More from Erich Fromm

  1. Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.

    Permalink to quote #14
  2. Temperament refers to the mode of reaction and is constitutional and not changeable; character is essentially formed by a person's experiences, especially of t…

    Permalink to quote #16
  3. The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.

    Permalink to quote #13

Related quotes

  1. There do exist enquiring minds, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of th…

    G. I. GurdjieffG. I. Gurdjieff quote #13
  2. The criterion which we use to test the genuineness of apparent statements of fact is the criterion of verifiability. We say that a sentence is factually signif…

    Alfred AyerAlfred Ayer quote #1
  3. For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the caus…

    C. S. LewisC. S. Lewis quote #1