Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The narrator admits to being unsure while pretending certainty.
In plain terms
He said he was sure when he was not.
What can you take from it?
People pretend to know when they do not.

Where it applies

  • being questioned
  • feeling unsure
  • making a claim

Putting it to work

  • admit doubt
  • avoid pretense
  • value honesty

Questions to consider

  • When do you fake certainty?
  • Why admit doubt?

Another view

Some prefer to pretend they know.

More from P. G. Wodehouse

  1. Whenever there is a job to be taken on of a kind calculated to make Humanity shudder, the cry goes up, 'Let Wooster do it.'

    Permalink to quote #165
  2. She's all for not letting the sun go down without having started something calculated to stagger humanity.

    Permalink to quote #167
  3. ...I mean to say, when a girl, offered a good man's heart, laughs like a bursting paper bag and tells him not to be a silly ass, the good man is entitled, I th…

    Permalink to quote #164

Related quotes

  1. The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.

    Rene DescartesRene Descartes quote #9
  2. If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.

    Francis BaconFrancis Bacon quote #16
  3. There is order in chaos, and certainty in doubt. The wise are guided by this order and certainty.

    ZhuangziZhuangzi quote #26