Raymond Aron Quotes

We're all seeking order. We're all seeking control.

I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they are necessary to whatever provisional stability we have, and they can be the agents of gradual and successful change.

Order is a necessary condition for anything the human mind is to understand.

Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity. For Chance rarely conflicts with intelligence, and most things in life can be set in order by an intelligent sharpsightedness.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

Part of me longs to do a job where there's not a gray area.

No one welcomes chaos, but why crave stability and predictability?

I actually like seeing how the world - trying to figure out how the world works, how it all fits together. Also, it makes me happy when I feel like things are consistent, when there's some sort of order to the universe.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details.

It's all about consistency, and what makes a child or a dog secure: order, clarity - all those things.

We will never have 100 percent certainty except in hindsight.

Disorder brings about order.

I think structure is so deep in us. We put it in stories we tell our friends or in emails we write. We want it. It's how we create meaning.

Everything can be known and, in some cases, everything is known.

I like it when things are where they're supposed to be.

I always liked situations where there were very clear rules of what to do.

Chaos is the natural state, and theater tries to make sense of it, but it's got to be a little messy to be believable.

there must be a routine to life, a framework to hang life on. Routines were what kept you sane, gave you something to do at this moment and at that, definite places to go, positive things to do. Abandon it and that way madness lies.

The truth, it needs no proof. Either it is or it isn't.

Omnia apud me mathematica fiunt.

Truth, which is simple and one, admits of no variety.

Form is all we have to help us cope with fundamentally chaotic facts and assaults. Formulating something is a great start. I trust form, trust my feeling or capacity to find the right form for something. Even if that is only by being well organized. That too is form.

The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason: The Morning Daylight appears plainer when you put out your Candle.