On Certainty

”Don’t be so damned quick to judge.
The less we know about someone, the easier we find it to make a snap decision, to condemn or sneer or believe the worst.
The closer you get, the more you know about the person or the situation in question, the harder it gets to be sure of your opinion, so remember that and try to cut people a little slack.
Like Emilio says, ‘Everything we thought we understood—that was what we were most wrong about.’
So the moral of the story is to be suspicious of your own certainty.
Doubt is good.”

~ Mary Doria Russell, "Sparrow" and "Children of God"