The greatest benefit of negative capability — the true power of negative thinking — is that it lets the mystery back in. - Oliver Burkeman

The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning,' argued the social psychologist Erich Fromm. 'Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.' Uncertainty is where things happen. It is where the opportunities – for success, for happiness, for really living – are waiting.

in recent years, some psychologists have reached the conclusion that pessimism may often be as healthy and productive as optimism.

Inspiration is for amateurs,' the artist Chuck Close once memorably observed. 'The rest of us just show up and get to work.