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Almost all humans are born with a fear of the unknown

• The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear – fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety. Henry Louis Mencken
• Essentially, almost all humans are born with a fear of the unknown. It casts a pall of anxiety which pushes us into the arms of religions and soothsayers and their made-up answers. Mario Stinger
• One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end. Jiddu Krishnamurti
• It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share. Pema Chodron
• The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. P. Lovecraft
• The unseen enemy is always the most fearsome.  George R.R. Martin
• Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Once men are caught up in an event they cease to be afraid. Only the unknown frightens men. Antoine de Saint- Exupery
• Nothing is more frightening than a fear you cannot name. Cornelia Funke
• The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that. Unknown is what it is. Accept that it’s unknown, and it’s plain sailing. John Lennon
• There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange. Elias Canetti
• Mystery,  Fear,  Let go of the need for certainty,  Exploration,  Discovery,  Let go of the need to know and fully understand,  Change,  Risk taking,  Ignorance

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We’ll often go to great lengths to avoid the unknown

• Why do people persist in a dissatisfying relationship, unwilling either to work toward solutions or end it and move on? It’s because they know changing will lead to the unknown, and most people believe that the unknown will be much more painful than what they’re already experiencing. Tony Robbins
• It’s fear of the unknown. The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that–it’s all illusion. Unknown is what it is. Accept that it’s unknown and it’s plain sailing. Everything is unknown- then you’re ahead of the game. John Lennon
• People don’t want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown. Chuck Palahniuk

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We go to great lengths to unravel the unknown

• There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange. Elias Canetti

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However, clinging to the known makes our lives small…

• The fear of an unknown never resolves, because the unknown expands infinitely outward, leaving you to cling pitifully to any small shelter of the known. Caroline Kettlewell
• Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known. Antoine de Saint- Exupéry
• The fear of an unknown never resolves, because the unknown expands infinitely outward, leaving you to cling pitifully to any small shelter of the known: a cracker has twelve calories; the skin, when cut, bleeds.  Caroline Kettlewell
• Do we really want to be rid of our resentments, our anger, our fear? Many of us cling to our fears, doubts, self-loathing or hatred because there is a certain distorted security in familiar pain. It seems safer to embrace what we know than to let go of it for fear of the unknown.  Narcotics Anonymous
• People are supposed to fear the unknown, but ignorance is bliss when knowledge is so damn frightening.  Laurell K. Hamilton

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… for almost all real personal growth requires a leap into the dark

• All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.  Henry Miller
• Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown. Claude Bernard
• Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown.  George Shinn
• How can you know what you’re capable of if you don’t embrace the unkown? Esmeralda Santiago
• Life is a travelling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken. David Herbert Lawrence
• Growth

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Death is a great unknown

• We fear death because it is life’s greatest unknown
• It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more. K. Rowling 
• Birth and death; we all move between these two unknowns. Bryant H. McGill
• Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of the unknown. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality. Dying is like being born: just a change. Isabel Allende
• Death comes as a heavy blow when, known too well to others, you die unknown to yourself. Francis Bacon
• You did not fear death. You stepped in its path, but without really desiring it: how can one desire something one doesn’t know? You didn’t deny life but affirmed your taste for the unknown, betting that if something existed on the other side, it would be better than here. Édouard Levé
• Death

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The future is a great unknown

• A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown. Denis Waitley
• Fear keeps us rooted in the past. Fear of the unknown, fear of abandonment, fear of rejection, fear of not having enough, fear of not being enough, fear of the future–all these fears and more keep us trapped, repeating the same old patterns and making the same choices over and over again.  Fear prevents us from moving outside the comfort– or even the familiar discomfort–of what we know.  It’s nearly impossible to achieve our highest vision for our lives as long as we are being guided by our fears. Debbie Ford
• I’m making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises. Elizabeth Gilbert
• Many live in dread of what is coming. Why should we? The unknown puts adventure into life. … The unexpected around the corner gives a sense of anticipation and surprise. Thank God for the unknown future. E. Stanley Jones
• Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Corrie Ten Boom
• The future has many names: For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity. Victor Hugo
• Would you like to know your future? If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator.  So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence — a surprise.  Vera Nazarian
• The future

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Embracing the unknown leads to excitement …

• Change is not a threat but a challenge; the unknown is not frightening but fascinating. Tal Ben-Shahar
• Every moment is unique, unknown, completely fresh. Pema Chodron
• Isn’t that wonderful? That feeling of not knowing too much about something… Incomplete information… Endless possibilities… When you don’t know much about something, it’s the most exciting sensation. Erol Ozan
• It is the unknown that excites the ardor of scholars, who, in the known alone, would shrivel up with boredom. Wallace Stevens
• It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. Alan Cohen
• One of the gladdest moments of human life, me thinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy. Sir Richard Burton
• The unknown is scary the Unknown can also be exciting. Your life could change in an instant anytime. But sometimes, that change is the best thing that will ever happen to you. Maybe I don’t have to know what my fate is to know that everything will be okay. Maybe the not knowing is how we move forward. Wherever I’m headed, I know it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.  Susane Colasanti
• You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown, that reveals you with yourself. Ella Maillart
• Excitement

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… and adventure

• Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle. Annie Besant
• In your willingness to step into the unknown, you will have the wisdom of uncertainty factored in. This means that in every moment of your life, you will have excitement, adventure, mystery. You will experience the fun of life — the magic, the celebration, the exhilaration, and the exultation of your own spirit. Deepak Chopra
• Many live in dread of what is coming. Why should we? The unknown puts adventure into life. … The unexpected around the corner gives a sense of anticipation and surprise. Thank God for the unknown future. E. Stanley Jones
• The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet unknown fate. O. Henry
• The unknown is the province of the student; it is the field for his life’s adventure, and it is a wide field full of beckonings. Lincoln Steffens
• Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the Unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into. Wendell Berry
• Adventure

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Embracing the unknown leads to unexpected surprises

• Would you like to know your future? If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator.  So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence — a surprise.  Vera Nazarian
• One of the most beneficial and valuable gifts we can give to ourselves in this life: is allowing ourselves to be surprised! It is okay if life surprises you. Its a good thing! JoyBell C.
• I’m making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises. Elizabeth Gilbert
• Surprise

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Embracing the unknown leads to exciting new possibilities and opportunities

• Isn’t that wonderful? That feeling of not knowing too much about something… Incomplete information… Endless possibilities… When you don’t know much about something, it’s the most exciting sensation. Erol Ozan
• How can you know what you’re capable of if you don’t embrace the unkown? Esmeralda Santiago
• The problem with certainty is that it is static; it can do little but endlessly reassert itself. Uncertainty, by contrast, is full of unknowns, possibilities, and risks. Stephen Batchelor
• The challenge before us is to savor the unknown and delight in the taste of possibility. Mary Anne Radmacher
• Face new challenges, seize new opportunities, test your resources against the unknown and in the process, discover your own unique potential. John Amatt   
• Explore the unknown. Be open to new experiences. Wayne Dyer
• Possibility,  Opportunity

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Embracing the unknown can lead to greatness

• Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown. Charles de Gaulle
• Greatness

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Exploring the unknown leads to knowledge

• The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand. Frank Herbert
• Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge. Kahlil Gibran
• The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. Stephen Hawking
• To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge. Benjamin Disraeli
• The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable. Arthur Schopenhauer
• Exploration,  Knowledge,  Discovery

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Exploring the unknown leads to discovery

• Sooner or later you must move down an unknown road that leads beyond the range of the imagination, and the only certainty is that the trip has to be made. Bruce Catton
• One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore. André Gide
• Embrace the unexpected. The things we never saw coming often take us to the places we never imagined we could go.
• If man had never charted a path into the unknown, he would never have discovered the known. Miriam R. G. Gould
• I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain … In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar. Richard P. Feynman
• Long ago, mapmakers sketched dragons on maps as a sign to sailors that they would be entering unknown territory at their own risk. Some sailors took this sign literally and were afraid to venture on.  Others saw the dragons as a sign of opportunity, a door to virgin territory.  Similarly, each of us has a mental map of the world complete with dragons.  Where does fear hold you back? What dragons can you slay?  Roger von Oech
• To explore the unknown and the familiar, distant and near, and to record in details with the eyes of a child, any beauty, horror, irony, traces of utopia or Hell. Dan Eldo
• That is the exploration that awaits you! Not mapping stars and studying nebula, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence. Leonard Nimoy

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… including the discovery of ourselves

• If we fear the unknown, then surely we fear ourselves. Bryant H. McGill
• A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. Antoine de Saint- Exupery

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Embracing the unknown frees the mind

• There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar: it keeps the mind nimble, it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor. George Santayana
• The truest freedom is of the mind…a conscious act to embrace the unknown. Tyler Tervooren
• The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown. Rene Magritte

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Therefore, learn to love the unknown

• It is good to love the unknown. Charles Lamb
• I love being in the world of the unknown. Alison Krauss
• My head is bursting with the joy of the unknown. My heart is expanding a thousand fold. Rumi

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Courageously embrace the uncertainty that the unknown brings

• Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security. John Allen Paulos
• Would you like to know your future? If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator.  So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence — a surprise.  Vera Nazarian
• Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. Raymond Lindquist
• Almost all fear is fear of the unknown. Therefore, what’s the remedy? To become acquainted with the things you fear. Peace Pilgrim
• Let go of the need for certainty

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Break free of the confining familiarity of your comfort zone

• A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown. Denis Waitley
• Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers.
• Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. Raymond Lindquist
• You can’t do something you don’t know, if you keep on doing what you do know. M. Alexander
• Fear keeps us rooted in the past. Fear of the unknown, fear of abandonment, fear of rejection, fear of not having enough, fear of not being enough, fear of the future–all these fears and more keep us trapped, repeating the same old patterns and making the same choices over and over again.  Fear prevents us from moving outside the comfort– or even the familiar discomfort–of what we know.  It’s nearly impossible to achieve our highest vision for our lives as long as we are being guided by our fears. Debbie Ford
• I have accepted fear as a part of life–specifically the fear of change, the fear of the unknown; and I have gone ahead despite the pounding in my heart that says: turn back, turn back, you’ll die if you venture too far. Erica Jong
• Stretch your comfort zone

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Embrace mystery

• Without mysteries, life would be very dull indeed. What would be left to strive for if everything were known? Charles DeLint
• The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery. Anaïs Nin
• I no longer feel that life is ordinary. Everyday life is filled with mystery.  The things we know are only a small part of the things we cannot know but can only glimpse.  Yet even the smallest of glimpses can sustain us.  Mystery seems to have the power to comfort, to offer hope, and to lend meaning in times of loss and pain.  In surprising ways it is the mysterious that strengthens us in such times.  I used to try to offer people certainty in times which were not at all certain and could not be made certain.  I now just offer my companionship and share my sense of mystery, of the possible, of wonder. Rachel Naomi Remen
• In a world of diminishing mystery, the unknown persists. Jhumpa Lahiri
• In its flawless grace and superior self-sufficiency I have seen a symbol of the perfect beauty and bland impersonality of the universe itself, objectively considered, and in its air of silent mystery there resides for me all the wonder and fascination of the unknown. H. P. Lovecraft
• Mystery

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Replace your fear of the unknown with a passionate curiosity

• A man should live if only to satisfy his curiosity. Yiddish proverb
• Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. Eleanor Roosevelt
• Curiosity

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Determine to go by a way you’ve never gone – and consent to go alone…

• …don’t be afraid of going by a way you’ve never gone – that’s the way we’re all going. John Geddes
• Whoever starts out toward the unknown must consent to venture alone. Andre Gide

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… or with a friend

• Friends can be the best co-conspirators in charting the unknown. Judith Orloff

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Transcend the unknown through faith

• Faith and doubt both are needed – not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve. Lillian Smith
• Faith is an adventure; it is the courage of the soul to face the unknown. Henry van Dyke
• All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust. James M. Barrie
• Faith

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Have complete faith that wherever you are headed is where you’re meant to be

• You may not be able to see what is ahead of you, but all you have to do is trust. There are miracles and magic waiting for you right now.  Joelene Setterfield
• While the unknown is scary, the unknown can also be exciting. Your life could change in an instant anytime. But sometimes, that change is the best thing that will ever happen to you. Maybe I don’t have to know what my fate is to know that everything will be okay. Maybe the not knowing is how we move forward. Wherever I’m headed, I know it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.  Susane Colasanti
• There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be… John Lennon
• When you let go of everything you think you know and just trust, life has a way of working itself out that’s better than you could ever imagine. Jackson Kiddard
• And I said to the man who stood at the gate to the year, “Give me a light that I might tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God, that shall be to you better than the light and safer than a known way.” Minnie Louise Haskins

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Have faith that wherever the unknown takes you, you’ll be ok

• When you have come to the edge of all the light you have and step into the darkness of the unknown, believe that one of the two will happen to you. Either you’ll find something solid to stand on.  Or you’ll be taught how to fly!  Richard Bach
• Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very very well. Do this is complete faith and confidence. Eileen Caddy
• Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Corrie Ten Boom

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Transcend the unknown through science

• I’m comfortable with the unknown — that’s the point of science. There are places out there, billions of places out there, that we know nothing about. And the fact that we know nothing about them excites me, and I want to go out and find out about them. And that’s what science is.  So I think if you’re not comfortable with the unknown, then it’s difficult to be a scientist… I don’t need an answer. I don’t need answers to everything. I want to have answers to find.   Brian Cox
• No one infers a god from the simple, from the known, from what is understood, but from the complex, from the unknown, and incomprehensible. Our ignorance is God; what we know is science. Robert G. Ingersoll
• Science

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• I want to be famous but unknown! Edgar Degas

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