<blockquote>"
Character of what God and the angels know of us; reputation is what men and women think of us."
- Horace Mann</blockquote>
The City of God...
<blockquote>'Most importantly, uncertainty also stems from our ignorance about nature in general. Mises did not at all share the conceit displayed by positivists such as Bertrand Russell that the natural sciences will ultimately penetrate all secrets of the world.19 In his view, human science barely scratches the surface of things. Important though it may be—and Mises was convinced that science was the most important tool for human progress— it is not an intellectual panacea and does not make superfluous the virtues of humility and religion:
<blockquote>"
Although the progress of the natural sciences tends to enlarge the sphere of such scientifically directed action, it will never cover more than a narrow margin of possible events. And even within this margin there can never be absolute certainty. The result aimed at can be thwarted by the invasion of forces not yet sufficiently known or beyond human control. Technological engineering does not eliminate the aleatory element of human existence; it merely restricts its field a little. There always remains an orbit that to the limited knowledge of man appears as an orbit of pure chance and marks life as a gamble. Man and his works are always exposed to the impact of unforeseen and uncontrollable events. He cannot help banking upon the good luck not to be hit by them. Even dull people cannot fail to realize that their well-being ultimately depends on the operation of forces beyond man’s wisdom, knowledge, prevision, and provision. With regard to these forces all human planning is vain. This is what religion has in mind when it refers to the unfathomable decrees of Heaven and turns to prayer." '</blockquote>
<font size="-1">19 Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, [1936] 1997).
20 Mises,
Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, pp. 66–67.</font>
- Jörg Guido Hülsmann,
The Last Knight, page 1021</blockquote>