107 Confused Quotes About The Ups and Downs of Life

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Published December 14, 2022

These confused quotes will inspire you to find direction when you’re feeling lost.

While many things are uncertain in life, one sure thing is you can expect to be confused a lot of the time.

Each of us gets confused by different things, but some of them we have in common.

The most important thing is whether being confused bothers you or not.

Some people thrive on being confused, because they feel it is the best way to learn and grow.

What should you do when you are confused?

Most of the time, you need to research and find more information about the topic that is making you confused.

One way to do this is to talk to someone who is experienced and knowledgeable on the subject.

As you read through these confusion quotes, you will gain insight into how to handle situations where you find yourself confused.

Don’t forget to also check out our collection of quotes about hypocrisy for more insights.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

If you enjoy this collection, check out our inspirational quotes category page.

Confused Quotes About How Everyone Feels Lost

1. “Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.” – Henry Miller

2. “I think it is scary anytime anyone is coming at you asking questions.” – Corrine Brown

3. “It’s amazing how confused and distracted and misdirected so many people are.” – Stephen Covey

4. “There is nothing so uncertain as a sure thing.” – Scotty Bowman

5. “I’m slightly unsure as to what my goal is. I just keep doing jobs.” – Rachel Weisz

6. “Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.” – George Santayana

7. “The future is no more uncertain than the present.” – Walt Whitman

8. “The future is inherently uncertain.” – Manmohan Singh

9. “The world has always been uncertain. This is the nature of the world.” – Pierre Nanterme

10. “Man’s role is uncertain, undefined, and perhaps unnecessary.” – Margaret Mead

Confusion Quotes About The Advantages of Being Confused

11. “Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.” – Hugh Mackay

12. “I think some people don’t even know what they’re talking about, and they just start talking with an opinion, not even asking questions.” – Brian Fallon

13. “The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.” – Molly Ivins

14. “History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion.” – Gerald R. Ford

15. “I have always been much better at asking questions than knowing what the answers were.” – Bill James

16. “That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.” – Anatole France

17. “When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die.” – Lillian Smith

18. “And I like asking questions, to keep learning; people with big egos might not want to look unsure.” – Heston Blumenthal

19. “I can still feel unsure in myself, and l’m still insecure about certain things, but my desire to be happy and my desire to be free is very strong.” – Bibi Bourelly

20. “True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.” – Winston Churchill

21. “When a man’s knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has the greater will be his confusion.” – Herbert Spencer

22. “May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.” – George Carlin

Quotes About Being Confused and its Downsides

23. “I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.” – Jack Kerouac

24. “We’re living in a fearful time. Since 9/11 people have become more afraid than before, because of terrorism. There’s a lot of confusion about evil, where it’s all coming from.” – Charles Stanley

25. “The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It’s not that there’s something new in our way of thinking – it’s that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before.” – Carl Sagan

26. “I simply can’t build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery and death… I think… peace and tranquility will return again.” – Anne Frank

27. “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” – Theodore Hesburgh

28. “If you go out there with doubts or unsure what’s going to happen, it’s not going to go your way.” – Kevin Anderson

29. “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” – Isaac Newton

30. “Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.” – James Thurber

31. “I frequently hear our present period described as uncertain, confused, chaotic.” – George Crumb

32. “Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.” – Francis Bacon

Quotes About Being Confused and Learning

33. “Part of being successful is about asking questions and listening to the answers.” – Anne Burrell

34. “I just love asking questions. I love people. It’s in my DNA. I’m cursed – and blessed.” – Larry King

35. “I’m always looking, and I’m always asking questions.” – Anne Rice

36. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie

37. “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” – Stephen Covey

38. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” – Harper Lee

39. “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” – Galileo Galilei

40. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein

41. “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius

42. “The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.” – Mark Twain

43. “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein

44. “The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.” – Leonardo da Vinci

45. “It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.” – Carl Friedrich Gauss

Confused Quotes on How Confusion Can Lead to Clarity

46. “Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.” – Roger Ebert

47. “If I look confused it is because I am thinking.” – Samuel Goldwyn

48. “I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.” – Albert Einstein

49. “In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word.” – Walt Whitman

50. “I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.” – Vincent Van Gogh

51. “Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.” – Jim Rohn

52. “I’ll tell you what I’m grateful for, and that’s the clarity of understanding that the most important things in life are health, family and friends, and the time to spend on them.” – Kenneth Branagh

53. “Clarity is the most important thing. I can compare clarity to pruning in gardening. You know, you need to be clear. If you are not clear, nothing is going to happen. You have to be clear. Then you have to be confident about your vision. And after that, you just have to put a lot of work in.” – Diane von Furstenberg

54. “Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.” – Carl von Clausewitz

55. “The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality.” – Conan O’Brien

56. “Clarity of vision is the key to achieving your objectives.” – Tom Steyer

57. “My work is based on the assumption that clarity and consistency in our moral thinking is likely, in the long run, to lead us to hold better views on ethical issues.” – Peter Singer

More confused quotes and sayings

58. “We are not confused, it’s just the conflict between what we say and what we do.” – Muhammad Zaki

59. “Most people living in the world are confused about life.” – Sunday Adelaja

60. “One moment in life you get stuck… and confused.” – Deyth Banger

61. “If your mind is not clear then settle down.” – Herbern Lebumfacil

62. “Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.” – Alain de Botton

63. “Just simplify all that confusion and try to make life wonderfully simple again.” – Aurora Berill

64. “We’re all stumbling in the dark and that makes for some very interesting collisions.” – Marty Rubin

65. “Things are always either black or white. The grey in between is only a confusion.” – Ljupka Cvetanova

66. “Many life-affirming questions lead to an endless spool of disconcerting propositions and contradictory conclusions, and even more troubling, some queries prove unanswerable.” – Kilroy J. Oldster

67. “Life is fleeting, and the wonder can be lost within the confusion of worldly reality.” – Steven Redhead

Confused quotes to give you clarity and direction

68. “It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.” ― J.D. Salinger

69. “The most confused you will ever get is when you try to convince your heart and spirit of something your mind knows is a lie.” ― Shannon L. Alder

70. “But why, why, why can’t people just say what they mean?” ― Graeme Simsion

71. “We often confuse what we wish for with what is.” ― Neil Gaiman

72. “If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.” ― Tom Peters

73. “People don’t expect too much from literature. They just want to know they’re not alone with being confused.” ― Jonathan Ames

74. “It’s pretty confusing.”
“Good. Be confused. Confusion is where inspiration comes from.”
― Robyn Mundell

75. “How dreadful…to be caught up in a game and have no idea of the rules.” ― Caroline Stevermer

76. “In every crisis, doubt or confusion, take the higher path – the path of compassion, courage, understanding and love.” ― Amit Ray

77. “We’re all mad, the whole damned race. We’re wrapped in illusions, delusions, confusions about the penetrability of partitions, we’re all mad and in solitary confinement.” ― William Golding

Confused quotes to help give you some clarity

78. “Anyone who isn’t confused really doesn’t understand the situation.” ― Edward R. Murrow

79. “The most confused we ever get is when we’re trying to convince our heads of something our heart knows is a lie.” ― Karen Marie Moning

80. “Someday, everything will make perfect sense. So for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, be strong and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason.” ― John Mayer

81. “Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible.” ― George Saunders

82. “Logic of a madman is a sane man’s confusion.” ― Jeo R. Lansdale

83. “With great power often comes great confusion.” ― Dan Allen

84. “Confusion is a sign of intelligence; only fools are crystal clear.” ― Haresh Sippy

85. “We all go through doubt. It’s hard. Those difficult moments are what build your character.” ― Joe Rogan

86. “Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity.” ― Micheal J. Gelb

87. “If I look confused it is because I am thinking.” ― Samuel Goldwyn

Confused Quotes To Boost Your Morale

88. “Whenever I’m confused about something, I ask God to reveal the answers to my questions, and he does.” ― Beyonce Knowles

89. “However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole.” ― Muriel Rukeyser

90. “Confused? Confusion is good. It’s an excellent place to learn something new from.” ― Henna Inam

91. “Sometimes I’m confused by what I think is really obvious. But what I think is really obvious obviously isn’t obvious” ― Michael Stipe

92. “I’m not confused, I’m just well mixed.” ― Robert Frost

93. “If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused.” ― Walter F. Mondale

94. “People always seemed to know half of history, and to get it confused with the other half.” ― Jane Haddam

95. “Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.” ― William Shakespeare

96. “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

97. “Confused by thoughts, we experience duality in life. Unencumbered by ideas, the enlightened see the one Reality.” ― Huineng

Confused Quotes When You are Lost in Thoughts

98. “Don’t think too much. That makes you believe you have more choices than you do. Then you mind becomes confused.” — Amy Tan

99. “Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness.” — Dean Karnazes

100. “Until you are willing to be confused about what you already know, what you know will never grow bigger, better, or more useful.” — Milton H. Erickson

101. “Hatred makes me energetic, but confused.” — Mason Cooley

102. “I was a long time learning that wisdom and experience are things apart; that to taste life is not to be confused with understanding what life is really all about.” — Wallis Simpson

103. “No matter how confused or deluded we may be at the moment, the underlying and essential nature of our being is clear and pure.” — Thubten Yeshe

104. “I didn’t want my music to be confused – even though I was and had a lot of questions. I wanted my music to capture a period in my life where I was sure.” — Dom Kennedy

105. “I believe science has a wonderful ability, in an unbiased way, to offer hope to many people who are confused, but it’s not the only way to find hope.” — Mehmet Oz

106. “When we use terms we get confused, yet we have no other way.” — Michael Tippett

107. Don’t worry that you’ve wasted time. Each moment — no matter how frozen or confused — was a useful and necessary lesson.” — Martha Beck

So, is being confused a good thing or a bad thing?

It all comes down to what you are confused about and how it makes you feel.

If you are confused about a scientific question, for example, you may feel motivated to ask questions and learn more about this topic.

Another example would be if you are confused about how your furnace works, and you decide to learn how to repair it yourself.

These are good times to be confused.

On the other hand, if you are confused about something that happened and it makes you worry about your safety, that is not a good thing to be confused about.

Ultimately, being confused is a sign that you need to learn more so you can understand.