Belief Quotes
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish".
America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered.Louis D. Brandeis
The greatest enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - - Delierate, contrived, and dishonest, but the myth persistent, peruasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.John F. Kennedy
One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.John Stuart Mill
The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world.Max Born
Science... warns me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such belief than for one to which I was previously hostile. My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.Thomas Huxley
I wanted to become the seeker, the aroused and passionate explorer, and it was better going at it knowing nothing at all, always choosing the unmarked bottle, always choosing your own unproven method, armed with nothing but faith and a belief in astonishment.Pat Conroy, "The Lords of Discipline".
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.Bhagavad Gita
Morpheus You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind.Matrix, The
It is, I think, an indisputable fact that Americans are, as Americans, the most self - Conscious people in the world, and the most addicted to the belief that the other nations are in a conspiracy to under - Value them.Henry James
With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.Bertrand Russell
The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief.Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion (1927)
Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture.William James
Democracy is, first and foremost, a spiritual force, it is built upon a spiritual basis - And on a belief in God and an observance of moral principle. And in the long run only the church can provide that basis. Our founder knew this truth - And we will neglect it at our peril.President Harry Truman, Public Papers of the President of the United States: Harry S. Truman - 1951 U. S. Gov. 1966 p1063
The great lawyer who employs his talent and his learning in the highly emunerative task of enabling a very wealthy client to override or circumvent the law is doing all that in him lies to encourage the growth in the country of a spirit of dumb anger against all laws and of disbelief in their efficacy.Theodore Roosevelt
Mankind is governed by minorities, seldom or never by majorities. It suppresses its feelings and its beliefs and follows the handful that makes the most noise. Sometimes the noisy handful is right, sometimes wrong, but no matter, the crowd follows it.Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger, Chapter IX
My belief is that to have no wants is divine.Socrates
Give us this day our daily Faith, but deliver, dear God, from Belief.A. Huxley, Island
What is it the Bible teaches us? - Rapine, cruelty, and murder. What is it the Testament teaches us? - To believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married, and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
The mind can assert anything and pretend it has proved it. My beliefs I test on my body, on my intuitional consciousness, and when I get a response there, then I accept.D. H. Lawrence
Do not fall prey to the false belief that mastery and domination are synonymous with manliness.Kent Nerburn
I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are impossible.William James
The Godless would deny and destroy human rights.... the liberties of a nation cannot be secure when belief in God is abandoned.U. S. Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson
The radical novelty of modern science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief, which is at the heart of all popular religion, that the forces which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of the human heart.Richard Adams
Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?Pliny the Elde
Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.W. Somerset Maugham
If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be immoral, everything would be permissible, even cannibalism.Brothers Karamazov, Pt 1, Bk i, Ch 6
A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses it is an idea that possesses the mind.Robert Oxton Bolt
The assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for His existence. But this is a rash argument, as we should thus be compelled to believe in the existence of cruel and malignant spirits, only a little more powerful than man for the belief in them is far more general than in a beneficent Diety.Charles Robert Darwin
If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Religion is the fashionable substitute for belief.Oscar Wilde
In my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you also understand the most amusing.Sir Winston Leonard Spenser Churchill
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - - Deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.John F. Kennedy
Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.John Maynard Keynes
We are born believing. A man bears beliefs, as a tree bears beauty.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Strong beliefs win strong men, and then make them stronger.Walter Bagehot
