Doubt Quotes

A man desires praise that he may be reassured, that he may be quit of his doubting of himself; he is indifferent to applause when he is confident of success.

Alec Waugh

To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting.

Stanislaus Lescynski

Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are unsure that we are doubly sure.

Reinhold Niebuh

There are two ways to slide easily through life to believe everything or to doubt everything both ways save us from thinking.

Theodore Isaac Rubin

It may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma... which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve.

Edgar Allen Poe, The Gold Bug

There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

We know accurately only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We know accurately only when we know little with knowledge doubt increases.

Johann von Goethe

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

Bertrand Russell

Doubt is a feeling too lonely to know that faith is its twin.

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Doubt of the reality of love ends by making us doubt everything.

Henri Frdric Amiel

I have no doubt that faith is only pure when it does not negate the faith of another. I have no doubt that evil can be fought and that indifference is no option. I have no doubt that fanaticism is dangerous. And of all the books in the world on life, I have no doubt that the life of one person weighs more than them all.

Elie Wiesel, O Magazine, November 2000

There is something Pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything.

George Gordon Byron

All doubt, despair, and fear become insignificant once the intention of life becomes love, rather than dependence on love.

Sri da Avabhas

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace! Where there is hatred let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy.

Saint Francis of Assisi, "Prayer of St Francis" (attributed)

The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.

Eric Hoffe

And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years, I can cheefully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait... And as to you, Life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths, No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.

Walt Whitman

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Mark Twain

There is no doubt that the first requirement for a composer is to be dead.

Arthur Honegge

It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodelling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions; but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the directions of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward.

Thomas H. Huxley

You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it is going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, its always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.

Robert M. Pirsig

Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind. You are as old as your doubt, your fear, your despair. The way to keep young is to keep your faith young. Keep your self confidence young. Keep your hope young.

Luella F. Phean

Doubtless criticism was originally benignant, pointing out the beauties of a work rather that its defects. The passions of men have made it malignant, as a bad heart of Procrustes turned the bed, the symbol of repose, into an instrument of torture.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Without a doubt the greatest injury of all was done by basing morals on myth. For, sooner or later, myth is recognized for what it is, and disappears. Then morality loses the foundation on which it has been built.

Lord Samuel, "Romanes Lecture", 1947

Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere. But if you listen to the sound of your own voice, you can rise above doubt and judgment. And you can see forever.

Nancy Kerrigan

An attempt is already underway to revise history - To leave the impression that the former president had nothing to do with Watergate. But there is no doubt about his obstruction of justice after the Watergate break - In.

John J. Sirica

Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying No to any authority - - Literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social and even political.

Ignazio Silone, The God That Failed (1950)

A doubtful friend is worse than a certain enemy. Let a man be one thing or the other, and we then know how to meet him.

Aesop

Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.

William Wirt

Without doubt the greatest injury was done by basing morals on myth, for sooner or later myth is recognized for what it is, and disappears. Then morality loses the foundation on which it has been built.

Herbert Samuel

Believe those who are seeking the truth doubt those who find it.

Andr Gide

I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you and education.

Wilson Mizne

Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.

Voltaire

That all our knowledge begins with experience, there is indeed no doubt.... but although our knowledge originates WITH experience, it does not all arise OUT OF experience.

Immanuel Kant

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

When in doubt, duck.

Malcolm Forbes