quotations about belief
A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.
JOSé BERGAMÍN
El cohete y la estrella
As a man believes, so he will act.
SAM HARRIS
The End of Faith
Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
LEWIS CARROLL
Alice in Wonderland
Belief may be no more, in the end, than a source of energy, like a battery which one clips into an idea to make it run.
J. M. COETZEE
Elizabeth Costello
There is a terrible alienation in the ordinary man between what he is being told and what he secretly believes.
JOHN LE CARRÉ
"John le Carre: My Frustration with Britain", BBC News, May 12, 2013
I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should be malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can't generate. Life becomes stagnant.
KEVIN SMITH
Dogma
As belief shrinks from the world, it is more necessary than ever that someone believe. Wild-eyed men in caves. Nuns in black. Monks who do not speak. We are left to believe. Fools, children. Those who have abandoned belief must still believe in us. They are sure they are right not to believe but they know belief must not fade completely. Hell is when no one believes.
DON DELILLO
White Noise
A belief is not true because it is useful.
HENRI FRÉDÉRIC AMIEL
attributed, Worth Repeating
If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it.
JESSE JACKSON
Straight from the Heart
If enough of us believe, a new thing can be made to exist. Belief structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order.
FRANK HERBERT
Heretics of Dune
It is time we recognized that belief is not a private matter; it has never been merely private. In fact, beliefs are scarcely more private than actions are, for every belief is a fount of action in potentia.
SAM HARRIS
The End of Faith
A lie is a lie ... unless your friends and family are in on it. Then it's a "commonly held belief."
CHRISTOPHER TITUS
Titus
Why is it that any belief system that strays from the norm is labeled a cult? That any leader that dares to speak a deeper truth is called a lunatic with a messiah complex, and his followers are just pawns?
STEVEN LEVITAN
"What the Teddy Bear Saw", Just Shoot Me
I do not believe in Belief.
E.M. FORSTER
What I Believe
Whatever you do, you must remain nimble in your thinking. Do not become so attached to any one belief that you cannot see past it to another possibility.
CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI
Brisingr
Our ultimate weapon is not our guns but our beliefs.
TONY BLAIR
Tony Blair in His Own Words
It is often said it is no matter what a man believes if he is only sincere. This is true of all minor truths, and false of all truths whose nature it is to fashion a man's life. It will make no difference in a man's harvest whether he thinks turnips have more saccharine matter than potatoes--whether corn is better than wheat. But let the man sincerely believe that seed planted without ploughing is as good as with, that January is as favorable for seed sowing as April, and that cockle seed will produce as good a harvest as wheat, and will it make no difference?
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
Belief is the wound that knowledge heals.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Telling
Just as words are characterized by meaning, so beliefs are characterized by truth or falsehood. And just as meaning consists in relation to the object meant, so truth and falsehood consist in relation to something that lies outside the belief. You may believe that such-and-such a horse will win the Derby. The time comes, and your horse wins or does not win; according to the outcome, your belief was true or false. You may believe that six times nine is fifty-six; in this case also there is a fact which makes your belief false. You may believe that America was discovered in 1492, or that it was discovered in 1066. In the one case your belief is true, in the other false; in either case its truth or falsehood depends upon the actions of Columbus, not upon anything present or under your control.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
The Analysis of Mind
Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them. Some minds are incapable of skepticism.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"Montaigne; or