Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Belief is a prerequisite for the experience of belief itself.
In plain terms
You must choose to believe before you can truly believe.
What can you take from it?
Initiate belief consciously to access its power.

Where it applies

  • spiritual practice
  • personal motivation
  • decision making

Putting it to work

  • cultivating optimism
  • committing to a goal
  • overcoming skepticism

Questions to consider

  • When did you choose to believe something before understanding it?
  • Can belief exist without the initial act of choosing?

Another view

It ignores cases where belief arises spontaneously without prior intent.

More from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

  1. So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative incapacity of the rest of mankind, acquired for themselves a reputation for profu…

    Permalink to quote #107
  2. The greatest events occur without intention playing any part in them; chance makes good mistakes and undoes the most carefully planned undertaking. The world's…

    Permalink to quote #109
  3. One is rarely an impulsive innovator after the age of sixty, but one can still be a very fine orderly and inventive thinker. One rarely procreates children at …

    Permalink to quote #106

Related quotes

  1. Man is a free agent; but he is not free if he does not believe it[.]

    Giacomo CasanovaGiacomo Casanova quote #24
  2. Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning tha…

    Anthony RobbinsAnthony Robbins quote #5
  3. It is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.[2]

    Sam HarrisSam Harris quote #7