Selected doubt quotes

1. The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

2. If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

3. You write in your letter something which I sometimes feel also: Sometimes I do not know how I shall pull through.

4. There may be a time in life when one is tired of everything and feels as if all one does is wrong, and there maybe some truth in it - do you think this is a feeling one must try to forget and to banish, or is it 'the longing for God,' which one must not fear, but cherish to see if it may bring us some good? Is it 'the longing for God' which leads us to make a choice which we never regret? Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil.

5. I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning.

6. I waited and waited, and when no message came, I knew it must have been from you.

7. You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.

8. Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

9. I read a book lately by Nietzsche and he says religion is just to dull the senses of the people. I agree.

10. God have mercy on the man who doubts what he's sure of.

11. I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.

12. Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.

13. No matter how substandard you feel your skill or talent may be, If you never produce your art, the world will always remain deprived of it.

14. There is a mental fear, which provokes others of us to see the images of witches in a neighbor's yard and stampedes us to burn down this house. And there is a creeping fear of doubt, doubt of what we have been taught, of the validity of so many things we had long since taken for granted to be durable and unchanging. It has become more difficult than ever to distinguish black from white, good from evil, right from wrong.

15. To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.

16. The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves.

17. Our doubts about ourselves cannot be banished except by working at that which is the one and only thing we know we ought to do. Other people's assertions cannot silence the howling dirge within us. It is our talents rusting unused within us that secrete the poison of self-doubt into our bloodstream.

18. Another occupation might have been better.

19. When I was a young boy, my father taught me that to be a good Catholic, I had to confess at church if I ever had impure thoughts about a girl. That very evening, I had to rush to confess my sin. And the next night, and the next. After a week, I decided religion wasn't for me.

20. A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

21. Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.

22. Profound skepticism is favorable to conventions, because it doubts that the criticism of conventions is any truer than they are.

23. Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.

24. They misunderestimated me.

25. Do you know, a horrible thing has happened to me. I have begun to doubt Tennyson.

26. Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just. Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must Disappointment all I endeavour end?

27. My opinion of my whole experience varies from time to time. In broad daylight, and at most seasons I am apt to think the greater part of it a mere dream; but sometimes in the autumn, about two in the morning when winds and animals howl dismally, there comes from inconceivable depths below a damnable suggestions of rhythmical throbbing ... and I feel that the transition of Juan Romero was a terrible one indeed.

28. If a man consults whether he is to fight, when he has the power in his own hands, it is certain that his opinion is against fighting.

29. Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.

30. He comes into the world God knows how, walks on the water, gets out of his grave and goes up off the Hill of Howth. What drivel is this?

31. I really want to love somebody. I do. I just don't know if it's possible forever and ever.

32. When people keep telling you that you can't do a thing, you kind of like to try it.

33. To become properly acquainted with a truth, we must first have disbelieved it, and disputed against it.

34. I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.

35. Maybe the heart is part of the mist. And that's all that there is or could ever exist. Maybe and maybe and maybe some more. Maybe's the exit that I'm looking for.

36. The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt but in spite of doubt.

37. Trust your doubt. Always fight for your beliefs. That is the path beyond thought.

38. If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

39. You write in your letter something which I sometimes feel also: Sometimes I do not know how I shall pull through.

40. I agree about Shaw - he is haunted by the mystery he flouts. He is an atheist who trembles in the haunted corridor.

41. The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.

42. If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.

43. Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all! Not for such hopes and fears Annulling youth's brief years, Do I remonstrate: folly wide the mark! Rather I prize the doubt Low kinds exist without, Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark. Poor vaunt of life indeed, Were man but formed to feed On joy, to solely seek and find and feast; Such feasting ended, then As sure an end to men.

44. They say the religion of your fathers is good enough. Why should a father object to your inventing a better plow than he had? They say to me, do you know more than all the theologians dead? Being a perfectly modest man I say I think I do. Now we have come to the conclusion that every man has a right to think. Would God give a bird wings and make it a crime to fly? Would he give me brains and make it a crime to think? Any God that would damn one of his children for the expression of his honest thought wouldn't make a decent thief. When I read a book and don't believe it, I ought to say so. I will do so and take the consequences like a man.

45. Every child should be taught to doubt, to inquire, to demand reasons. Every soul should defend itself - should be on its guard against falsehood, deceit, and mistake, and should beware of all kinds of confidence men, including those of the pulpit.

46. If the book the Bible and my brain are both the work of the same Infinite God, whose fault is it that the book and my brain do not agree?

47. 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's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.

48. I was suspicious for several reasons... after all, Hess who had been held in Spandau for almost 30 years was by then 93-years-old and fragile. I doubted he had the strength to kill himself with a cord which was not attached at both ends to anything.

49. My Master said, on another Occasion, that those who doubt most, always erred least.

50. Jesus watches from the wall, but his face is cold as stone. And if he loves me - as she tells me - why do I feel so all alone?

51. The idea for each of the stories in this book came in a moment of belief and was written in a burst of faith, happiness, and optimism. Those positive feelings have their dark analogues, however, and the fear of failure is a long way from the worst of them. The worst-for me, at least-is the gnawing speculation that I may have already said everything I have to say, and am now only listening to the steady quacking of my own voice because the silence when it stops is just too spooky.

52. 'Every drama school in the country turned me down, and so I was lucky to study drama at all, even if it was lowly Birmingham University. But even when I came out with my degree, my mother promptly insisted I go straight to secretarial college to have something to fall back on, just in case - which didn't exactly fill me with confidence.'

53. Isn't it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity. . .

54. I think theatre should always be somewhat suspect.

55. I looked and looked but I didn't see God.

56. 'Oh really?'

57. Possibly.

58. I have always been so sure - too sure... But now I am very humble and I say like a little child: 'I do not know...' ~ Hercule Poirot

59. 'If your Majesty is ever to use the Horn,' said Trufflehunter, 'I think the time has now come.' Caspian had of course told them of his treasure several days ago. 'We are certainly in great need,' answered Caspian. 'But it is hard to be sure we are at our greatest. Supposing there came an even worse need and we had already used it?' 'By that argument,' said Nikabrik, 'your Majesty will never use it until it is too late.' 'I agree with that,' said Doctor Cornelius. 'And what do you think, Trumpkin?' asked Caspian. 'Oh, as for me,' said the Red Dwarf, who had been listening with complete indifference, 'your Majesty knows I think the Horn - and that bit of broken stone over there and your great King Peter - and your Lion Aslan - are all eggs in moonshine. It's all one to me when your Majesty blows the Horn. All I insist on is that the army is told nothing about it. There's no good raising hopes of magical help which (as I think) are sure to be disappointed.'

60. 'God, it seems has left me now. But it's okay, 'cause maybe I'll make up my own God, and have a little tea party of mine own'- 'Drive In Drive Out', July 10th, 2005. Mansfield, Massachusetts

61. I feel as if it were time for me to write to someone who will believe what I write. I have been for some time in the atmosphere of certain success, so that I have been sure that I should assume the duties of the high office for which I have been named. I have tried hard, in the light of this fact, to appreciate properly the responsibilities that will rest upon me, and they are much, too much underestimated. But the thought that has troubled me is, can I well perform my duties, and in such a manner as to do some good to the people of the State? I know there is room for it, and I know that I am honest and sincere in my desire to do well; but the question is whether I know enough to accomplish what I desire. The social life which seems to await me has also been a subject of much anxious thought. I have a notion that I can regulate that very much as I desire; and, if I can, I shall spend very little time in the purely ornamental part of the office. In point of fact, I will tell you, first of all others, the policy I intend to adopt, and that is, to make the matter a business engagement between the people of the State and myself, in which the obligation on my side is to perform the duties assigned me with an eye single to the interest of my employers. I shall have no idea of re-election, or any higher political preferment in my head, but be very thankful and happy I can serve one term as the people's Governor.

62. 'Among those who give thoughts to things, is there one who does not think of suicide?' With me was the knowledge that that fellow Ikkyu twice contemplated suicide. I have 'that fellow', because the priest Ikkyu is known even to children as a most amusing person, and because anecdotes about his limitlessly eccentric behavior have come down to us in ample numbers. It is said of him that children climbed his knee to stroke his beard, that wild birds took feed from his hand. It would seem from all this that he was the ultimate in mindlessness, that he was an approachable and gentle sort of priest. As a matter of fact he was the most severe and profound of Zen priests. Said to have been the son of an emperor, he entered a temple at the age of six, and early showed his genius as a poetic prodigy. At the same time he was troubled with the deepest of doubts about religion and life. 'If there is a god, let him help me. If there is none, let me throw myself to the bottom of the lake and become food for fishes.' Leaving behind these words he sought to throw himself into a lake, but was held back. ... He gave his collected poetry the title 'Collection of the Roiling Clouds', and himself used the expression 'Roiling Clouds' as a pen name. In his collection and its successor are poems quite without parallel in the Chinese and especially the Zen poetry of the Japanese middle ages, erotic poems and poems about the secrets of the bedchamber that leave one in utter astonishment. He sought, by eating fish and drinking spirits and having commerce with women, to go beyond the rules and proscriptions of the Zen of his day, and to seek liberation from them, and thus, turning against established religious forms, he sought in the pursuit of Zen the revival and affirmation of the essence of life, of human existence, in a day civil war and moral collapse.

63. De omnibus dubitandum

64. Que sais-je?