Quotes About Belief

I think the genius of religions is that they structure the inner life.

We end up believing that our struggles are indications of having made some unusual and fundamental error, rather than evidence that our marriages are essentially going entirely according to plan.

If in order to love, we must believe that the beloved surpasses us in some way, does not a cruel paradox emerge when we witness this love returned? 'If s/he really is so wonderful, how could s/he could love someone like me?' 2.

Doubt is easy when it is not a matter of survival: we are as skeptical as we can afford to be, and it is easiest to be skeptical about things that do not fundamentally sustain us. It is easy to doubt the existence of a table; it is hell to doubt the legitimacy of love.

Romantic fatalism was no doubt a myth and an illusion, but that was no reason to dismiss it as nonsense. Myths may assume an importance that goes beyond their primary message, we don't have to believe in Greek gods in order to know that they tell us something vital about the mind of man.

If we refrain from questioning the status quo, it is – aside from the weather and the size of our cities – primarily because we associate what is popular with what is right. The

the obstacle to our good development is not usually arrogance, but a lack of confidence.

We are creature deeply marked by our expectations

I lost the ability to consider the question of predestination with necessary scepticism.

In the end, you can always convince yourself that a version of the truth is the truth itself.

The prime minister did not wholly believe in the past or in any lessons that might be drawn from it.

Miss S. bevorzugte das pathetische Wort 'land' gegenüber dem üblichen 'country'. 'This land …' In diesem Sinne gebraucht, ist es zwar nicht direkt die Sprache des Wahnsinns, aber doch der Besessenheit. Zeugen Jehovas sprechen ständig von 'this land', ebenso die National Front. Land ist gleich country plus Vorsehung – ein Land im Angesicht Gottes. Auch Mrs. Thatcher sagt 'this land'.

For Graham's mother there was little to choose between Jews and Catholics. The Jews had holidays that turned up out of the blue and the Catholics had children in much the same way.

Del resto i libri, come certo saprà, è raro che inducano ad agire. In genere confermano solo quello che, magari inconsapevolmente, si è già deciso di fare. Si ricorre ad un libro per avere conferma delle proprie convinzioni. In altri termini per chiudere un capitolo.

La sua fede era autentica, ma così duttile e venata d'ironia che Dio era esposto alle sue critiche quanto l'arcivescovo di Canterbury (che in privato lui chiamava Patatone).

If that is your God, Father Kamiano, your Jehovah, who would condemn a kind and tender man to hell for the sin of not believing in him—then I shall follow my Keo to hell, as I followed him to this one, and together we spit on your God and his heaven!

God didn't give man wings; He gave him the brain and the spirit to give himself wings. Just as He gave us the capacity to laugh when we hurt, or to struggle on when we feel like giving up.

I've come to believe that how we choose to live with pain, or injustice, or death...is the true measure of the Divine within us. Some, like Crossen, choose to do harm to themselves and others. Others, like Kenji, bear up under their pain and help other to bear it.

No cat is bad luck

There might be more to the universe than any one religion could explain.

Your religion is all about being miserable, and wretched. Ours had time for play, and joy. How is this an improvement?

Life does not control you. What you believe about it, does.

If you know something is true, you don't need to convince anyone of it. If you are trying to convince anyone, it is probably yourself.

Struggle is not an act; it is an attitude. If we believe that we must fight to get what we want, we will toil over everything we do. If we recognize, however, that the universe works more efficiently for us when we approach it with ease, life will serve us in miraculous ways.