Quotes About Belief

Jeremiah Curtin

For where belief dwells, the spider may not stir, neither by day nor by night.

Where there is great pride or great wealth, men soon come to believe that their appetites are their wisdom.

I will walk by faith, even when I cannot see.

Life is hard, but God is good.

We must not let go manifest truths because we cannot answer all questions about them.

God did not hear the prayers of the fearful, for the hearts of the fearful held no belief.

This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.

One thing became clear as I thought back to my stay in Quirishari. Every time I had doubted one of my consultants' explanations, my understanding of the Ashaninca view of reality had seized up; conversely, on the rare occasions that I had managed to silence my doubts, my understanding of local reality had been enhanced — as if there were times when one had to believe in order to see, rather than the other way around.

We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.

There is a deep social contract with tolerance and an instinctive distrust of cleverness or eloquence. If the Lord God came to England and started expounding his beliefs, you know what they'd say? They'd say 'Oh, come off it!

But what is perhaps most curious about the English experience is the way in which a belief that they had been chosen by God could have produced a version of religion so temporizing, pliable and undogmatic. After all, orthodox Judaism, which is built upon the assertion that the Jews are the chosen people, is one of the most demanding, prescriptive religions on earth. But there is scarcely anything prescriptive about the Church of England.

The most characteristic English statement about belief is 'Well, I'm not particularly religious', faintly embarrassed by the suggestion that there might be something more to life. It sometimes seems the Church of England thinks God is just the ultimate 'good chap'.

Conspiracy contagion thrived on possibility and coincidence as vectors.

I used to believe there was a part of the human brain we couldn't quite excise, and its sole purpose was to encourage self-destruction. Someday, I thought, the guys working on the BRAIN Initiative would push aside a contour in the gray matter and find a pulsing, jet-black spot. They'd insert a probe into the patient's head to press the nodule and the patient's immediate response would be to shout out, "FUCK IT! WHY NOT?

You must understand the immense power of self-serving delusion." I

I mistakenly believed that my life had finally reached the peak of Crazy Bullshit Mountain. Hindsight

Choosing to narrow reality into a single belief system, based solely on human experience, seems insane to me. And

Phillip K. Dick, one of the few classic science fiction writers I've read, explained reality as, 'that which, if you stop believing in it, does not go away.

Choosing to narrow reality into a single belief system, based solely on human experience, seems insane to me.

A wise man shall overrule his stars, and have a greater influence upon his own content than all the constellations and planets of the firmament.

When you lie down with a short prayer, commit yourself into the hands of your Creator and when you have done so, trust Him with yourself, as you must do when you are dying.

A religion without mystery must be a religion without God.

He that speaketh against his own reason speaks against his own conscience, and therefore it is certain that no man serves God with a good conscience who serves him against his reason.