Quotes About Belief

By virtue of being an -ism, pluralism is a monism.

Nietzsche's atheism is characterized by an element of gratitude; it is not simply a rebellion.

It was against 'history,' against the belief that 'history' can decide any question, that progress can ever make superfluous the discussion of the primary questions [...] that [Nietzsche] reasserted hypothetically the doctrine of eternal return.

Society is not possible if ancestral custom is not regarded as sacred as far as practice is concerned.

Life is not an easy matter…. You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.

Truth is what people want to believe and nothing more.

Truth is only what people want to believe and nothing more.

si una mentira se repetía con la frecuencia suficiente, hasta los que sabían que era una mentira la consideraban pronto como si fuese verdad.

He did not believe, in his wildest moments, that he would ever see Palestine, nor did he believe his children would ever see Palestine. But he did believe in the idea.

Todo lo que poseemos se reduce a nuestro coraje y a nuestra fe. Hemos vivido dos mil años recibiendo golpes y afrentas. ¡Esta lucha hemos de ganarla nosotros!

They were the weary down there, the craggy-faced, knobby, leather-handed toilers rehearsing their own demise, yielding in pitiful weakness to the scythe of mystery kept poised a lifetime at their jugulars … too simple and too tired to protest … too frightened to seek the truth … succumbed in silence, for without it … what was there left to believe?

Do not be a magician - be magic!

At times it was impossible for him to control the praise and predictions that issued from him like thanks, and he was aware of exaggerating; yet he felt a boxer needed someone who believed in him, and if it were true that confidence could win fights, then he could not be sure his overestimates were really that at all. Guiding

Robert Frost wrote in 1914, "Why abandon a belief / Merely because it ceases to be true.

Believing in what you desire to be true and then seeking evidence to justify it doesn't seem to be the best approach to everyday decisions.

But in philosophy, he was closer to his contemporary Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (c. 560 – 480 B.C.). Both believed in reincarnation, possibly as an animal, so even an animal could be inhabited by what was once a human soul. Thus, both placed a high value on all life, opposing the common practice of animal sacrifice and preaching strict vegetarianism.

few people would engage in extended activity if they believed that there were a random connection between what they did and the rewards they received,"15 Lerner concluded that "for the sake of their own sanity," people overestimate the degree to which ability can be inferred from success.

the invention of mummification. This was believed to be the key to a happy afterlife; certainly there were no disgruntled customers coming back to say otherwise.

theory produces a good deal but hardly brings us closer to the secret of the Old One. I am at all events convinced that He does not play dice.

It is always heartening when a fundamentalist of any religion professes a belief in evolution

People expect good luck to follow bad luck, or they worry that bad will follow good.

Psychologists call this the confirmation bias

The confirmation bias has many unfortunate consequences in the real world.

Thus even random patterns can be interpreted as compelling evidence if they relate to our preconceived notions.