Quotes About Belief

On an emotional level many people resist the idea that random influences are important even if, on an intellectual level, they understand that they are.

We choose the facts that we want to believe. We also choose our friends, lovers, and spouses not just because of the way we perceive them but because of the way they perceive us. Unlike phenomena in physics, in life, events can often obey one theory or another, and what actually happens can depend largely upon which theory we choose to believe.

Do we, like the flight instructors, believe that harsh criticism improves our children's behavior or our employees' performance?

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

One trader even believed that relieving himself in the "wrong" toilet would bring bad fortune. Actually he was a bond trader who confessed his secret to a CNN reporter in 2003.

As philosopher Francis Bacon put it in 1620, "the human understanding, once it has adopted an opinion, collects any instances that confirm it, and though the contrary instances may be more numerous and more weighty, it either does not notice them or else rejects them, in order that this opinion will remain unshaken."46

at a time when mystical incantation was more valued than mathematical calculation.

A FEW YEARS AGO a man won the Spanish national lottery with a ticket that ended in the number 48. Proud of his "accomplishment," he revealed the theory that brought him the riches. "I dreamed of the number 7 for seven straight nights," he said, "and 7 times 7 is 48.

true randomness sometimes produces repetition, but when users heard the same song or songs by the same artist played back-to-back, they believed the shuffling wasn't random. And so the company made the feature "less random to make it feel more random," said Apple founder Steve Jobs.12 One

but dreams and myths are expressions of the human heart.

The goal of the Progressive indoctrinators was not to impose a specific system of ideas on the student, but to destroy his capacity to hold any firm ideas, on any subject.

I tell you," declared Goering, dismissing a criticism of Hitler's economic policies, "if the Fuhrer wishes it then two times two are five."24

We believe on this earth solely in Adolf Hitler ... ," intoned Dr. Robert Ley to a reverent audience of 15,000 Hitler Youths. "We believe that God has sent us Adolf Hitler.

If the skulls of the people who have been killed in the name of God, Jesus, and Allah in religious wars and persecutions could be piled in one place, they would form an immense mountain. If we tallied the cost in human suffering for the belief in monotheism, we might not think of the other religions of the world as primitive.

The essential element of Christian truth is that the risen Christ is not something you mimic but someone you manifest.

Wallace shared with the graduates, "In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I believe that "Unless I believe, I shall not understand." —ANSELM OF CANTERBURY1

How many Nicodemites are there in every corner of Christianity whose versitis has caused them to be more committed to words than to the Word Made Flesh? How many have made a religion of words and lost sight of God's Image-Made-Story?

But because we don't trust Jesus to do what He says He will do, or believe that He is who He says He is, or have not caught a glimpse of His infinite glory, we sit at drawing boards and draw up programs and methods and draft strategies that we hope might bring people to Christ. But Jesus could not have been clearer: the only begotten Son of God4 is the draw.

I believe man will fly and I base this assumption on the fact that God has blessed us with minds that are capable of imagining it. Anything that can be dreamt of will eventually be built. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool. (As quoted by a fictional Leonardo in DaVinci Demons)

It's not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see.

I know that there are numberless people who would, to satisfy a whim, destroy God and all the universe.

The greatest deception which men incur proceeds from their opinions.

The greatest deception men [and women] suffer is from their own OPINION.