Quotes About Belief

no matter the evidence of your life, or who you believe you are, or what you're willing to take credit for or draw your vital strength and pride from--anything at all can follow anything at all.

We do not, after all, deal in truths, only potentialities. Too much truth can be worse than death, and last longer.

no matter the evidence of your life, or who you believe you are, or what you're willing to take credit for or draw your vital strength and pride from—anything at all can follow anything at all.

Ann says I fabricate these feelings. But so what? I still have them.

The best thinking says 'the self' is a fiction (I have a piece about that), yet it's a fiction that we all believe, our most intimate experience. Maybe it's nothing more than our tendency to repeat. Maybe we repeat because when we do, we recognize the behavior and the familiarity is comforting. So the self is just the consolation of our tendencies.

See it? Oh, I have no interest in seeing it. Seeing it might get in the way of my opinion.

Overconfidence is a powerful force.

Most people like to believe something is or is not true. Great scientists tolerate ambiguity very well. They believe the theory enough to go ahead; they doubt it enough to notice the errors and faults so they can step forward and create the new replacement theory. If you believe too much you'll never notice the flaws; if you doubt too much you won't get started. It requires a lovely balance.

is a thin line between having enough self-confidence and being overconfident. I suppose the difference is whether you succeed or fail; when you win you are strong-willed, and when you lose you are stubborn!

the current situation being a toss-up as to what you want to believe. Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal. Hence you will find that often what you believe is what you want to believe, rather than being the result of careful thinking.

don't believe 2+2=4. I know it. I am certain of

Behind every calculation, every decision, every signal, every turn of the helm, was the deeply held conviction that the disaster of defeat must always be greater than the rewards of victory. The belief that governed all the tactical moves at this one confused melee was that the individual Dreadnought, the squadron, the fleet must be preserved, even at the cost of victory over the foe.

Hitler emphasized again and again his belief that Nazism was a secular ideology founded on modern science. Science, he declared, would easily destroy the last remaining vestiges of superstition. 'Put a small telescope in a village, and you destroy a world of superstitions.'24

You're basically killing each other to see who's got the better imaginary friend.

Religious war at its simplest is killing each other over who has the best imaginary friend.

What others believe is not my concern, unless they attempt to force it on me.

Religion is religion, however you wrap it, and like Quell says, a preoccupation with the next world pretty clearly signals an inability to cope credibly with this one.

it's amazing how constant repetition can make even the most obvious truths irritating enough to disagree with.

Potential, and the will to deploy it. That's all magic is in the end, you know.

He's a pretty serious believer.' 'Yeah? Funny how it doesn't get in the way of his commercial life.' 'Yeah, well. Organised religion, you know.

She said, I have no excuses, least of all for God. Like all tyrants, he is not worthy of the spit you would waste on negotiations. The deal we have is infinitely simpler—I don't call him to account, and he extends me the same courtesy.

You don't trust me?' 'Now you come to mention it, no. But that isn't it.

I don't think I really believe in paradise, Carl. You want to know the truth, I don't think any of us do really. Deep down, down where it counts, I think we all know it's a crock of shit. That's why we're all so fucking determined to spread the good news, to shove it down other people's throats. Because if we can't make other people believe it, how are we going to stamp out the doubt in ourselves. And it's cold, that doubt.

It seems lies come very easily to your race. They lie to those they lead, to their mates and fellows no matter how close- drawn, even to themselves if it will make the world around them more bearable. It is hard to know what to believe in this place." Something