Quotes About Belief

Progress is possible only when people believe in the possibilities of growth and change. Races or tribes die out not just when they are conquered and suppressed but when they accept their defeated condition, become despairing, and lose their excitement about the future. Norman Cousins Americans

tinha descoberto a profunda diferença entre justiça e moralidade. A justiça era o instrumento dos fortes, para ser usada como os fortes desejavam; a moralidade, como os deuses, era a ilusão dos fracos.

I suspect you're thinking of Pascal,' Finkler said, finally.'Only he said the opposite. He said you might as well wager on God because that way, even if He doesn't exist, you've nothing to lose. Whereas if you wager against God and He does exist...' 'You're in the shit.

Faith wasn't a mystery to him; the mystery to him was holding on to faith. He

You can't have a church town without belief and you can't have belief without intolerance.

A life was owned by the person who lived it, he believed. What happened didn't always happen because you wanted it to, but what you made of it was your responsibility.

you might as well wager on God because that way, even if He doesn't exist, you've nothing to lose. Whereas if you wager against God and He does exist . . .

you can't have belief without intolerance.

The way an institution works is that you go along with the prevailing fiction.

Yet the replacement thesis faces an obvious, glaring problem. As Hilary Kornblith notes, psychology can tell us how we do arrive at our beliefs, but we can still ask, "Are the processes by which we do arrive at our beliefs the ones by which we ought to arrive at our beliefs?

A rational man proportions his belief to the evidence," Hume said. The brain study cited by Shermer indicates that we too often do the opposite. We proportion our beliefs to our emotions and process the evidence as our feelings demand

The Web of Belief, second edition, coauthored with J. S. Ullian (New York: Random House, 1978)

Scepticism and pessimism aren't synonymous. Scepticism calls for pessimism when optimism is excessive. But it also calls for optimism when pessimism is excessive.

It's worth noting that the assumption that something can't happen has the potential to make it happen, since people who believe it can't happen will engage in risky behaviour, and thus alter the environment.

An accurate opinion on valuation, loosely held, will be of limited help. An incorrect opinion on valuation, strongly held, is far worse. This one statement shows how hard it is to get it all right

I have always thought a person needs to constantly refine the capacity to suspend disbelief in order to keep emotions organized and not suffer debilitating confusion, and I mean just toward the things of daily life. I suppose this admits to a desperate sort of pragmatism. Still, it works for me. What human heart isn't in extremis?

I was convinced that birds were kinds of souls. Not the souls of people but of previous birds whose mystery and beauty were so necessary on earth that God would not allow them to be anything in their second life but birds again.

There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust. But we lean forward nonetheless because, despite all risks and rational argument, we believe that the path we are choosing is the right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we do not know exactly where our actions will lead.

Just because others cannot see your vision doesn't mean that vision isn't achievable.

Believe in your dreams and dream big. And then after you've done that, dream bigger!

Your station in life does not define you. The promise of America is for all of us.

If you examine a butterfly according to the laws of aerodynamics, it shouldn't be able to fly. But the butterfly doesn't know that, so it flies.

I've been really lucky. And I really, genuinely believe that if you tell people that they have what it takes to succeed, they'll prove you right.

Part 2: Confidence