Quotes About Conviction

The faithful are encouraged to profess belief, whether they are convinced by it or not. Maybe if you repeat something often enough, you will succeed in convincing yourself of its truth.

With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.' Blaise Pascal (he of the wager) said something similar: 'Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

These days he relied on the increasingly fragile assumption that what he said was right, and what was right was what he said.

She always preferred strong lies to weak truths

Be sure you're not completely wrong, then go ahead.

Overconfidence is a powerful force.

Grover} Cleveland, this product of good conscience and self-help, with his stern ideas of purity, efficiency, and service, was a taxpayer's dream, the ideal bourgeois statesmen for his time: out of heartfelt conviction he gave to the interests what many a lesser politician might have sold them for a price. He was the flower of American political culture in the Gilded Age.

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.

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.

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.

We may have spent years and considerable energy getting to the top of our profession, only to be struck by a bout of inner restlessness and the unshakable, unpalatable, and unwelcome conviction that our life no longer fits us and we must try to find a new one. Tempted to "ditch everything," we may fantasize running off to the South of France or the north of Africa.

Those in favour rarely stayed in favour; it was just a question of when they fell.

He gave the impression that he believed in things. We did too—it was just that we wanted to believe in our own things, rather than what had been decided for us. Hence what we thought of as our cleansing scepticism.

wear flannel next to your skin, and never believe in eternal punishment.

They didn't want you to fake adherence to their banal taste and meaningless critical slogans – they wanted you actually to believe in them.

Indeed I have begun in this fashion, and place great importance on this opening chapter, for unless you are here convinced that a civilization without consciousness is possible, you will find the discussion that follows unconvincing and paradoxical.

The message was sealed with a blob of wax but no press of a signet. She slid a finger beneath to crack the seal, and read: I apologize if I've ever behaved like an ass. It was the most romantic message she'd ever received. All other messages would strive to live up to it for the rest of her days. She was convinced of that in the moment.

Any man who lives by his beliefs is to be admired, not mocked.

Look." Joe's voice was cajoling, almost begging, yet Skip knew

Trust is a thing you know without words.

What did she give you?" He turned and smiled at me, the curve of his wide mouth transforming his face completely. "Faith in myself," he said simply. "To do what's right, and not falter, no matter how hard it gets.

Go armed with your formidable courage, your passion for truth and your strength of heart.

part of the mind's job was to cast doubt on what the heart knew to be true, and the heart, because it had no words, often lost the argument