Quotes About Doubt

The people were taught that the record was inspired, and therefore true. They were not taught that it was true, and therefore inspired.

No man can control his belief. You hear evidence for and against, and the integrity of the soul stands at the scales and tells which side rises and which side falls. You can not believe as you wish. You must believe as you must.

If you say to a man: "Eighteen hundred years ago the dead were raised," he will reply: "Yes, I know that." And if you say: "A hundred thousand years from now all the dead will be raised," he will probably reply: "I presume so." But if you tell him: "I saw a dead man raised to-day," he will ask, "From what madhouse have you escaped?

Nobody ever saw anybody who had seen anybody who had heard of anybody that had ever seen anybody that had ever seen one of the original Hebrew manuscripts.

Inspiration is only necessary to give authority to that which is repugnant to human reason.

Belief is not a voluntary thing. A man believes or disbelieves in spite of himself.

we are taught that God is exceedingly anxious that we should believe a certain thing.

If the book and my brain are both the work of the same Infinite God, whose fault is it that the book and the brain do not agree?

There are always loose ends in real life.

Matthew kept hinting that Strike was somehow a fake. He seemed to feel that being a private detective was a far-fetched job, like astronaut or lion tamer; that real people did not do such things.

Can I just ask—are you the Cormoran Strike?" "I doubt there are many others," said Strike.

Jesus fucking Christ," said Strike, "is he mentally ill? Of course he is," he answered himself immediately. "Of course he's mentally ill. He wants to cut his fucking leg off. Jesus fucking Christ.

Now she hesitated, wondering whether she dare do what she wanted . . . but surely, if they were best friends, it was all right?

Am I evil? . . . I used to think I couldn't be, because you loved me

I thought you'd come back I thought you'd stop me marrying him I didn't think you'd let me do it

Was she to spend every holiday, for the rest of her life, wondering whether she was in love with Cormoran Strike?

Am I evil? Jago says I am. I used to think I couldn't be, because you loved me.

I am so well acquainted with despair, I know not how to hope… Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, The Honest Whore

Anyone pointing out pitfalls or difficulties is scaremongering. Experts don't know anything. Facts lie.

Jesus,' said Robin, hurrying over to them, and finding nothing else to say she repeated, 'Jesus!' 'He was definitely on our side an hour ago,' said Strike.

Credulity is not a virtue, and investigation is not a crime.

Understand: people will constantly attack you in life. One of their main weapons will be to instill in you doubts about yourself – your worth, your abilities, your potential. They will often disguise this as their objective opinion, but invariably it has a political purpose – they want to keep you down.

What do you do,' he said, 'if you devote your life to discovering criminals, and it gradually occurs to you that the real criminals are the people you work for? What do you do when everyone tells you not to worry, you can't do anything about it, it was a long time ago?' She was looking at him in a different way. 'I suppose you go crazy.' 'Or worse. Sane.

Nah," I said to myslef, crumpling up the note, "Non vale il pene".