Quotes About Doubt

Quite often, I have a compelling sense of how a role should be played. And I'm proved - equally as often - quite wrong.

Scientists are very afraid of being proven wrong.

Nothing proves that we are more than nothing.

If you have an opinion, and that opinion is weak, do not consider it wisdom. - Tiresias to Pentheus

A prudent scepticism is the most profitable quality a man can have.

One would never write a single word if one knew the horrors that lay ahead,' agreed Charlotte. 'But if you sell copies by the sackload, you may well forget the horrors,' I agreed quickly.

Cordelia: I hope I've got a vocation. Charles: I don't know what that means. Cordelia: It means you can be a nun. If you haven't a vocation it's no good however much you want to be; and if you have a vocation, you can't get away from it, however much you hate it.

Every attendance at Mass leaves me without comfort or edification. I shall never, pray God, apostatize but church-going is now a bitter trial.

A blow, expected, repeated, falling upon a bruise with no smart or shock of surprise, only a dull and sickening pain and the doubt whether another like it could be borne.

But how do you know He *doesn't* want us to have it—the cross, I mean? I bet He's just waiting for one of us to go and find it—just at this moment when it's most needed. Just at this moment when everyone is forgetting it and chattering about the hypostatic union, there's a solid chunk of wood waiting for them to have their silly heads knocked against. I'm going off to find it

D'you know, Bridey, if I ever felt for a moment like becoming a Catholic, I should only have to talk to you for five minutes to be cured. You manage to reduce what seem quite sensible propositions to stark nonsense." "It's odd you should say that. I've heard it before from other people. It's one of the many reasons why I don't think I should make a good priest.

This is not a time for hereos because nobody will let it happen

Everyone suspects themselves of at least one of the cardinal virtues...

I'm a cynical idealist.

She was feeling the pressure of the world outside and she wanted to see him and feel his presence beside her and be reassured that she was doing the right thing after all.

We want to believe. Young students try to believe in older authors, constituents try to believe in their Congressmen, countries try to believe in their statesmen, but they can't. Too many voices, too much scattered, illogical ill-considered criticism.

She knew few words and believed in none.

Sometimes I don't know whether Zelda and I are real or just characters in one of my novels.

I'm a cynical idealist.' He paused and wondered if that meant anything.

I've told you many times that the first thing I decide is the kind of story I want. (...) This is not the kind of story I want. The story we bought had shine and glow - it was a happy story. This is all full of doubt and hesitation. The hero and heroine stop loving each other over trifles - then they start up again over trifles. After the first sequence you don't care if she never sees him again or he her.

She had once been a Catholic, but discovering that priests were infinitely more attentive when she was in process of losing or regaining faith in Mother Church, she maintained an enchantingly wavering attitude.

Wilson shook his head. His eyes narrowed and his mouth widened slightly with the ghost of a superior 'Hm!'.

As you first see him he wonders frequently whether he is not without honor and slightly mad

What a feeble thing intelligence is, with its short steps, its waverings, its pacing back and forth, its disastrous retreats!