Quotes About Doubt

In its full-blown intensity, anxiety is the most painful emotion to which the human animal is heir. "Present dangers are less than future imaginings," as Shakespeare puts it; and people have been known to leap out of a lifeboat and drown rather than face the greater agony of continual doubt and uncertainty, never knowing whether they will be rescued or not.

Kendini adama ve ?üphe aras?ndaki ili?ki hiçbir ?ekilde ula??lmaz de?ildir. Kendini adama ?üphe içermedi?i zaman de?il, ?üpheye ra?men oldu?unda en sa?l?kl?d?r.

But how can one write a book with any integrity," he wonders, "if there is no assurance of the few years time any good book takes?

I am weak, I say with no presumptions. I have no merit, I note it, that is all. There are times that I feel so weak there most be a mistake, and as I don't know what I mean with this, I am not going to say anything else

La speranza è uno spavento.

He gave up. It was no use. She wasn't listening. He was finding himself in a situation as old as mankind itself: reason against superstition.

Mathieu didn't know at all what to do about May. He felt a kind of nausea, probably induced by the regular movement of the ball. She was having religious fits again. Jesus Christ, she thought, how many thousands of years will it take people to get over their folklore?

Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow.

Of all the founders, Hamilton probably had the gravest doubts about the wisdom of the masses and wanted elected leaders who would guide them. This was the great paradox of his career: his optimistic view of America's potential coexisted with an essentially pessimistic view of human nature. His faith in Americans never quite matched his faith in America itself.

If the opposite of certainty is doubt, humility must lie somewhere between the two

The whole game was about confidence, as it always was. Everything was fine—until it wasn't.

Although there were moments even still in the grey glint of morning when the room had the agitated, stricken appearance of a person who had changed his creed a thousand times, sighed, stretched himself, turned a complete somersault, sat up, smiled, lay down, turned up his toes and died of doubts. But this aspect was reserved exclusively for the housemaids and the translucent threads of dawn.

If we are all a part of god," she says, "then God must indeed be horrible.

Sometimes when I'm faced with an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve, and when we have finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him if he believes there's a cook.

I will ask you again. Are you mad? Well, that is the rumor, isn't it?

painful ambiguities.

So, the practice of enrollment is about giving yourself as a possibility to others and being ready, in turn, to catch their spark. It is about playing together as partners in a field of light. And the steps to the practice are: 1.  Imagine that people are an invitation for enrollment. 2.  Stand ready to participate, willing to be moved and inspired. 3.  Offer that which lights you up. 4.  Have no doubt that others are eager to catch the spark.

Why couldn't he bear down and concentrate? Because he was scared, that's why.

Father Jude frowned into the blond sky. He was well thought of in his parish, calm and good. Things had been going smoothly down in Argus. He'd had a comfortable routine figured out. And now, what an unwelcome complication, in spite of the huge honor, to be afflicted with so many new problems, uncertainties, even doubts. And how terrifying, this feeling of loving someone. Thrilling. Awful.

Once in a while I encounter that oblivion in the form of an unreal me. This unreal me is paralyzed by one bottomless thought: I didn't choose this format. I didn't choose to be organized into a Tookie. What, or who, made that happen? Why? What will happen if I do not accept this outrage? It isn't easy to stay organized in this shape. I can feel what it would be like to stop making the effort.

So you see, once a person drops the scales of prejudiced certainty and doubts appear, there is no telling how far a heart can open.

He gives very questioning sermons, Bazil. Sometimes I wonder if he's entirely stable, or then again, if he might be simply...intelligent.

It wasn't that she neglected her other duties, rather it was the playing itself—distilled of longing—that disturbed her sisters. In her music Sister Cecilia explored profound emotions. Her phrasing described her faith and doubt, her passion as the bride of Christ, her loneliness, shame, ultimate redemption.

Whatever his belief, Father Damien had acted on the fundamental dictates of a great love. Sacrifice had been his rule. He'd put others above himself and lived in the abyss of doubt rather than forsake those in need. Was doubt when coupled with devotion a greater virtue than simple faith?