Quotes About Doubt

We fall out of truth-default mode only when the case against our initial assumption becomes definitive. We do not behave, in other words, like sober-minded scientists, slowly gathering evidence of the truth or falsity of something before reaching a conclusion. We do the opposite. We start by believing. And we stop believing only when our doubts and misgivings rise to the point where we can no longer explain them away.

If I have sinned so much, if I have been since then so solitary, if my soul has taken such a swirling and solitary movement, if I have doubted everyting, if I have been fatalist and have been a pessimistic child who awaits death every day and who almost seeks it out, if I have opened myself slowly and late to happiness, and if I am still a somber man incapable of laughing wholeheartedly it is because you left me . . .

The deceptions of Ana Montes and Bernie Madoff, the confusion over Amanda Knox, the plights of Graham Spanier and Emily Doe are all evidence of the underlying problem we have in making sense of people we do not know. Default to truth is a crucially important strategy that occasionally and unavoidably leads us astray. Transparency is a seemingly commonsense assumption that turns out to be an illusion. Both, however, raise the same question: once we accept our shortcomings, what should we do?

What happens to true believers when their convictions are confronted by reality?

They were unconvinced of the power of giants.

point. You believe someone not because you have no doubts about them. Belief is not the absence of doubt. You believe someone because you don't have enough doubts about them.

doubts trigger disbelief only when you can't explain them away.

Here was the downside to Shirley Polykoff's world. You could get what you wanted by faking it, but then you would never know whether it was you or the bit of fakery that made the difference.

I believed in you always until I couldn't anymore.

But the truth is that for the most important decisions, there can be no certainty

I believed in you always until I couldn't anymore. Isn't that an almost perfect statement of default to truth?

The right question is: were there enough red flags to push you over the threshold of belief? If there weren't, then by defaulting to truth you were only being human.

You believe someone not because you have no doubts about them. Belief is not the absence of doubt. You believe someone because you don't have enough doubts about them.

Você acredita em alguém não porque não tenha dúvidas a respeito da pessoa. A crença não é a ausência de dúvida. Você acredita em alguém porque não tem dúvidas suficientes a respeito.

Some people had doubts about Sandusky. But remember, doubts are not the enemy of belief; they are its companion.

Belief is not the absence of doubt. You believe someone because you don't have enough doubts about them.

We do the opposite. We start by believing.

We need a trigger to snap out of the default to truth, but the threshold for triggers is high.

stop believing only when our doubts and misgivings rise to the point where we can no longer explain them away.

Our ignorance of the unfamiliar is what fuels our fear.

But who could agree with someone who was so certain you were going to be sober the day after to-morrow?

Doubt is probably the biggest obstacle to overcome. Once you rise above doubt, you are on your way to success.

The only thing you have to fear more than failure is success.

If everything is possible, then it is also possible that something is impossible.