Quotes About Doubt

Besides, do any of us understand what we are doing? If we did, would we ever do it?

It is easy - terribly easy - to shake a man's faith in himself. To take advantage of that to break a man's spirit is devil's work.

Belief in God meant belief in the old tribal idol called Jehovah; and I would not pretend I did not know whether it existed or not.

One hardly knows which is the more appalling: the abjectness of the credulity or the flippancy of the scepticism. — Shaw's Preface

For of course if nobody agrees with you, how are you to know youre not a fool?

I tried to believe that there is a God, who created each of us in His own image and likeness, loves us very much, and keeps a close eye on things. I really tried to believe that, but I gotta tell you, the longer you live, the more you look around, the more you realize, something is fucked up.

Don't just teach your children to read… Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything.

I'm happy to tell you there is very little in this world that I believe in.

And here's something else, another problem you might have: Suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? Well, it's God's will. Thy Will Be Done. Fine, but if it's God's will, and He's going to do what He wants to anyway, why the fuck bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me! Couldn't you just skip the praying part and go right to His Will? It's all very confusing.

Catholic, which I was until I reached the age of reason

I'm not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose... it'll be much harder to detect.

As far as I'm concerned, humans have not yet come up with a belief that's worth believing.

And finally, I've always drawn a great deal of moral comfort from Humpty Dumpty. The part I like the best? 'All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.' That's because there is no Humpty Dumpty, and there is no God. None, not one, no God, never was.

Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.

Fred dislikes the idea going into the ministry partly because he doesn't like feeling obligated to look serious, and he centers his doubts on what people expect of a clergyman.

Notions and scruples were like spilt needles, making one afraid of treading, or sitting down, or even eating.

scepticism, as we know, can never be thoroughly applied, else life would come to a standstill

There's no work so tirin' as danglin' about an' starin' an' not rightly knowin' what you're goin' to do next; and keepin' your face i' smilin' order like a grocer o' market-day for fear people shouldna think you civil enough.

There are episodes in most men's lives in which their highest qualities can only cast a deterring shadow over the objects that fill their inward version.

What we call the 'just possible' is sometimes true and the thing we find it easier to believe is grossly false.

we begin by knowing little and believing much, and we sometimes end by inverting the quantities.

As to his religious notions—why, as Voltaire said, incantations will destroy a flock of sheep if administered with a certain quantity of arsenic. I look for the man who will bring the arsenic, and don't mind about his incantations. Very

I still think that the greater part of the world is mistaken about many things. Surely one may be sane and yet think so, since the greater part of the world has often had to come round from its opinion.

Y ¿existe acaso una soledad más solitaria que la desconfianza? (p.474)