Quotes About Doubt

We never follow the consistent rationalist for long; once we pluck out his mystery and know where he is headed, we abandon him to his system

Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers.

To Live signifies to believe and hope - to lie and to lie to oneself.

Vain are the thousand creeds that move men's hearts, unutterably vain; Worthless as withered weeds, or idlest froth amid the boundless main.

The abdication of belief makes the behavior small -- better an ignis fatuus than no illume at all.

Alter! When the Hills do—Falter! When the SunQuestion if His GloryBe the Perfect One—Surfeit! When the DaffodilDoth of the Dew—Even as Herself—Sir—I will—of You—

Approach this throne of grace boldly, not as you have thought of beseeching and groveling attitude, but with the prayer of understanding faith, knowing that the help you stand in need of is already yours. Never doubt. Do more—ask.

I like to verify things independently. It's not like any of us are infallible.

Perhaps now, though, he had hit bottom. One thing about the bottom, he told himself, you can't fall any further. He tried to take comfort from this thought. Yet there knocked in his heart the suspicion that the bottom did not really exist.

The well-known paradox of the theory of probabilities is that, to all seeming, it can extract knowledge from ignorance and certainty from doubt.

Few persons are prevented from thinking themselves right by the reflection that, if they be right, the rest of the world is wrong.

Appearances proved nothing and everything.

Suspicion is far more apt to be wrong than right; oftener unjust than just. It is no friend to virtue, and always an enemy to happiness.

When a woman utters the name of a man but twice a day, there is perhaps some uncertainty about her feelings toward him—but if thrice?—Oh! oh!

If someone could give me some sort of evidence that what we're doing is really love, I'd be so tremendously relieved...

If someone could give me some sort of evidence that what we're doing here is really love, I'd be so tremendously relieved that I'd probably kneel down at that person's feet. And if it isn't love, if it's eventually going to end, I want to go on sleeping like this; I want to stop hearing the phone when he calls. Let me be alone again.

Certo, osserviamo tutti il mondo da dentro una scatola, e se fossimo dentro a un'altra la penseremmo diversamente. Ma visto che è in questa che siamo, possiamo solo continuare a vivere considerandola la migliore in assoluto, pur dubitandone di tanto in tanto.

Certo, osserviamo tutti il mondo da dentro una scatola, e se fossimo dentro a un'altra la penseremmo diversamente. Ma visto che è in questa che siamo, possiamo solo continuare a viverre considerandola la migliore in assoluto, pur dubitandone di tanto in tanto.

Acting is a form of confusion.

You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.

I cannot say for sure when my reliable ideas about God began to slip away, but the big chest I used to keep them in is smaller than a shoebox now. Most of the time, I feel so ashamed about this that I do not own up to it unless someone else mentions it first. Then we find a quiet place where we can talk about what it is like to feel more and more devoted to a relationship that we are less and less able to say anything about.

If I have any expertise, it is in the realm of spiritual darkness: fear of the unknown, familiarity with divine absence, mistrust of conventional wisdom, suspicion of religious comforters, keen awareness of the limits of all language about God and at the same time shame over my inability to speak of God without a thousand qualifiers, doubt about the health of my soul, and barely suppressed contempt for those who have no such qualms. These are the areas of my proficiency.

Who had persuaded me that God preferred four walls and a roof to wide-open spaces? When had I made the subtle switch myself, becoming convinced that church bodies and buildings were the safest and most reliable places to encounter the living God?

I wanted to recover the kind of faith that has nothing to do with being sure what I believe and everything to do with trusting God to catch me though I am not sure of anything.