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Quotes About Doubt

Now, in that moment, he knew that neither all his doubts, nor the impossibility he knew in himself of believing by means of reason, hindered him in the least from addressing God. It all blew off his soul like dust.
~ Leo Tolstoy
It's absurd that having started writing rules at fifteen, I should still be writing them at thirty, without having trusted in, or followed a single one, but still for some reason believing in them and wanting them.
~ Leo Tolstoy
Often seeing the success she had with young and old men and women Pierre could not understand why he did not love her.
~ Leo Tolstoy
All these traces of his life seemed to clutch him, and to say to him: "No, you're not going to get away from us, and you're not going to be different, but you're going to be the same as you've always been; with doubts, everlasting dissatisfaction with yourself, vain efforts to amend, and falls, and everlasting expectation, of a happiness which you won't get, and which isn't possible for you.
~ Leo Tolstoy
When he had joined the Freemasons he had experienced the feeling of one who confidently steps onto the smooth surface of a bog. When he put his foot down it sank in. To make quite sure of the firmness of the ground, he put his other foot down and sank deeper still, became stuck in it, and involuntarily waded knee-deep in the bog.
~ Leo Tolstoy
No matter what he thought about, he always returned to these same questions which he could not solve and yet could not cease to ask himself. It was as if the thread of the chief screw which held his life together were stripped, so that the screw could not get in or out, but went on turning uselessly in the same place.
~ Leo Tolstoy
But by the term 'scientific' is understood just what was formerly understood by the term 'religious': just as formerly everything called 'religious' was held to be unquestionable simply because it was called religious, so now all that is called 'scientific' is held to be unquestionable.
~ Leo Tolstoy
Hayat?n?n bütün izleri sanki ona sar?lm?? ?öyle diyordu: "Hay?r, bizi b?rak?p gitmeyeceksin, ba?ka birisi olmayacaks?n, nas?lsan öyle kalacaks?n: Ku?kular?nla, kendinden sonsuz ho?nutsuzlu?unla, sonuçsuz kalan kendini düzeltme deneyimlerinle, ya?ad???n dü?ü?lerle ve senin için olanaks?z, sana nasip olmayacak sonsuz bir mutluluk beklentisiyle.
~ Leo Tolstoy
Pourquoi injuste ? Il ne nous est pas donné de savoir ce qui est juste ou injuste ! L'humanité s'est toujours trompée et se trompera toujours sur ce sujet.
~ Leo Tolstoy
I never could understand the fondness some people have for confusing their minds by dwelling on mystical books that merely awaken their doubts and excite their imagination, giving them a bent for exaggeration quite contrary to Christian simplicity. Let
~ Leo Tolstoy
you might be persuaded there is an after-life not by arguments, but by going through life hand-in-hand with somebody, and all at once that somebody vanishes there, into nowhere, and you are left standing over the abyss, staring down into it. And I have stared down into it...
~ Leo Tolstoy
En la "tierra", precisamente ne esta tierra —digo señalando la campiña— no existe la verdad, todo es mal y mentira
~ Leo Tolstoy
The more people believe that others can improve their lives, the slower any improvement will occur.
~ Leo Tolstoy
If we were angels once, why did we end up lower?" asked Nikolai. "No, that can't be!" "Not lower, who told you it's lower?...How do I know what I used to be?
~ Leo Tolstoy
Now he experienced a feeling akin to that of a man who, while calmly crossing a bridge over a precipice, should suddenly discover that the bridge is broken, and that there is a chasm below. That chasm was life itself, the bridge that artificial life in which Aleksey Aleksandrovich had lived. For the first time the question presented itself to him of the possibility of his wife's loving someone else, and he was horrified at it.
~ Leo Tolstoy
No ser feliz es dudar de nuestro cuerpo, del calor de nuestra sangre, del fuego devorador del corazón, de la claridad del espíritu que inunda nuestro ser
~ Leon Degrelle
When people are committed to a belief and a course of action, clear disconfirming evidence may simply result in deepened conviction and increased proselyting. But there does seem to be a point at which the disconfirming evidence has mounted sufficiently to cause the belief to be rejected.
~ Leon Festinger
And yet he wondered, was it enough? It must be... there was nothing else.
~ Leon Garfield
No great deed, private or public, had ever been undertaken in a bliss of certainty.
~ Leon Wieseltier
No great deed, private or public, has ever been undertaken in a bliss of certainty.
~ Leon Wieseltier
I found a rip in my phylacteries. Hath heaven no more thunderbolts?
~ Leon Wieseltier
I'm no longer quite sure what the question is, but I do know that the answer is Yes.
~ Leonard Bernstein
Your faith was strong, but you needed proof...
~ Leonard Cohen
Though I don't believe, I come to you now, and I lift my doubt to your mercy.
~ Leonard Cohen