Quotes About Beliefs

The only thing that guarantees an open-ended collaboration among human beings, the only thing that guarantees that this project is truly open-ended, is a willingness to have our beliefs and behaviors modified by the power of conversation.

I]t is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.

Our world is fast succumbing to the activities of men and women who would stake the future of our species on beliefs that should not survive an elementary school education.

It is time we recognized that the only thing that permits human beings to collaborate with one another in a truly open-minded way is their willingness to have their beliefs modified by new facts.

Because most religions offer no valid mechanism by which their core beliefs can be tested and revised, each new generation of believers is condemned to inherit the superstitions and tribal hatreds of its predecessors.

How is it that, in this one area of our lives [religion], we have convinced ourselves that our beliefs about the world can float entirely free of reason and evidence?

While we may never achieve closure in our view of the world, it seems extraordinarily likely that our descendants will look upon many of our beliefs as both impossibly quaint and suicidally stupid.

Many religious moderates have taken the apparent high road of pluralism, asserting the equal validity of all faiths, but in doing so they neglect to notice the irredeemably sectarian truth claims of each. As long as a Christian believes that only his baptized brethren will be saved on the Day of Judgment, he cannot possibly respect the beliefs of others, for he knows that the flames of hell have been stoked by these very ideas and await their adherents even now.

Choosing beliefs freely is not what rational minds do.

With each passing year, do our religious beliefs conserve more and more of the data of human experience? If religion addresses a genuine sphere of understanding and human necessity, then it should be susceptible to progress; its doctrines should become more useful, rather than less. Progress in religion, as in other fields, would have to be a matter of present inquiry, not the mere reiteration of past doctrine.

Any person who lies awake at night worrying about the private pleasures of other consenting adults has more than just too much time on his hands; he has some unjustifiable beliefs about the nature of right and wrong.

When was the last time that someone was criticized for not respecting another person's unfounded beliefs about physics or history? The same rules should apply to ethical, spiritual, and religious beliefs as well.

For nearly two hundred years, our nation has derived its strength from the diversity of its people and of their beliefs. That strength has been greatly enhanced by [the Islamic] religious heritage.

Fortunately for themselves and the world, nearly all men are cowards and dare not act on what they believe. Nearly all our disasters come of a few fools having the "courage of their convictions."

There is nothing respecting which a man may be so long unconscious as of the extent and strength of his prejudices.

Cognitive therapy seeks to alleviate psychological stresses by correcting faulty conceptions and self-signals. By correcting erroneous beliefs we can lower excessive reactions.

Your own beliefs are selecting your genes, and if you don't have the right genes to handle the stress that your in, your belief will rewrite your genes in an effort to do so.

As long as you have a set of beliefs or lack of skills that make you feel you have at the effect of life, you're going to have enormous stress and the quality of your life will go down.

The values learned on the playing field-how to set goals, endure, take criticism and risks, become team players, use our beliefs, stay healthy and deal with stress-prepare us for life.

Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy.

A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.

Flood your imagination with vision... if your deepest needs, values and internal beliefs agree with your direction, then you're more likely to succeed.

Mijn jongen, je weet net zo goed als ik dat er in de politiek geen mensen bestaan, maar principes. Geen gevoelens, maar belangen. In de politiek ruim je geen mens op, je ruimt een hinderpaal uit de weg, punt.

The writer's beliefs and convictions heighten his language. In our eyes, as well as in his own, it is no longer a band of adventurers seeking their fortune beyond the seas; it is the germ of a great nation which God has placed upon a predestined shore.