Doubt Quotes - Page 31

• It may be said that the vices await us in the journey of life like hosts with whom we must successively lodge; and I doubt whether experience would make us avoid them if we were to travel the same road a second time.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Journey, Vices, May

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• The lover's pleasure, like that of the hunter, is in the chase, and the brightest beauty loses half its merit, as the flower its perfume, when the willing hand can reach it too easily. There must be doubt; there must be difficulty and danger.

  Walter Scott

  Love, Flower, Hands

  Sir Walter Scott (1871). “Waverley Novels”, p.352

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• It must be owned, that the Graces do not seem to be natives of Great Britain; and I doubt, the best of us here have more of rough than polished diamond.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Grace, British, Britain

  'Letters to his Son' (1774) 18 November 1748

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• Someone described Providence as the baptismal name of chance; no doubt some pious person will retort that chance is the nickname of Providence.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Names, Chance, Retorts

  Sébastien-Roch-Nicolas Chamfort (1902). “The Cynic's Breviary: Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort”

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• Zoroaster said, when in doubt abstain; but this does not always apply. At cards, when in doubt take the trick.

  Josh Billings

  Doe, Cards, Said

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• The revolting details of childbirth had been hidden from me with such care that I was as surprised as I was horrified, and I cannot help thinking that the vows most women are made to take are very foolhardy. I doubt whether they would willingly go to the altar to swear that they will allow themselves to be broken on the wheel every nine months.

  Suzanne Curchod

  Thinking, Broken, Care

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• Ignorance itself is without a doubt a sin for those who do not wish to understand; for those who, however, cannot understand, it is the punishment of sin.

  Saint Augustine

  Ignorance, Punishment, Understanding

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• I have never felt any inward assurance of genius, or any presentiment of glory or of happiness. I have never seen myself in imagination great or famous, or even a husband, a father, an influential citizen. This indifference to the future, this absolute self-distrust, are, no doubt, to be taken as signs. What dreams I have are all vague and indefinite; I ought not to live, for I am now scarcely capable of living.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Dream, Husband, Father

  Entry for May 03, 1849, "The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel", Book by Henri-Frédéric Amiel, translated by Mary Augusta Ward, 1882.

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• I wonder whether I should gain anything by the attempt to assume a character which is not mine. My wavering manner, born of doubt and scruple, has at least the advantage of rendering all the different shades of my thought, and of being sincere. If it were to become terse, affirmative, resolute, would it not be a mere imitation?

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Character, Shade, Wavering

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• If love and ambition should be in equal balance, and come to jostle with equal force, I make no doubt but that the last would win the prize.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Ambition, Winning, Balance

  Michel de Montaigne, William Hazlitt (1860). “The Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy”, p.365

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• By doubting we are led to enquire, and by enquiry we perceive the truth.

  Peter Abelard

  Enquiry, Perceive

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• In Zen Buddhism, the greater your doubt, the greater will be your enlightenment. That is why doubt can be a good thing. If you are too sure, if you always have conviction, then you may be caught in your wrong perception for a long time.

  Nhat Hanh

  Time, Buddhism, Long

  Thich Nhat Hanh (2008). “Buddha Mind, Buddha Body: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.72, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Conservatives believe government's principal functions are the preservation of freedom and removal of restraints on the individual. Liberalism's ascent in the first two-thirds of this century reflected the new belief that government should also confer capacities on individuals. Liberalism's decline in the final third of this century has reflected doubts about whether government can be good at that, or whether government that is good at that is good for the nation's character.

  George Will

  Believe, Character, Government

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• And the reason is found in the first lie - the lie which you hold as the truth about God - that God cannot be trusted; that God's love cannot be depended upon; that God's acceptance of you is conditional; that the ultimate outcome is thus in doubt. For if you cannot depend on God's love to always be there, on whose love can you depend? If God retreats and withdraws when you do not perform properly, will not mere mortals also?

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Inspirational, Religious, Lying

  "Conversations with God". Book by Neale Donald Walsch, December 1998.

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• It's a serious character weakness to think you can get something of value for little or nothing, to believe that life will flood you with abundance when you won't commit yourself to delivering your best contribution in exchange. In fact, it's a safe bet that you'll subconsciously sabotage yourself from being in such a place for long. You won't allow yourself to receive what you don't feel you've earned. To receive life's bounty, you must know without a doubt that you deserve it.

  Steve Pavlina

  Believe, Character, Thinking

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• Never doubt the courage of the French. They were the ones who discovered that snails are edible.

  Doug Larson

  Funny, Courage, Humorous

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• We never know through what Divine mysteries of compensation the great Father of the universe may be carrying out His sublime plan; but those three words, "God is love" ought to contain, to every doubting soul, the solution of all things.

  Dinah Maria Murlock Craik

  God, Father, Soul

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 270), 1895.

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• Doubt is faith in the main: but faith, on the whole, is doubt;
  We cannot believe by proof: but could we believe without?

  Algernon Charles Swinburne

  Faith, Truth, Believe

  Algernon Charles Swinburne (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne (Illustrated)”, p.1484, Delphi Classics

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• The greatest of characters, no doubt, would be he, who, free of all trifling accidental helps, could see objects through one grand immutable medium, always at hand, and proof against illusion and time, reflecting every object in its true shape and colour through all the fluctuation of things.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Truth, Character, Hands

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• No doubt hard work is a great police agent. If everybody were worked from morning till night, and then carefully locked up, the register of crime might be greatly diminished. But what would become of human nature? Where would be the room for growth in such a system of things? It is through sorrow and mirth, plenty and need, a variety of passions, circumstances, and temptations, even through sin and misery, that men's natures are developed.

  Arthur Helps

  Morning, Hard Work, Passion

  Sir Arthur Helps (1848). “Friends in Council: A Series of Readings and Discourse Thereon”, p.55

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• Misgive that you may not mistake.

  Richard Whately

  Mistake, May

  Richard Whately (1856). “Thoughts and Apophthegms: From the Writings of Archbishop Whateley”, p.41

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• Tax reduction has an almost irresistible appeal to the politician, and it is no doubt also gratifying to the citizen. It means more dollars in his pocket, dollars that he can spend if inflation doesn't consume them first. But dollars in his pocket won't buy him clean streets or an adequate police force or good schools or clean air and water. Handing money back to the private sector in tax cuts and starving the public sector is a formula for producing richer and richer consumers in filthier and filthier communities. If we stick to that formula we shall end up in affluent misery.

  John W. Gardner

  Mean, School, Cutting

  John W. Gardner (1971). “The Recovery of Confidence”

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• The best antidote against evils of all kinds, against the evil thoughts that haunt the soul, against the needless perplexities which distract the conscience, is to keep hold of the good we have. Impure thoughts will not stand against pure words and prayers and deeds. Little doubts will not avail against great certainties. Fix your affections on things above, and then you will less and less be troubled by the cares, the temptations, the troubles of things on earth.

  Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

  Prayer, Evil, Temptation

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 214), 1895.

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• I doubt if hard work, steadily and regularly carried on, ever yet hurt anybody.

  Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

  Hurt, Work, Hard

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• Can we expect the redemption of the world from scholars? I doubt it. But the time has come for all artists to join together as a confederation in an eternal league.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Artist, League, Together

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