Doubtful Quotes

• A doubtful friend is worse than a certain enemy. Let a man be one thing or the other, and we then know how to meet him.

  Aesop

  Men, Feel Good, Enemy

  Aesop, Thomas James (1866). “Æsop's Fables: A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources”, p.107

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• Many people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can and don't put off being happy until some future date.

  Dale Carnegie

  Happiness, Leadership, Jobs

  42 Copy quote

• Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture.

  William James

  Success, Confidence, Believe

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• A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.

  Robert Frost

  Crazy, Mad, Society

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• It may be doubtful, at first, whether a person is an enemy or friend. Meat, if not properly digested, becomes poison; But poison, if used rightly, may turn medicinal.

  Sakya Pandita

  Enemy, Meat, Poison

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• Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.

  Samuel Butler

  Life, Success, Music

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4082, Delphi Classics

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• The fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful is the cause of half their errors.

  John Stuart Mill

  Thinking, Errors, Individuality

  On Liberty ch. 2 (1859)

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• All those who offer an opinion on any doubtful point should first clear their minds of every sentiment of dislike, friendship, anger or pity.

  Sallust

  Anger, Mind, Firsts

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• Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often.

  Paracelsus

  Inspirational, Life, Feelings

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• Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries. In a world where everything is doubtful, and where we may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, why this restless stir and commotion of mind? Can it alter the cause, or unravel the mystery of human events?

  Tryon Edwards

  Disappointment, Fear, Blessed

  Tryon Edwards (2015). “The New Dictionary of Thoughts”, p.86, Ravenio Books

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• In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Interpretation, Cases

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• Nothing seems to me more doubtful than Aristotle's remark that it is probable the arts and philosophy have several times been discovered and several times lost.

  Julien Benda

  Art, Philosophy, Lost

  Julien Benda (2011). “The Treason of the Intellectuals”, p.195, Transaction Publishers

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• The doubtful beam long nods from side to side.

  Alexander Pope

  Long, Doubt, Sides

  Alexander Pope (1849). “The poetical works of Alexander Pope. Revised and arranged expressly for the use of young people, by W.C. Macready”, p.77

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• Tis safter to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

  William Shakespeare

  Joy, Lady Macbeth, Important Macbeth

  William Shakespeare (2001). “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, p.150, Classic Books Company

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• It's not till sex has died out between a man and a woman that they can really love. And now I mean affection. Now I mean to be fond of (as one is fond of oneself) -to hope, to be disappointed, to live inside the other heart. When I look back on the pain of sex, the love like a wild fox so ready to bite, the antagonism that sits like a twin beside love, and contrast it with affection, so deeply unrepeatable, of two people who have lived a life together (and of whom one must die) it's the affection I find richer. It's that I would have again. Not all those doubtful rainbow colors.

  Enid Bagnold

  Love, Sex, Pain

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• I know nothing of the science of astrology and I consider it to be a science, if it is a science, of doubtful value, to be severely left alone by those who have any faith in Providence.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Faith, Astrology, Providence

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

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• The Great War differed from all ancient wars in the immense power of the combatants and their fearful agencies of destruction, and from all modern wars in the utter ruthlessness with which it was fought... Europe and large parts of Asia and Africa became one vast battlefield on which after years of struggle not armies but nations broke and ran. When all was over, Torture and Cannibalism were the only two expedients that the civilized, scientific, Christian States had been able to deny themselves: and they were of doubtful utility.

  Winston Churchill

  Christian, War, Struggle

  "The World Crisis, Volume I: 1911-1914". Book by Winston Churchill, 1923.

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• Oh, rather give me commentators plain, Who with no deep researches vex the brain; Who from the dark and doubtful love to run, And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun.

  George Crabbe

  Love, Running, Dark

  George Crabbe, John Crabbe (1834). “The poetical works of the Rev. George Crabbe: in eight volumes”, p.145

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• As a person I'm a little more doubtful, introspective and analytical.

  Russell Brand

  Littles, Introspective, Persons

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• America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.

  Thomas Paine

  Revenge, War, Heart

  Thomas Paine (2016). “THE AMERICAN CRISIS – Revolutionary Work Which Inspired the American People to Fight for Their Independence: Including “The Life of Thomas Paine” – Extensive Biography of the Author”, p.8, e-artnow

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• I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.

  Michel de Montaigne

  School, Debate, Notion

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.229, Stanford University Press

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• What is clear to one man may be doubtful to another.

  Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon

  Men, Doubt, May

  Godfrey v. Hudson, 2 Esp. 500, 1788.

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• In these times I don't, in a manner of speaking, know what I want; perhaps I don't want what I know and want what I don't know.

  Marsilio Ficino

  Knowledge, Knowing, Doubt

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• He has made me glad and no one can make me sad. He makes me shout and no one can make me doubt.

  Billy Bray

  Sad, God, Faith

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• When 99% of people doubt your idea, you're either gravely wrong or about to make history.

  Scott Belsky

  Inspirational, Success, Faith

  Twitter post from Aug 18, 2010

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