Doubtful Quotes - Page 4

• The faith towards God in Christ must be sure and steadfast, that it may solace and make glad the conscience, and put it to rest. When a man has this certainty, he has overcome the serpent; but if he be doubtful of the doctrine, it is for him very dangerous to dispute with the devil.

  Martin Luther

  Men, Devil, Overcoming

  Martin Luther (1848). “The table talk or familiar discourse of Martin Luther, tr. by W. Hazlitt”, p.19

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• the old axiom that 'all power corrupts' has doubtful validity, because it derives from our neglect of Plato's advice to find men carefully and train them by methods which make them fit for heroes.

  Oswald Mosley

  Plato, Hero, Men

  "Rules of the Game/Beyond the Pale". Book by Nicholas Mosley, 1982.

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• We must bear in mind, then, that there is nothing more difficult and dangerous, or more doubtful of success, than an attempt to introduce a new order of things in any state. For the innovator has for enemies all those who derived advantages from the old order of things, whilst those who expect to be benefited by the new institutions will be but lukewarm defenders.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Order, Mind, Enemy

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• The most exquisite words and finest strokes of an author are those which very often appear the most doubtful and exceptionable to a man who wants a relish for polite learning; and they are those which a sour undistinguishing critic generally attacks with the greatest violence.

  Joseph Addison

  Men, Want, Violence

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1852). “The Spectator”, p.331

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• ... pure honesty is a doubtful quality; it means often lack of imagination.

  Virginia Woolf

  Honesty, Mean, Imagination

  Virginia Woolf (1978). “The Diary of Virginia Woolf: 1920-1924”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P

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• Virtue does not truly reward her votary if she leaves him sad and half doubtful whether it would not have been better to serve vice.

  George William Curtis

  Half, Rewards, Vices

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• The first act's doubtful, but we say, it is the last commends the play.

  Robert Herrick

  Play, Theatre, Lasts

  Robert Herrick, Samuel Weber Singer (1856). “Hesperides: Or, The Works Both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick ...”, p.160

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• Precision marching is less important for the bridal party than maintaining the proper facial expresssions: The bridegroom must look awed; the bridesmaids, happy and excited; the father of the bride, proud; and the bride, demure. If the bridegroom feels doubtful, the bridesmaids, sulky, the father, worried, and the bride, blasé, nobody wants to know.

  Judith Martin

  Father, Party, Important

  Judith Martin (1999). “Miss Manners on Weddings”, Crown

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• It is doubtful what fortune to-morrow will bring.
  [Lat., Posteraque in dubio est fortunam quam vehat aetas.]

  Lucretius

  Morrow, Fortune

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• Men whose lives are doubtful want a strong government and a hot religion

  Elbert Hubbard

  Strong, Men, Doubt

  Elbert Hubbard (1922). “Selected Writings of Elbert Hubbard ...”

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• In exploring new and doubtful tracts of speculation, the mind strikes out true and original views; as a drop of water hesitates at first what direction it will take, but afterwards follows its own course.

  William Hazlitt

  Views, Water, Mind

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.2095, Delphi Classics

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• It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.

  Eric Hoffer

  Fighting, Pride, Trouble

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Life has, indeed, many ills, but the mind that views every object in its most cheering aspect, and every doubtful dispensation as replete with latent good, bears within itself a powerful and perpetual antidote. The gloomy soul aggravates misfortune, while a cheerful smile often dispels those mists that portend a storm.

  Lydia Sigourney

  Gratitude, Cheer, Powerful

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• I will rather suffer a thousand wrongs than offer one. I have always found that to strive with a superior is injurious; with an equal, doubtful; with an inferior, sordid and base; with any, full of unquietness.

  Joseph Hall

  Suffering, Strive, Found

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• Necessity may render a doubtful act innocent, but it cannot make it praiseworthy

  Joseph Joubert

  May, Praise, Innocent

  Joseph Joubert (1896). “Pensées of Joubert”

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• A widow of doubtful age will marry almost any sort of a white man.

  Horace Greeley

  Men, White Man, Age

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• Today and over the foreseeable future,traditional capitalism throughout most of the world has been thrown on a defensive from which it is doubtful that it can never recover.

  Robert Heilbroner

  Today, World, Capitalism

  "The Future As History". Book by Robert Heilbroner, Chapter II, Part 7, The Drift Away From Capitalism, p. 94, 1960.

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• The human mind has to ask "Who, what, whence, whither, why am I?" And it is very doubtful if the human mind can answer any of these questions.

  R. D. Laing

  Mind, Answers, Humans

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• Whether a law be void for its repugnancy to the Constitution, is, at all times, a question of much delicacy, which out seldom, if ever, to be decided in the affirmative, in doubtful case. ... But it is not on slight implication and vague conjecture that the legislature is to be pronounced to have transcended its powers, and its acts to be considered as void. The opposition between the Constitution and the law should be such that the judge feels a clear and strong conviction of their incompatibility with each other.

  John Marshall

  Strong, Law, Judging

  Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 128, 1810.

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• One of the things particularly admirable in the public utterances of President Lincoln is a certain tone of familiar dignity, which, while it is perhaps the most difficult attainment of mere style, is also no doubtful indication of personal character. There must be something essentially noble in an elective ruler who can descend to the level of confidential ease without forfeiting respect, something very manly in one who can break through the etiquette of his conventional rank and trust himself to the reason and intelligence of those who have elected him.

  James Russell Lowell

  Character, Break Through, Style

  James Russell Lowell (2015). “Abraham Lincoln”, p.22, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• The philosopher forms his principles on an infinity of particular observations. He does not confuse truth with plausibility, he takes for truth what is true, for false what is false, for doubtful what is doubtful, and probable what is probable. The philosophical spirit is thus a spirit of observation and accuracy.

  Denis Diderot

  Philosophical, Objectivity, Infinity

  "L'Encyclopédie", Article on Philosophy, Volume 25, 1766.

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• It is doubtful if even experience of riches and success is as intense among those who have experienced nothing else as among those who have also experienced poverty and failure. There is little romance in wealth to those who have been born wealthy and whose families have been wealthy for generations.

  Robert Wilson Lynd

  Romance, Generations, Littles

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• Consultation and compliance can conduce little to the perfection of any literary performance; for whoever is so doubtful of his own abilities as to encourage the remarks of others, will find himself every day embarrassed with new difficulties, and will harass his mind, in vain, with the hopeless labour of uniting heterogeneous ideas, digesting independent hints, and collecting into one point the several rays of borrowed light, emitted often with contrary directions.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Independent, Light

  Samuel Johnson (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.183, Harvard University Press

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• When regard for truth has been broken down or even slightly weakened, all things will remain doubtful.

  Saint Augustine

  Broken, All Things, Regard

  Saint Augustine (2010). “Treatises on Various Subjects (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 16)”, p.78, CUA Press

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• In the darkest hour through which a human soul can pass, whatever else is doubtful, this at least is certain. If there be no God and no future state, yet even then it is better to be generous than selfish, better to be chaste than licentious, better to be true than false, better to be brave than to be a coward.

  Frederick William Robertson

  Selfish, Brave, Soul

  Frederick William Robertson (1850). “An address delivered to the members of the Working Man's Institute, at the Town Hall, Brighton, on Thursday, April 18, 1850, on the question of the introduction of sceptical publications into the library”, p.13

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