Misgivings Quotes

• A prudent mind can see room for misgiving, lest he who prospers should one day suffer reverse.

  Sophocles

  Mind, Suffering, One Day

  Sophocles (2013). “The Tragedies (Annotated Edition)”, p.284, Jazzybee Verlag

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• a little misgiving in the beginning of things, means much regret in the end of them.

  Amelia Barr

  Regret, Mean, Littles

  Amelia Barr (2017). “All the Days of My Life: An Autobiography”, p.343, Litres

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• Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  William Shakespeare (1838). “The Pictorial edition of the works of Shakspere, ed. by C. Knight. [8 vols., including a vol. entitled William Shakspere, by C. Knight].”, p.281

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• At every crisis in one's life, it is absolute salvation to have some sympathetic friend to whom you can think aloud without restraint or misgiving.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Cancer, Patriotic, Thinking

  Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Princeton University (1975). “The papers of Woodrow Wilson”

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• There will be no misgiving, no shrinking back, no calculation of overpowering odds, no terror of possible consequences, if you frankly accept the gift which God offers you tomorrow.

  Joseph Barber Lightfoot

  Odds, Shrinking, Tomorrow

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• I wouldn't want to live without strong misgivings.

  Joseph Heller

  Strong, Want

  Joseph Heller (1999). “Catch-22: A Novel”, p.415, Simon and Schuster

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• I am a jumble of passions, misgivings, and wants. It seems that I am always in a state of wishing and rarely in a state of contentment.

  Libba Bray

  Passion, Wish, Contentment

  Libba Bray (2010). “The Sweet Far Thing”, p.69, Simon and Schuster

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• If acknowledging that racial misgivings and misunderstandings are still a part of politics and life in America, I plead guilty.

  Ron Fournier

  America, Guilty, Stills

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• Those who have expressed doubts and misgivings about their ability to live this kind of life shouldn't try, because being a musician is not something you chose to be, it is something you are.

  Billy Joel

  Doubt, Trying, Musician

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• If you want quality service, you have to pay for it. You don't buy into waste. I have great misgivings about the amount of advertising that we see in the health care field, some by hospitals, a lot by drug companies.

  Dave Obey

  Drug, Quality, Care

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• Any artist always has misgivings about calling himself an artist.

  Bill Budge

  Artist, Calling

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• The task of an American writer is not to describe the misgivings of a woman taken in adultery as she looks out of a window at the rain but to describe four hundred people under the lights reaching for a foul ball. This is ceremony.

  John Cheever

  Rain, Taken, Writing

  "The Journals of John Cheever" by Robert Gottlieb, 1963.

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• Those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things,
  Fallings from us, vanishings;
  Blank misgivings of a Creature
  Moving about in worlds not realised,
  High instincts before which our mortal Nature
  Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised

  William Wordsworth

  Moving, Fall, World

  "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" l. 146 (1807)

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• The years of searching in the dark for a truth that one feels but cannot express, the intense desire and the alternations of confidence and misgiving until one breaks through to clarity and understanding, are known only to him who has experienced them himself.

  Albert Einstein

  Math, Dark, Years

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• I return with feelings of misgiving from my third war-I was the first American commander to put his signature to a paper ending a war when we did not win it.

  Bill Vaughan

  War, Winning, Feelings

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• Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel-dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Heart, Angel, Dark

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry Nelson Coleridge (1854). “The complete works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an introductory essay upon his philosophical and theological opinions”, p.588

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• I had been conscious a feeling of depression and so I voiced to [Secretary Of War Stimson] my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at this very moment, seeking a way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face.'

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Country, War, Loss

  "Mandate for Change: The White House Years, 1953-1956". Book by Dwight D. Eisenhower, pp. 312-313, 1963.

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• I pray for you, that all your misgivings will be melted to thanksgivings. Remember that the shadow a thing casts often far exceeds the size of the thing itself (especially if the light be low on the horizon) and though some future fear may strut brave darkness as you approach, the thing itself will be but a speck when seen from beyond. Oh that He would restore us often with that 'aspect from beyond,' to see a thing as He sees it, to remember that He dealeth with us as with sons.

  Jim Elliot

  Thanksgiving, Son, Light

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• Nobody ever launched an attack without having misgivings beforehand, You ought to have misgivings before; but when the moment of action is come, the hour of misgivings is passed. It is often not possible to go backward from a course which has been adopted in war. A man must answer "Aye" or "No" to the great questions which are put, and by that decision he must be bound.

  Winston Churchill

  Leadership, War, Men

  Winston Churchill, Robert Rhodes James (1980). “Churchill speaks: Winston S. Churchill in peace and war : collected speeches, 1897-1963”, Atheneum

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• For the few little successes I may seem to have, there are acres of misgivings and self-doubt.

  Sylvia Plath

  Self, Doubt, Acres

  sylvia plath (1971). “the bell jar”

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• The little cares, fears, tears, timid misgivings, sleepless fancies of I don't know how many days and nights, were forgotten under one moment's influence of that familiar, irresistible smile.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Night, Tears, Care

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2016). “Vanity Fair (Diversion Classics)”, p.159, Diversion Books

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• Let him that sows the serpent's teeth not hope to reap a joyous harvest. Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, its own avenging angel,--dark misgivings at the inmost heart.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Heart, Angel, Dark

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• Such self-referent misgivings creates stress and undermine effective use of the competencies people possess by diverting attention from how best to proceed to concern over personal failings and possible mishaps

  Albert Bandura

  Stress, Self, People

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• His biggest misgiving came from his concern about the loud crash that was bound to occur and would probably create, if not terror, at least anxiety behind all the doors. But that would have to be risked.

  Franz Kafka

  Doors, Anxiety, Metamorphosis

  Franz Kafka (1972). “The Metamorphosis”

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• People who are burdened by acute misgivings about their coping capabilities suffer much distress and expend much effort in defensive action... they cannot get themselves to do things they find subjectively threatening even though they are objectively safe. They may even shun easily manageable activities because they see them as leading to more threatening events over which they will be unable to exercise adequate control.

  Albert Bandura

  Exercise, People, Effort

  "Social Foundations of Thought and Action". Book by Albert Bandura, www.uky.edu. 1986.

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