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Doubt Quotes

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Doubt Quotes

“In all common ordinary cases, we see intuitively at first view what is out duty, what is the honest part. This is the ground of the observation, that the first thought is often the best. In these cases, doubt and deliberation is itself dishonesty; as it was in Balaam upon the second message.”

FirstsViewsCommonCasesDoubtHonestDutyMessagesOrdinaryObservationDishonestyDeliberationBalaam
Book:The Whole Works of Joseph Butler ...
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“A famous anecdote concerning Cuvier involves the tale of his visitation from the devil—only it was not the devil but one of his students dressed up with horns on his head and shoes shaped like cloven hooves. This frightening apparition burst into Cuvier's bedroom when he was fast asleep and claimed: 'Wake up thou man of catastrophes. I am the Devil. I have come to devour you!' Cuvier studied the apparition carefully and critically said, 'I doubt whether you can. You have horns and hooves. You eat only plants.”

MenSaidDoubtStudentsDevilWake UpPlantShoesTalesFrighteningBedroomCatastropheHornsDressed UpAnecdotesApparitionsVisitationMorphology
Author:Georges Cuvier
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“A sound American is simply one who has put out of his mind all doubts and questionings, and who accepts instantly, and as incontrovertible gospel, the whole body of official doctrine of his day, whatever it may be and no matter how often it may change. The instant he challenges it, no matter how timorously and academically, he ceases by that much to be a loyal and creditable citizen of the republic.”

MindMayMatterWholeBodyAmericaTimeSoundChangeChallengesAbilityAcceptingDoubtAcceptanceCitizensLoyaltyCeaseDoctrineInstantOfficialsRepublicLoyalQuestioning
Book:Mencken Chrestomathy
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“Here is one of the fundamental defects of American fiction--perhaps the one character that sets it off sharply from all other known kinds of contemporary fiction. It habitually exhibits, not a man of delicate organization in revolt against the inexplicable tragedy of existence, but a man of low sensibilities and elemental desires yielding himself gladly to his environment, and so achieving what, under a third-rate civilization, passes for success. To get on: this is the aim. To weigh and reflect, to doubt and rebel: this is the thing to be avoided.”

MenKindCharacterDesireLiteratureExistenceFictionKnownDoubtEnvironmentAchieveCivilizationLowsOrganizationThirdsTragedyAimFundamentalsRateContemporaryRebelDelicateSensibilityDefectsAvoidedRevoltExhibitsInexplicableContemporary FictionElementalsAmerican Literature
Book:H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series
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“Of course, it may be that the arts of writing and photography are antithetical. The hope and aim of a word-handler is that he maycommunicate a thought or an impression to his reader without the reader's realizing that he has been dragged through a series of hazardous or grotesque syntactical situations. In photography the goal seems to be to prove beyond a doubt that the cameraman, in his great moment of creation, was either hanging by his heels from the rafters or was wedged under the floor with his lens in a knothole.”

WritingMayHas BeensArtMomentsSeemsCoursesGoalRealizingSituationDoubtCreationReaderProvePhotographyAimSeriesImpressionHeelsLensesGrotesqueGreat MomentsCameramanArt Of WritingRafters
Author:E. B. White
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“When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain.”

KnowsStillsProblemBodyCertainOrderFoundAnswersRoomsResultsDoubtProgressIgnoranceDegreesScientistImportanceStatementsIgnorantUncertaintyUncertainParamountUnsureHunchesScientific KnowledgeUncertainty And Doubt
Author:Richard P. Feynman
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“I presume that few who have paid any attention to the history of the Mathematical Analysis, will doubt that it has been developed in a certain order, or that that order has been, to a great extent, necessary -- being determined, either by steps of logical deduction, or by the successive introduction of new ideas and conceptions, when the time for their evolution had arrived.”

Has BeensIdeasCertainOrderAttentionStepsDoubtEvolutionPaidDeterminedMathematicalAnalysisLogicalConceptionNew IdeasIntroductionDeductionsMathematical Analysis
Book:A Treatise on Differential Equations
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“The vast majority of the peoples of the world are against war and against aggression. If they make their wishes known and effective, war can be stopped. It all depends on whether they are willing to make the effort necessary for the purpose. For, that it will require an effort, no one who considers the history of the world on these subjects can doubt.”

IfsWorldWarPurposeWishEffortKnownDoubtSubjectsWillingDependsMajorityAggressionWorld HistoryAgainst War
Author:Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
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“It was before Deity embodied in a human form walking among men, partaking of their infirmities, leaning on their bosoms, weeping over their graves, slumbering in the manger, bleeding on the cross, that the prejudices of the synagogue, and the doubts of the academy, and the pride of the portico, and the fasces of the lictor, and the swords of thirty legions were humbled in the dust.”

MenHumansFormChristDoubtPrideWalkingCrossesPrejudiceGravesDustThirtyDeitiesWeepingAcademyBosomsBleedingInfirmityLegionSynagogueHuman Form
Author:Thomas B. Macaulay
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“The whole analogy of natural operations furnishes so complete and crushing an argument against the intervention of any but what are termed secondary causes, in the production of all the phenomena of the universe; that, in view of the intimate relations between Man and the rest of the living world; and between the forces exerted by the latter and all other forces, I can see no excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of Nature's great progression, from the formless to the formed from the inorganic to the organic from blind force to conscious intellect and will.”

MenWorldI CanWholeUniverseForceCausesTermNaturalViewsDoubtConsciousArgumentRelationBlindProductionsExcuseIntellectOperationsIntimateCrushLatterInterventionProgressionAnalogiesNo Excuses
Author:Thomas Huxley
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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.”

ThinkingMadeHelpingCareDoubtBrokenMonthsDetailsNineWheelsSwearVowAltarsChildbirthNine MonthsFoolhardy
Author:Suzanne Curchod
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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.”

ShouldFirstsBelieveTwoCharacterGovernmentIndividualBeliefNationsDoubtCenturyCapacityThirdsFunctionFinalsBe GoodLiberalismDeclinePrincipalRestraintPreservationRemovalAscent
Author:George Will
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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?”

IfsInspirationalFirstsReasonLyingFoundReligiousDoubtAcceptanceDependsUltimateMereMortalsOutcomesTrustedRetreatGod's LoveConditionalMere Mortals
Author:Neale Donald Walsch
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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.”

ThinkingKnowsFeelsBelieveLittlesLongCharacterFactsValuesDoubtSeriousSafeWeaknessDeserveProsperityCommitContributionAbundanceFloodDeliveringSabotageBounty
Author:Steve Pavlina
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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.”

IfsMenNeedsHumansHardMightWould BeNightPassionGrowthSinRoomsMorningDoubtHuman NatureCrimeHard WorkCircumstancesSorrowPoliceMiseryTemptationAgentsPlentyVarietyNo DoubtLockedRegisterMirthLocked Up
Book:Friends in Council: A Series of Readings and Discourse Thereon
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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.”

IfsFirstsMeanEndsSchoolForceWaterCommunityDoubtCuttingAirStreetsCitizensPoliticianTaxesPoliceDollarsMiseryCleanSticksAppealsConsumersNo DoubtPocketsFormulasAdequateInflationStarvingIrresistibleReductionPrivate SectorTax CutsAffluentPolice ForcePublic SectorClean AirGood SchoolAir And Water
Book: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.”

KindLittlesSoulCareEarthEvilPrayerDoubtTroublePureConscienceAffectionDeedsAll KindsTemptationCertaintyAntidotePerplexityEvil ThoughtsImpure Thoughts
Author:Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
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