Quotessence
Home / Topics / Doubt Quotes

Doubt Quotes

Browse 5874 quotes about Doubt.

Related topics

No DoubtIfsPeopleThinkingMenKnowsMindBelieveWorldSelfWayMayGivingShouldSelf-doubtHumansWantDoeNeedsWhen In DoubtHas BeensFeelsWellsMeanFirstsMadeBeliefHeartLittlesMomentsStillsSaidPersonsLongTryingFactsYearsWould BeLooksReasonAtheismKindWritingCertaintyInspirationalIdeasRealSometimesStatesEnoughFeelingsSeemsDoneImportantMatterFaithChildrenHardCountryCertainDoubtedScienceChristianEndsSoulTwoBookMightAbilityHelpingLifeBenefitsFacesActionDifferentCausesHandsI BelieveLastsTodayBenefit Of The DoubtShowsWarWholeFearAsksDreamEyeFoundLiteratureLyingProblemSpiritUseReligiousArtClearI CanRunningShadowmore

Doubt Quotes

“As our planet takes action to cast out its manmade poisons and heal its man-caused wounds, many human inhabitants will no doubt give way to fear. Many will cling to seemingly powerful we're-God's-chosen-people religions, hoping that by so doing they will be saved from the wrath of a Vengeful God (not recognizing that the approaching "vengeance" will in reality be man's own actions coming back at him - and not recognizing that the Infinite Universal Power is far more than the narrow-minded gatekeeper of an exclusive Spiritual Country Club).”

PeopleMenWayGivingHumansCountryRealityActionEarthSpiritualPowerfulDoubtPlanetsUniversalInfiniteCastsClubsWoundsSavedHealChosenPoisonNo DoubtRecognizingVengeanceComing BackWrathExclusiveOur PlanetNarrow-mindedVengefulGatekeepersCountry Clubs
Author:Benjamin Hoff
Create image

“The Bible makes clear a basic truth that we self-centered humans find difficult to accept, namely, that the natural universe was not created primarily for us. There is no doubt that God wants us to enjoy it and even use its resources to optimize a good life for ourselves. But the ultimate purpose of creation is worship. Nature and all living things were created to glorify God.”

WantHumansSelfUsePurposeUniverseEnjoyDifficultNaturalAcceptingClearDoubtCreationWorshipResourcesUltimateEnvironmentalNo DoubtGood LifeWant ULiving ThingsSelf CenteredGlorify
Book:Carpe Diem: Seize the Day
Create image

“If we are to understand the human condition, and if we are to accept ourselves in all the complexity, self-doubt, extravagance of feeling, guilt, joy, the slow freeing of the self to its full capacity for action and creation, both as human being and as artist, we have to know all we can about each other, and we have to be willing to go naked.”

IfsKnowsHumansSelfFeelingsActionJoyArtistHumanityHuman BeingsAcceptingDoubtConditionsCreationWillingCapacityGuiltNakedComplexityHuman ConditionExtravaganceSelf-doubt
Book:Journal of a Solitude
Create image

“The theory of Reincarnation, which originated in India, has been welcomed in other countries. Without doubt, it is one of the most sensible and satisfying of all religions that mankind has conceived. This, like the others, comes from the best qualities of human nature, even if in this, as in the others, its adherents sometimes fail to carry out the principles in their lives.”

IfsHumansHas BeensCountrySometimesQualityPrinciplesDoubtFailingMankindHuman NatureTheoryIndiaSatisfyingSensibleOther CountriesReincarnationIncarnation
Author:Luther Burbank
Create image

“It may well happen that what is in itself the more certain on account of the weakness of our intelligence, which is dazzled by the clearest objects of nature; as the owl is dazzled by the light of the sun. Hence the fact that some happen to doubt about articles of faith is not due to the uncertain nature of the truths, but to the weakness of human intelligence; yet the slenderest knowledge that may be obtained of the highest things is more desirable than the most certain knowledge obtained of lesser things.”

HumansWellsMayFactsLightHappensChristianCertainSunDoubtObjectsHighestWeaknessAccountsDuesOrthodoxArticlesUncertainDesirableOrthodox ChristianOwlHuman IntelligenceCertain Knowledge
Book:The Summa Theologica: Complete Edition
Create image

“In an age of enormities, the emotions are naturally weakened. We are continually called upon to have feelings - about genocide, for instance, or about famine or the blowing up of passenger planes - and we are all aware that we are incapable of reacting appropriately. A guilty consciousness of emotional inadequacy or impotence makes people doubt their own human weight.”

PeopleHumansFeelingsAgeEmotionConsciousnessDoubtEmotionalWeightGuiltyInstancePlanesGenocideIncapableFaminePassengersReactingImpotenceInadequacyBlowing Up
Book:It All Adds Up: From the Dim Past to the Uncertain Future
Create image

“In the first place, lawyers better remember they are human beings, and a human being who hasn't his periods of doubts and distresses and disappointments must be a cabbage, not a human being. That is number one.”

FirstsHumansRememberHuman BeingsNumbersDoubtPeriodsDisappointmentLawyerDistressCabbage
Book:Proceedings in honor of Mr. Justice Frankfurter and distinguished alumni at the meeting of the Council, Harvard Law School Association in Cambridge, April 30, 1960
Create image

“The classical argument for why a supposedly decent and moral creature like Homo sapiens can mistreat and even extirpate other species rests upon an extreme position in a continuum. The Cartesian tradition, formulated explicitly in the seventeenth century, but developed in "folk" and other versions throughout human history no doubt, holds that other animals are little more than unfeeling machines, with only humans enjoying "consciousness," however defined.”

HumansLittlesEnjoyAnimalConsciousnessMoralDoubtCenturyPositionCreaturesArgumentTraditionMachinesSpeciesFolksExtremesVersionsDefinedDecentNo DoubtHuman HistoryHomo SapiensContinuumUnfeelingMistreat
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Create image

“Ideas, like men, can become dictators. We Americans have so far escaped regimentation by our rulers, but have we escaped regimentation by our own ideas? I doubt if there exists today a more complete regimentation of the human mind than that accomplished by our self-imposed doctrine of ruthless utilitarianism.”

IfsMenMindHumansIdeasSelfTodayDoubtDoctrineAccomplishedHuman MindRulersDictatorRuthlessUtilitarianismRegimentation
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
Create image

“We doubt not the destiny of our country that she is to accomplish great things for human nature, and be the mother of a nobler race than the world has yet known. But she has been so false to the scheme made out at her nativity, that it is now hard to say which way that destiny points.”

WorldWayHumansHas BeensMadeCountryHardMotherRaceKnownDestinyDoubtHuman NatureAccomplishGreat ThingsOur CountrySchemesNativity
Book:Memoirs, [ed.] by R.W. Emerson, W.H. Channing, and J.F. Clarke
Create image

“The evolution of life, and the evolutionary origin of mankind, are scientifically established as firmly and completely as any historical event not witnessed by human observers. Any concession to anti-evolutionists, suggesting that there are scientific reasons to doubt the facticity of evolution, would be propagating a plain untruth.”

HumansReasonWould BeDoubtMankindEventsEvolutionHistoricalObserversSuggestingUntruthConcessionsHistorical EventsEvolution Of Life
Author:Theodosius Dobzhansky
Create image

“I think the only way one can really determine whether extremism in the defense of liberty is justified, is not to approach it as an american or a european or an African or an Asian, but as a human being. If we look upon it as different types, immediately we begin to think in terms of extremism being good for one and bad for another, or bad for one and good for another. But if we look upon it, if we look upon ourselves as human beings, I doubt that anyone will deny that extremism in defense of liberty, the liberty of any human being, is no vice.”

IfsThinkingWayHumansLooksDifferentTermHuman BeingsLibertyDoubtTypeApproachDetermineDenyDefenseBe GoodLook UpJustifiedAsianExtremism
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“And last of all we have the secondary forms of crystals bursting in upon us, and sparkling in the rigidity of mathematical necessity and telling us, neither of harmony of design, usefulness or moral significance, nothing but spherical trigonometry and Napier's analogies. It is because we have blindly excluded the lessons of these angular bodies from the domain of human knowledge that we are still in doubt about the great doctrine that the only laws of matter are those which our minds must fabricate, and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.”

MindHumansStillsMatterBodyLastsFormLawMoralDoubtDesignLessonsHarmonyDoctrineMathematicalSignificanceDomainCrystalsUsefulnessAnalogiesExcludedBurstingSparklingRigidityHuman KnowledgeFabricateTrigonometry
Book:The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell: 1846-1862
Create image

“He ["the male"] is trapped in a twilight zone halfway between humans and apes, and is far worse off than apes, because he is, first of all, capable of a large array of negative feelings that the apes aren't - hate, jealousy, contempt, disgust, guilt, shame, disgrace, doubt - and, secondly, he is aware of what he is and isn't.”

FirstsHumansFeelingsHateDoubtCapableNegativeShameGuiltMalesZoneContemptTwilightDisgustingTrappedHalfwayDisgraceApesTwilight ZoneNegative Feelings
Author:Valerie Solanas
Create image

“The anchor of meaning resides in an abyss, deeper than the reach of despair. Yet the abyss is not not infinite; its bottom may suddenly be discovered within the confines of a human heart or under the debris of might doubts. This may be the vocation of man: to say "Amen" to being and to the Author of being; to live in defiance of absurdity, notwithstanding futility and defeat; to attain faith in God even in spite of God.”

MenHumansHeartMayMightDoubtDespairInfiniteBottomDefeatDeeperSpiteFaith In GodAbsurdityHuman HeartAbyssVocationAnchorsDefianceFutilityAmenDebris
Book:Who is Man?
Create image

“For the sake of my children and grandchildren, I hope that the human talent for self-destruction can be successfully controlled, or at least channelled into productive forms, but I doubt it. I think we are moving into extremely volatile and dangerous times, as modern electronic technologies give mankind almost unlimited powers to play with its own psychopathology as a game.”

ThinkingGivingHumansChildrenSelfPlayMovingFormGamesTechnologyDoubtModernMankindTalentDangerousDestructionSakeMy ChildrenProductiveControlledUnlimitedGrandchildrenSelf DestructionChildren And GrandchildrenPsychopathologyUnlimited Power
Author:J. G. Ballard
Create image

“Micromessaging -- communicating with other human beings through visual, audible, sublingual means, no doubt predates our ability to speak. We actually read micromessages quite naturally without thinking about them. You might say human beings read each other's micromessages subconsciously, in the same way that one dog understands another dog is unfriendly simply because the dog's fur is standing on end. The dogs read each other perfectly. It's not all that different for people.”

PeopleThinkingWayHumansMeanDifferentEndsMightSpeakHuman BeingsAbilityDoubtDogStandingCommunicateVisualsNo DoubtFurUnfriendlyAbility To SpeakCommunicating With Others
Book:Micromessaging
Create image

“In a sense, every human construction, whether mental or material, is a component in a landscape of fear because it exists in constant chaos. Thus children's fairy tales as well as adult's legends, cosmological myths, and indeed philosophical systems are shelters built by the mind in which human beings can rest, at least temporarily, from the siege of inchoate experience and of doubt.”

MindHumansWellsChildrenHuman BeingsDoubtMaterialsAdultsBuiltPhilosophicalConstantChaosMythTalesLandscapeFairyLegendsConstructionFairy TaleShelterComponentsSiege
Author:Yi-Fu Tuan
Create image

“It must be a very dour and pessimistic astronomer indeed who seriously doubts that there must be countless numbers of intelligent civilizations scattered throughout the universe on other planets which are orbiting around other stars. An attitude which asserts that man is the only intelligent life form in the universe is intolerably arrogant today ... anyone who holds such an opinion today is, fortunately for those who like to see some progress in human conceptions, something of an intellectual freak equivalent to a believer in the Flat Earth Theory.”

MenHumansTodayEarthFormUniverseStarsNumbersAttitudeOpinionDoubtProgressPlanetsTheoryCivilizationIntellectualIntelligentBelieverFlatsConceptionFreakArrogantPessimisticAstronomersIntelligent Life
Author:Robert K. G. Temple
Create image

“I was brought up to believe in free will. Although I came to doubt all revelation, I can never accept the idea that the Universe is a physical or chemical accident, a result of blind evolution. Even though I learned to recognize the lies, the clichés and the idolatries of the human mind, I still cling to some truths which I think all of us might accept some day.”

ThinkingMindBelieveHumansStillsI CanIdeasMightLyingUniverseResultsAcceptingDoubtEvolutionBlindAccidentsRevelationsFree WillHuman MindChemicalsIdolatry
Book:Aspects of I.B. Singer
Create image

“No doubt other writers have often put a thing more brilliantly, more subtly than even a very cunning artist in words can hope to emulate, a supreme phrase being a bit of luck that only happens now and then. And inasmuch as the condiments and secret travail of human nature are always the same, and that certain psychological moments must ever and ever recur, what more tempting than to pin down such a moment with the blow of a borrowed hammer?”

HumansMomentsHappensArtistCertainBitsSecretDoubtHuman NatureLuckBlowSupremePsychologicalPhrasesNo DoubtNow And ThenQuotationsCunningHammersPinsBorrowedEmulateTemptingCondiments
Author:Ethel Smyth
Create image

“A single word indicative of doubt, that any thing, or every thing, in that country is not the very best in the world, produces an effect which must be seen and felt to be understood. If the citizens of the United States were indeed the devoted patriots they call themselves, they would surely not thus encrust themselves in the hard, dry, stubborn persuasion, that they are the first and best of the human race, that nothing is to be learnt, but what they are able to teach, and that nothing is worth having, which they do not possess.”

IfsWorldFirstsHumansCountryHardStatesAbleFeltUnitedRaceTeachUnited StatesDoubtEffectsProduceCitizensUnderstoodHuman RaceArroganceDryDevotedPatriotStubbornPersuasionSingle Word
Book:Domestic Manners of the Americans: Complete in One Volume
Create image

“In whatever system where the weight attached to the wheel should be the cause of motion of the wheel, without any doubt the center of the gravity of the weight will stop beneath the center of its axle. No instrument devised by human ingenuity, which turns with its wheel, can remedy this effect. Oh, speculators about perpetual motion, how many vain chimeras have you created in the like quest. Go and take you place with the seekers after gold.”

ShouldHumansTurnsCausesDoubtEffectsGoldWeightInstrumentsVainWheelsGravityQuestsPerpetualRemedySeekersIngenuitySpeculatorsChimeraPerpetual Motion
Author:Leonardo da Vinci
Create image

“The whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspence of judgment appear the only result of ourmost accurate scrutiny, concerning this subject. But such is the frailty of human reason, and such the irresistible contagion of opinion, that even this deliberate doubt could scarcely be upheld; did we not enlarge our view, and opposing one species of superstition to another, set them a quarrelling; while we ourselves, during their fury and contention, happily make our escape into the calm, though obscure, regions of philosophy.”

HumansReasonPhilosophyWholeResultsViewsOpinionDoubtMysterySubjectsJudgmentPhilosophicalSpeciesCalmUncertaintyRegionsSuperstitionsAccurateObscureDeliberateFuryIrresistibleOpposingRiddleScrutinyContentionInexplicableFrailtyEnigmaContagionHuman Reason
Author:David Hume
Create image

“No one can doubt, that the convention for the distinction of property, and for the stability of possession, is of all circumstances the most necessary to the establishment of human society, and that after the agreement for the fixing and observing of this rule, there remains little or nothing to be done towards settling a perfect harmony and concord.”

HumansLittlesDonePerfectDoubtSocietyCircumstancesHarmonyRemainsPropertyPossessionSettlingDistinctionAgreementStabilityEstablishmentConventionsObservingFixingHuman SocietyPerfect Harmony
Book:A Treatise of Human Nature
Create image

“A friend of mine tells me that a Beethoven symphony can solve for him a problem of conduct. I've no doubt that it does so simply by giving him a sense of the tragedy and the greatness of human destiny, which makes his personal anxieties seem small, which throws them into a new proportion.”

GivingHumansDoeProblemSeemsDestinyWorryDoubtGreatnessMinesAnxietyTragedySolveNo DoubtProportionSymphony
Book:Art and reality: ways of the creative process
Create image

“[H]ow do I pity those who (assuming the name of friends) surround themselves with maxims importing the wisdom of doubt and suspicion, 'til they impose on themselves that very hard task of laboring through life without ever knowing a human creature to whom they can make the proper use of language and freely speak the dictates of their hearts!”

HumansHeartHardUseValuesNamesSpeakLanguageFriendshipKnowingDoubtFriendsCreaturesTasksAssumingPitySurroundSuspicionMaximsUse Of Language
Author:Sarah Fielding
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image