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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
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“The world men inhabit is rather bleak. It is a world full of doubt and confusion, where vulnerability must be hidden, not shared; where competition, not co-operation, is the order of the day; where men sacrifice the possibility of knowing their own children and sharing in their upbringing, for the sake of a job they may have chosen by chance, which may not suit them and which in many cases dominates their lives to the exclusion of much else.”

MenWorldMayChildrenJobsOrderChanceCasesKnowingDoubtSacrificePossibilityCompetitionSakeChosenConfusionSuitsOperationsVulnerabilityUpbringingExclusionBleak
Author:Anna Ford
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“Without doubt machines will be able to determine the means and avenues to goals, but men will continue to set the goals themselves. For what machine can ever apply the considerations of compassion and justice which, as man's enlightenment spreads ... will enter ever more into the decisions that affect his future ... in the universe?”

MenMeanAbleUniverseGoalJusticeDecisionBusinessCompassionDoubtEnlightenmentMachinesDetermineSpreadConsiderationAvenues
Author:Lewis Strauss
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“The upheaval of our world and the upheaval in consciousness is one and the same. Everything becomes relative and therefore doubtful. And while man, hesitant and questioning, contemplates... his spirit yearns for an answer that will allay the turmoil of doubt and uncertainty.”

MenWorldSpiritAnswersConsciousnessDoubtUncertaintyContemplationOur WorldRelativeQuestioningContemplatingTurmoilDoubtfulUpheavalHesitant
Book:Modern Man in Search of a Soul
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“Any day above ground is a good one. A woman's beauty is her inherent ability to better a man in every way. My father, now in heaven, is the watcher of birds. And his eye is on his sparrow. God, in his great silence, is still there. Of that I haven't a single doubt. Music is the balm that heals the ache of a forlorn star.”

MenWayStillsEyeFatherHeavenStarsAbilitySilenceDoubtHavensMusic IsBirdHealHis EyesInherentSilence IsAcheSparrowsWatchersForlornWomen's Beauty
Author:Donald E. Williams, Jr.
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“For in a government of laws and not of men, no man, however prominent or powerful, and no mob however unruly or boisterous, is entitled to defy a court of law. If this country should ever reach the point where any man or group of men by force or threat of force could long defy the commands of our court and our Constitution, then no law would stand free from doubt, no judge would be sure of his writ, and no citizen would be safe from his neighbors.”

IfsMenShouldLongCountryGovernmentWould BeLawForcePowerfulDoubtGroupsJudgingCitizensSafeConstitutionCourtThreatNeighborCommandEntitledProminentUnrulyBoisterous
Author:John F. Kennedy
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“What greater weakness can there be than not to know what is the source of one's being, of one's life, of one's senses, of one's knowledge, and what is to be their end? What can be more deeply disheartening than to wonder whether one's soul is, perhaps, a material thing, like a stone or a reptile, corruptible like these base creatures? Is there not more strength and greatness of mind in admitting the idea of a being superior to all other beings, who has made them all and to whom all owe their existence; of a being supremely perfect, who is pure, who had no beginning and can have no ending, of whom our soul is the image and, so to speak, a portion, being a spiritual and immortal thing?”

IfsMenMindMayDoeMadeIdeasSoulEndsAbleSpiritualPerfectDoubtSubjectsMaterialsPureProveCreaturesAll ThingsStonesCorruptionSuperiorsImmortalDiscouragingGrandeurStrength Of MindReptiles
Author:Jean de la Bruyere
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“The conflict between the principle of liberty and the fact of slavery is coming gradually to an issue. Slavery has now the power, and falls into convulsions at the approach of freedom. That the fall of slavery is predetermined in the counsels of Omnipotence I cannot doubt; it is a part of the great moral improvement in the condition of man, attested by all the records of history. But the conflict will be terrible, and the progress of improvement perhaps retrograde before its final progress to consummation.”

MenFactsFallLibertyMoralPrinciplesIssuesDoubtRecordsProgressConditionsTerribleConflictApproachSlaveryFinalsImprovementOmnipotencePredeterminedRetrograde
Book:Memoirs of John Quincy Adams: Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848
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“I love to read the dedications of old books written in monarchies for they invariably honor some (usually insignificant) knight or duke with fulsome words of sycophantic insincerity, praising him as the light of the universe (in hopes, no doubt, for a few ducats to support future work); this old practice makes me feel like such an honest and upright man, by comparison, when I put a positive spin, perhaps ever so slightly exaggerated, on a grant proposal.”

MenFeelsBookLightUniversePracticeSupportDoubtWrittenHonestHonorPraiseNo DoubtComparisonGrantsDedicationInsignificantProposalKnightsMonarchyExaggeratedDukesLove To ReadOld BooksInsincerityUpright ManFuture Work
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“I greatly doubt whether the men who become pirate chiefs are those who are filled with retrospective terror of their fathers, or whether Napoleon , at Austerlitz, really felt that he was getting even with Madame Mère. I know nothing of the mother of Attila , but I rather suspect that she spoilt the little darling, who subsequently found the world irritating because it sometimes resisted his whims.”

KnowsMenWorldLittlesSometimesMotherFoundFatherFeltDoubtHe ManFilledTerrorChiefsSuspectsDarlingPirateWhimIrritatingRetrospectiveSpoilt
Book:Power: A New Social Analysis
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“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)
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“Every woman knows what I'm talking about. It’s the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men’s unsupported overconfidence.”

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Author:Rebecca Solnit
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“No one talks more passionately about his rights than he who in the depths of his soul doubts whether he has any. By enlisting passion on his side he wants to stifle his reason and its doubts: thus he will acquire a good conscience and with it success among his fellow men.”

MenWantSoulReasonPassionSidesDoubtRightsConscienceFellowsDepthAcquireFellow ManEnlisting
Book:Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits
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“And so, through all the thick mists of the dim doubts in my mind, divine intuitions now and then shoot, enkindling my fog with a heavenly ray. And for this I thank God; for all have doubts; many deny; but doubts or denials, few along with them, have intuitions. Doubts of all things earthly, and intuitions of some things heavenly; this combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who regards them both with equal eye.”

MenMindEyeDoubtDivineEqualAll ThingsRegardDenyIntuitionBelieverDenialCombinationHeavenlyRaysThank GodThickNow And ThenFogMistInfidel
Book:Moby-Dick
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“A cynic is just a man who found out when he was about ten that there wasn't any Santa Claus, and he's still upset. Yes, there'll be more war ; and soon, I don't doubt. There always has been. There'll be deaths and disappointments and failures. When they come, you meet them.”

MenHas BeensStillsWarFoundDoubtTenDisappointmentUpsetCynicismSantaSanta ClausCynic
Book:Just Representations: A James Gould Cozzens Reader
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“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?
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“I do indeed disbelieve that we or any other mortal men can attain on a given day to absolutely incorrigible and unimprovable truth about such matters of fact as those with which religions deal. But I reject this dogmatic ideal not out of a perverse delight in intellectual instability. I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.”

MenMatterFactsGivenLosesDealsDoubtLoversIntellectualIdealsDelightMortalsRejectsDisorderRationalityMatter Of FactPretensionInstabilityDogmaticIncorrigible
Book:The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
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“Women watched for the spectacular performances of the men, and there can be no reasonable doubt that the presence of an audience is a very important factor in shaping the men's behavior. In fact, it is probable that the men are more exhibitionistic because the women admire their performances. Conversely, there can be no doubt that the spectacular behavior is a stimulus which summons the audience together, promoting in the women the appropriate behavior.”

MenImportantFactsTogetherAudienceDoubtHe ManBehaviorPerformancesAdmireFactorsNo DoubtReasonableAppropriatePromotingSpectacularStimulusReasonable DoubtAppropriate Behavior
Author:Gregory Bateson
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“There are few who would need advisers, if they were only accustomed to appeal to themselves in their calmest, holiest moments. If, when embarrassed with doubt as to any course of action, they would turn aside from the immediate tumult of the world, and from the vain speaking of those who "darken counsel by words without knowledge;" and would then commune with their hearts alone, at night, the heavens their silent counsellors, they would act not always in accordance with the wise men of this world, but with that wisdom which bringeth peace.”

IfsMenWorldNeedsHeartMomentsWisdomActionNightTurnsCoursesHeavenDoubtWiseThis WorldSilentAppealsVainEmbarrassedAccustomedAdviserCommunesTumultCounsellors
Book:Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
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“Men and not measures are, no doubt, the very life of politics. But then it is not the fashion to say so in public places.”

MenDoubtFashionNo Doubt
Book:Anthony Trollope: The Chronicles of Barsetshire & The Palliser Novels: The Warden + The Barchester Towers + Doctor Thorne + Framley Parsonage + The Small House at Allington + The Last Chronicle of Barset + Can You Forgive Her? + The Prime Minister + Eustace Diamonds…
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“There would be a blaze and a confusion, in which timid men would doubt whether the constitution would be burned to tinder or only illuminated; but that blaze and that confusion would be dear to Mr. Daubney if he could stand as the centre figure, the great pyrotechnist who did it all, red from head to foot with the glare of the squibs with which his own hands were filling all the spaces.”

IfsMenHandsWould BeSpaceDoubtFeetFiguresRedConstitutionDearConfusionBurnedCentreFillingGlareTinder
Author:Anthony Trollope
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“A bull in a china shop is not a useful animal, nor is he ornamental, but there can be no doubt of his energy. The hare was full of energy, but he didn't win the race. The man who stands still is the man who keeps his ground.”

MenStillsWinningEnergyAnimalRaceDoubtHe ManChinaNo DoubtShopsBullsHares
Book:Anthony Trollope: The Chronicles of Barsetshire & The Palliser Novels (Unabridged): The Warden + The Barchester Towers + Doctor Thorne + Framley Parsonage + The Small House at Allington + The Last Chronicle of Barset + Can You Forgive Her? + The Prime Minister + Eustace Diamonds...
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“Herodotus is not more indisputably the father of history than is Sir Boyle Roche the father of Bulls. No doubt there were makers of bulls before his day, even as brave men lived before Agamemnon; but they are not remembered, and if their bulls have survived them they are credited to Sir Boyle by a posterity generously forgiving and forgetful of his famous indictment.”

IfsMenFatherDoubtForgivingBraveRememberedNo DoubtMakersSurvivedBullsPosterityBrave ManForgetfulIndictmentAgamemnon
Author:Boyle Roche
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