Best opposites & belief Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“William James used to preach the "will-to-believe." For my part, I should wish to preach the "will-to-doubt." None of our beliefs are quite true; all at least have a penumbra of vagueness and error. What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.”

Should Believe Wanted Used Belief Wish Doubt Opposites Errors Vagueness

Author:Bertrand Russell

“Mankind likes to think in terms of extreme opposites. It is given to formulating its beliefs in terms of Either/Ors, between which it recognizes no intermediate possibilities.”

Thinking Reason Truth Belief Given Term Education Mankind Possibility Opposites Extremes Likes

Book:Experience and Education, 60th Anniversary Edition

Source: Experience and Education, 60th Anniversary Edition

“A politician will always tip off his true belief by stating the opposite at the beginning of the sentence. For maximum comprehension, do not start listening until the first clause is concluded. Begin instead at the word 'BUT' which begins the second, or active, clause. This is the way to tell a liberal from a conservative - before they tell you. Thus: 'I have always believed in a strong national defense, second to none, but...(a liberal, about to propose a $20 billion defense cut).”

“In the face of the idea that truth might afford the opposite of satisfaction and turn out to be completely shocking to humanity at any given historical moment, ... the fathers of pragmatism made the satisfaction of the subject the criterion of truth. For such a doctrine there is no possibility of rejecting or even criticizing any species of belief that is enjoyed by its adherents.”

Source: Eclipse of Reason

“I am like all other atheists only in that I do not believe there are any gods. Beyond that, I may differ dramatically in my values and beliefs from any other atheist. On both sides of the political spectrum, one can find the neo-conservative Objectivists and the ultra-liberal Communists, both of whom hate each other. These two factions take up nearly opposite sets of values, yet both are comprised of unabashed atheists.”

Believe May Two Political Values Hate Belief Sides Atheism Opposites Atheist Conservative Communist Both Sides Spectrum Factions Ultras Political Spectrum

Author:Richard Carrier

“There is a brotherliness about a drinking person, which is coldly lacking in the straight and narrow enemies of drink; the difference between the two is more marked than nationality or belief: it is an opposite species altogether. It is against the unwritten laws of congeniality for them to mix. For me, a man who does not drink is distinctly indecent.”

Men Persons Doe Two Law Belief Differences Enemy Drink Opposites Drinking Species Lacking Nationality Unwritten Congeniality

Author:Caitlin Thomas

“The opposite of thinking clearly is being muddled. To be conscious of being muddled is a horrible experience. To avoid it we may even be tempted to shut our minds and swallow a belief, ready-made, from some expert authority.”

Thinking Mind May Made Belief Ready Authority Conscious Opposites Horrible Experts Tempted Horrible Experience Thinking Clearly

Author:Susan Stebbing

“Logic, too, also rests on assumptions that do not correspond to anything in the real world, e.g., on the assumption that there areequal things, that the same thing is identical at different points in time: but this science arose as a result of the opposite belief (that such things actually exist in the real world). And it is the same with mathematics, which would certainly never have arisen if it had been understood from the beginning that there is no such thing in nature as a perfectly straight line, a true circle, and absolute measure.”

Ifs World Different Real Belief Lines Results Understood Logic Opposites Absolutes Mathematics Equality Circles Assumption Real World Identical Straight Lines

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“If God causes man to be sick, sickness must be good, and its opposite, health, must be evil, for all that He makes is good and will stand forever. If the transgression of God's law produces sickness, it is right to be sick; and we cannot if we would, and should not if we could, annul the decrees of wisdom. It is the transgression of a belief of mortal mind, not of a law of matter nor of divine Mind, which causes the belief of sickness. The remedy is Truth, not matter,--the truth that disease is unreal.”

Ifs Men Should Mind Matter Law Evil Belief Causes Forever Produce Divine Disease Opposites Sick Illness Be Good Mortals Sickness Remedy Unreal Decree Transgression

Author:Mary Baker Eddy

“The opposite of humility is arrogance--the belief that we are wiser or better than others. Arrogance promotes separation rather than community. It looms like a brick wall between us and those from whom we could learn.”

Belief Community Humility Wall Opposites Separation Arrogance Wiser Bricks Brick Wall

Author:John Templeton

“Those who are guilty of the argumentum ad ignorantiam profess belief in something because its opposite cannot be proved ... In the realm where "prejudice" is now most an issue, it normally takes a form like this: you cannot prove by the method of statistics and quantitative measurement that men are not equal. Therefore all men are equal. ... You cannot prove again by the methods of science that one culture is higher than another. Therefore the culture of the Digger Indians is just a good as that of Muncie, Indiana, or thirteenth-century France.”

Men Form Culture Belief Issues Century Higher Prove Equal Opposites Prejudice Method Guilty France Realms Statistics Ads Measurement Indiana

Author:Richard M. Weaver

“I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by religious men, who are equally certain that they represent the Divine will. I am sure that either the one or the other class is mistaken in that belief, and perhaps in some respects both.”

Men Certain Belief Religious Opinion Class Advice Divine Opposites Mistaken Divine Will

Book:Speeches & Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 1832-1865 by Abraham Lincoln

Source: Speeches & Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 1832-1865 by Abraham Lincoln

“What is the opposite of abundance? It's not scarcity. It's greed. Greed is the belief that there is not enough for everyone, so you'd better grab yours now. What is the opposite of love? It's not hate. It's fear. Fear is the belief that someone or something can hurt you.”

Enough Hate Belief Hurt Opposites Greed Abundance Scarcity

Author:Robert G. Allen

“This is a very central part of the psychedelic attitude toward the world, to entertain all possibilities but to never commit to belief. Belief always being seen as a kind of trap, because if you belief something you are forever precluded from believing its opposite.”

Ifs World Believe Kind Belief Attitude Forever Possibility Opposites Commit Traps Psychedelic

Author:Terence McKenna

Source: Ain't nobody's business if you do: the absurdity of consensual crimes in a free society

“All women are brought up from the very earliest years in the belief that their ideal of character is the very opposite to that of men; not self-will, and government by self-control, but submission and yielding to the control of others. All the moralities tell them that it is their nature to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections.”

Men Years Self Character Government Belief Morality Ideals Opposites Affection Self Control Submission Self Will Abnegation Live For Others

Book:The Subjection of Women

Source: The Subjection of Women

“And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on.”

Belief Attitude Opposites Positive Attitude Holding On Clinging

Author:Alan Watts

“Question: What is the opposite of faith? Not disbelief. Too final, certain, closed. Itself is a kind of belief. Doubt.”

Kind Certain Belief Doubt Opposites Finals Disbelief

Book:The Satanic Verses

Source: The Satanic Verses

“The Bible is not interested in arguing, because if you state a thesis of belief you have already stated it's opposite; if you say, I believe in God, you have already suggested the possibility of not believing in him. [p.250]”

Ifs Believe States Belief I Believe Possibility Opposites I Believe In Arguing Believe In God Not Interested Thesis I Believe In God

Author:Northrop Frye

“The word religion comes from an origin which means "coming together." But priesthood has been doing just the opposite, it has created splits in man, not oneness. Religion means creating in man an organic unity; it has nothing to do with God, it has something to do with you. It has nothing to do with worship, it has something to do with a transformation of your own consciousness.”

Men Mean Has Beens Together Spirituality Belief Consciousness Creating Worship Opposites Transformation Unity Oneness Manifestation Splits Priesthood Coming Together

Author:Rajneesh

“I cannot affirm God if I fail to affirm man. Therefore, I affirm both. Without a belief in human unity I am hungry and incomplete. Human unity is the fulfillment of diversity. It is the harmony of opposites. It is a many-stranded texture, with color and depth.”

Ifs Men Humans Belief Liberty Failing Color Diversity Opposites Harmony Unity Depth Hungry Fulfillment Texture Incomplete Stranded

Book:The Celebration of Life: A Dialogue on Hope, Spirit, and the Immortality of the Soul

Source: The Celebration of Life: A Dialogue on Hope, Spirit, and the Immortality of the Soul

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Opposites Quotes