Belief Quotes - Page 30

• The Principle of Tolerance, fixed once for all the realization that all knowledge is limited. It is an irony of history that at the very time when this was being worked out, there should rise, under Hitler in Germany and other tyrants elsewhere, a counter-conception: a principle of monstrous certainty. When the future looks back on the 1930's, it will think of them as a crucial confrontation of culture as I have been expounding it - the ascent of man against the throwback to the despots' belief that they have absolute certainty.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Faith, Men, Thinking

  "The Ascent of Man" (Episode 11: "Knowledge or Certainty"), 1973.

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• Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers of the preceding generation.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Faith, Teacher, Generations

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.163, Princeton University Press

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• 'Believing' cannot tip the scales in making a historical judgement about whether something really happened. I can choose to believe that George Washington threw a silver dollar across the Rappahannock, but my believing that he did it has nothing to do with whether or not he really did do it. So also with the story of Jesus walking on water: Believing that he did it has nothing to do with whether he really did do it. 'Belief' cannot be the basis for historical conclusions; it has no direct relevance.

  Marcus Borg

  Faith, Jesus, Believe

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• Faith is belief without evidence and reason; coincidentally that's also the definition of delusion.

  Richard Dawkins

  Faith, Definitions, Reason

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• There's no point of having faith if you have evidence.

  Richard Dawkins

  Faith, Evidence, No Point

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• The persistence of erroneous beliefs exacerbates the widespread anachronistic failure to recognize the urgent problems that face humanity on this planet.

  Murray Gell-Mann

  Faith, Persistence, Humanity

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• Here is my challenge. Name one ethical statement made, or one ethical action performed, by a believer that could not have been uttered or done by a nonbeliever. And here is my second challenge. Can any reader think of a wicked statement made, or an evil action performed, precisely because of religious faith? The second question is easy to answer, is it not? The first - I have been asking it for some time - awaits a convincing reply. By what right, then, do the faithful assume this irritating mantle of righteousness? They have as much to apologize for as to explain.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Faith, Religious, Thinking

  "An Atheist Responds" by Christopher Hitchens, www.washingtonpost.com. July 14, 2007.

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• Faith is not the result of fuzy thinking. It is the cause of it.

  Dan Barker

  Faith, Thinking, Causes

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• It's not easy to change world views. Faith has its own momentum and belief is comfortable. To restructure reality is traumatic and scary. That is why many intelligent people continue to believe: unbelief is an unknown.

  Dan Barker

  Faith, Believe, Intelligent

  Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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• It does require maturity to realize that models are to be used, but not to be believed.

  Henri Theil

  Faith, Maturity, Doe

  Henri Theil (1971). “Principles of Econometrics”, John Wiley & Sons Inc

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• The typical person has no trouble believing without knowing. What people need to realize is simply that you do not need to believe to know.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Faith, Believe, Knowing

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• To use the term blind faith, is to use an adjective needlessly.

  Julian Ruck

  Faith, Adjectives, Use

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• The one experience that I hope every student has at some point in their lives is to have some belief you profoundly, deeply hold, proved to be wrong because that is the most eye-opening experience you can have, and as a scientist, to me, is the most exciting experience I can ever have.

  Lawrence M. Krauss

  Faith, Hope, Eye

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• As a scientist, I don't believe anything. Science shouldn't use the word belief. There are things more likely and less likely. Science can say nothing with absolute certainty.

  Lawrence M. Krauss

  Faith, Believe, Use

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• I hope the day will never come when the American nation will be the champion of the status quo. Once that happens, we shall have forfeited, and rightly forfeited, the support of the unsatisfied, of those who are the victims of inevitable imperfections, of those who, young in years or spirit, believe that they can make a better world and of those who dream dreams and want to make their dreams to come true.

  John Foster Dulles

  Dream, Believe, Years

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• When you say "Yes" to something, you include something you do want in your experience. When you say "No" to something, you include something you don't want in your experience.

  Esther Hicks

  Faith, Want

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• What we know and believe is just a program; it is nothing but words, opinions, and ideas we learn from others and from our own life experience.

  Miguel Angel Ruiz

  Faith, Believe, Ideas

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• Doubt is a powerful tool. Doubt challenges my beliefs and breaks the spell of all the lies and superstitions that control my world. I use doubt to recover faith in myself, to take my power back from every superstition I believe in, and return that power to myself.

  Miguel Angel Ruiz

  Faith, Powerful, Lying

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• If you believe that something is good, and you do it, it benefits you. If you believe that something is bad, and you do it, it is a very detrimental experience.

  Esther Hicks

  Faith, Believe, Benefits

  Esther Hicks, Jerry Hicks (2009). “Ask and it is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires”, p.385, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• The ultimate arbiter of truth is experiment, not the comfort one derives from one's a priori beliefs, nor the beauty or elegance one ascribes to one's theoretical models.

  Lawrence M. Krauss

  Truth, Comfort, Elegance

  Lawrence M. Krauss (2012). “A Universe From Nothing”, p.16, Simon and Schuster

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• I'm reverent from a distance.

  Janet Morris

  Distance, Self Reliance, Ontology

  Janet Morris (1986). “Beyond Sanctuary”, Ace Books

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• It is upon each soul to recognize its limit.

  Janet Morris

  Soul, Limits

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• The objector and the rebel who raises his voice against what he believes to be the injustice of the present and the wrongs of the past is the one who hunches the world along.

  Clarence Darrow

  Believe, Past, Voice

  Clarence Darrow (2012). “Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom”, p.147, University of Chicago Press

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• That is probable which for the most part usually comes to pass, or which is a part of the ordinary beliefs of mankind.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Ordinary, Statistics, Mankind

  Marcus Tullius Cicero (1968). “Cicero”

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• Action will furnish belief,-but will that belief be the true one? This is the point, you know.

  Arthur Hugh Clough

  Statistics, Action, True Ones

  Arthur Hugh Clough, Joseph Phelan (2016). “Clough: Selected Poems”, p.122, Routledge

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