Belief quotes
1.8K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside belief — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force. But even Capitalist cynicism will admit that however unconscionable we may be when our own interests are affected, we can be most indignantly virtuous at the expense of others."
"A thing that nobody believes cannot be proved too often."
"Any belief worth having must survive doubt"
"I'll tell you what's the greatest power under heaven, and that is public opinion-the ruling belief in society about what is right and what is wrong, what is honourable and what is shameful. That's the steam that is to work the engines."
"Beware! The mind of the believer stagnates. It fails to grow outward into an unlimited, infinite universe."
"By patriotism is meant, not only spontaneous, instinctive love for one's own nation, and preference for it above all other nations, but also the belief that such love and preference are good and useful."
"There can be knowledge of the diabolical, but no belief in it, for more of the diabolical than there is does not exist."
"Go back to classical times, say classical Greece. Who drank the hemlock? Was it someone who was conforming, obeying the gods? Or was it someone who was disrupting the youth and questioning the faith and belief? Socrates, in other words. It was Socrates."
"The victory's in believing."
"Belief in form, but disbelief in content - that's what makes an aphorism charming."
"He is dead in this world who has no belief in another."
"A most unfailing experience... of the excitement of sublunary (that is, human) natures by the conjunctions and aspects of the planets has instructed and compelled my unwilling belief."
"The primary subject of fiction is and has always been human emotion, values, and beliefs."
"I have beliefs, of course, like everyone-but I don't always believe in them."
"One must believe that private dilemmas are, if deeply examined, universal, and so, if expressed, have a human value beyond the private, and one must also believe in the vehicle for expressing them, in the talent."
"We never stop to consider that our beliefs are only a relative truth that’s always going to be distorted by all the knowledge we have stored in our memory."
"So i say, change the base! If you change the base, anybody will be as tall as anybody else! My belief is poverty is not caused by poor ppl. Poverty is caused by the system. Poverty is caused by the policies that we pursue."
"[On Werner Erhard, founder of est:] If I wanted a new belief system, I'd choose to believe in God - He's been in business longer than Werner, and He has better music."
"And when is it ever convincing, the belief others have in your abilities? You know perfectly well they can't see the mess inside you."
"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."
