Believe that you have it, and you have it.
—Latin Proverb
All business proceeds on beliefs, or judgments of probabilities, and not on certainties.
—Charles William Eliot (1834–1926) American Educationalist
Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
—Alexander Hamilton (c.1757–1804) American Federalist Politician, Statesman
In religion and politics, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
That which you vividly imagine, sincerely believe, ardently desire and enthusiastically act upon will inevitably come to pass.
—William R. Lucas (1922–2025) American Scientist
An unaspiring person believes according to what he achieves. An aspiring person achieves according to what he believes.
—Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) Indian Yoga Teacher
Man is so inconsistent a creature that it is impossible to reason from his beliefs to his conduct, or from one part of his belief to another.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
A big league baseball manager declares that he would have the public feel extremely doubtful early in the season regarding the chances of his team to win the championship. Cocksureness, he implies, could not fail to have a bad effect upon his players, whereas public skepticism acted upon them as a challenge. There is wisdom in this for business concerns. The man who is smugly confident that he has arrived is ripe for the return trip. A measure of self-confidence is an asset when you are battling your way to the top. But cocksureness is not an asset but a liability. It tends to dull the edge of effort. Also, it breeds arrogance that is distasteful.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Men are tattooed with their special beliefs like so many South Sea Islanders; but a real human heart with divine love in it beats with the same glow under all the patterns of all earth’s thousand tribes!
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
He who is surety is never sure himself. Take advice, and never be security for more than you are quite willing to lose. Remember the word of the wise man: “He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it; and he that hateth suretyship is sure.”
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
With most people, unbelief in one thing is founded upon blind belief in another.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Everyone has his superstitions. One of mine has always been when I started to go anywhere, or to do anything, never to turn back or to stop until the thing intended was accomplished.
—Ulysses S. Grant (1822–85) American Civil War General, Head of State
As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter; and our wine will burn our mouth. Only that good profits, which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Too few have the courage of my convictions.
—Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) American Educational Philosopher
It’s a wonderful feeling when you discover some evidence to support your beliefs.
—Anonymous
I have found that the greatest help in meeting any problem with decency and self-respect and whatever courage is demanded, is to know where you yourself stand. That is, to have in words what you believe and are acting from.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Our affections and beliefs are wiser than we; the best that is in us is better than we can understand; for it is grounded beyond experience, and guides us, blindfold but safe, from one age on to another.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
No more duty can be urged upon those who are entering the great theater of life than simple loyalty to their best convictions.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Emphatic and reiterated assertion, especially during childhood, produces in most people a belief so firm as to have a hold even over the unconscious.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Beliefs are dangerous. Beliefs allow the mind to stop functioning. A non-functioning mind is clinically dead. Believe in nothing … .
—Unknown
Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
Disbelief in futurity loosens in a great measure the ties of morality, and may be for that reason pernicious to the peace of civil society.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
Remember that what you believe will depend very much upon what you are.
—Noah Porter (1811–92) American Clergyman, Academic
Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
We cannot tell some people what it is believe, partly because they are too stupid to understand, partly because we are too proudly vague to explain.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Leave a Reply