These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
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
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
With most people, unbelief in one thing is founded upon blind belief in another.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
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
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
Believe things, rather than man.
—Benjamin Whichcote (1609–83) British Anglican Priest, Theologian, Philosopher
Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
Some like to understand what they believe in. Others like to believe in what they understand.
—Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (1909–1966) Polish Aphorist, Poet
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
Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
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
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 Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
All the strength and force of man comes from his faith in things unseen. He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions. The man strongly possessed of an idea is the master of all who are uncertain and wavering. Clear, deep, living convictions rule the world.
—James Freeman Clarke (1810–88) American Unitarian Clergyman, Abolitionist, Author
The will to believe is perhaps the most powerful, but certainly the most dangerous human attribute.
—Dero A. Saunders (1914–2002) American Journalist, Scholar
When you affirm big, believe big, and pray big, big things happen.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
A supremely religious man or woman is one who believes deeply and consistently in the veracity of his highest experiences. He has his hours in the cellar … but he believes in the truth of the hours he spends upstairs.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.
—Dinah Craik (1826–87) British Novelist, Essayist, Poet
All business proceeds on beliefs, or judgments of probabilities, and not on certainties.
—Charles William Eliot (1834–1926) American Educationalist