Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Doubt

As to the adjective, when in doubt strike it out.
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist

Nearly all the powerful people of this age are unbelievers, the best of them in doubt and misery, the most in plodding hesitation, doing as well as they can, what practical work lies at hand.
John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic

We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end.
Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian

When one devotes oneself to meditation, mental burdens, unnecessary worries, and wandering thoughts drop off one by one; life seems to run smoothly and pleasantly. A student may now depend on intuition to make decisions. As one acts on intuition, second thought, with its dualism, doubt and hesitation, does not arise.
Nyogen Senzaki (1876–1958) Japanese Buddhist Monk

The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of skepticism.
George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor

When nothing is sure, everything is possible.
Margaret Drabble (b.1939) English Novelist, Biographer, Critic, Short Story Writer

There’s nothing certain in a man’s life except this: That he must lose it.
Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright

Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning.
George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist

Doubt is the father of invention.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian Astronomer, Physicist, Mathematician

It is never worth while to suggest doubts in order to show how cleverly we can answer them.
Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian

In thinking, if a person begins with certainties, they shall end in doubts, but if they can begin with doubts, they will end in certainties.
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher

The torch of doubt and chaos is what the sage steers by.
Zhuang Zhou (c.369–c.286 BCE) Chinese Taoist Philosopher

Cautiousness in judgment is nowadays to be recommended to each and every one: if we gained only one incontestable truth every ten years from each of our philosophical writers the harvest we reaped would be sufficient.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist

Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.
Alan Alda (b.1936) American Actor, TV Personality, Screenwriter

Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.
Frederick Buechner (1926–2022) American Writer, Theologian

The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer

Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.
William Congreve (1670–1729) English Playwright, Poet

The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.
John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist

Nobody can really guarantee the future. The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them and then make our plans with confidence.
Henry Ford II (1917–1987) American Industrialist

Never do anything concerning the rectitude of which you have a doubt.
Pliny the Elder (23–79CE) Roman Statesman, Scholar

To doubt is worse than to have lost; And to despair is but to antedate those miseries that must fall on us.
Philip Massinger (1583–1640) English Playwright

Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age.
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer

There is something pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything.
Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet

Suspicion is most often useless pain.
Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist

Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.
John Henry Newman (1801–90) British Theologian, Poet

The longing for certainty … is in every human mind. But certainty is generally illusion.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist

Suspicion is a heavy armor and with its weight it impedes more than it protects.
Robert Burns (1759–96) Scottish Poet, Songwriter

Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–91) Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer, Novelist, Short Story Writer

Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher

In contemplation, if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher

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