Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. ...
by Voltaire

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
- Voltaire

Related topics: Wisdom Life Human-Nature Psychology

Appreciation is a wonderful thing.
It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
- Voltaire

It is the first law of friendship
that it has to be cultivated.
The second is to be indulgent
when the first law is neglected.
- Voltaire

Faith consists in believing when it is
beyond the power of reason to believe.
- Voltaire

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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The more I read, the more I meditate;
and the more I acquire,
the more certain I am that I know nothing.
- Voltaire

God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
- Voltaire

A witty saying proves nothing.
- Voltaire

The more he became truly wise,
the more he distrusted everything he knew.
- Voltaire

Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry
always gets the best of the argument.
- Voltaire

Fear follows crime, and is its punishment.
- Voltaire

It is dangerous to be right in matters
on which the established authorities are wrong.
- Voltaire

Beyond a doubt, truth bears the same relation
to falsehood as light to darkness.
- Leonardo da Vinci

Doubt is the vestibule which we all must pass through
before we can enter the temple of truth.
- Osho

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead

Inaction breeds doubt and fear.
Action breeds confidence and courage.
If you want to conquer fear,
do not sit home and think about it.
Go out and get busy.
- Dale Carnegie

Doubt is the beginning of wisdom.
- Aristotle

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers,
who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt
to offer a solution everybody can understand.
- Colin Powell

Believe those who are seeking the truth.
Doubt those who find it.
- Andre Gide

It is not my place to doubt the sincere beliefs of others.
My job is to question my own beliefs.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When in doubt, do it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Once we doubt ourselves, success slips beyond our grasp.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

My life is for living, not for worry or doubt,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

This is my wish for you:
Comfort on difficult days,
Smiles when sadness intrudes,
Rainbows to follow the clouds,
Laughter to kiss your lips,
Sunsets to warm your heart,
Hugs when spirits sag,
Beauty for your eyes to see,
Friendships to brighten your being,
Faith so that you can believe,
Confidence for when you doubt,
Courage to know yourself,
Patience to accept the truth,
Love to complete your life.
- Anonymous

I no doubt deserved my enemies,
but I don't believe I deserved my friends.
- Walt Whitman

Doubt and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination,
which the steadfast heart will conquer,
and the large mind will transcend.
- Helen Keller

Faith keeps many doubts in her pay.
If I could not doubt, I should not believe.
- Henry David Thoreau

When all is said and done,
the one sole condition that makes
spiritual happiness and preserves it
is the absence of doubt.
- Mark Twain

I do not believe in the God of the theologians;
but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt.
- Thomas Edison

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you doubt the virtue in self-honor,
remember what the flight attendant says,
"Put your own oxygen mask on first."
You are of no use to anyone else
if you have not taken care of your own needs first -
this includes your own emotional,
as well as physical, well-being.
In addition, your greatest value to your children,
your family, your friends, and your community
is the example you set, leading a great life that inspires
those around you to emulate your being.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When prayer removes distrust and doubt
and enters the field of mental certainty,
it becomes faith; and the universe is built on faith.
- Ernest Holmes

There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt.
Doubt separates people.
It is a poison that disintegrates
friendships and breaks up pleasant relations.
It is a thorn that irritates and hurts;
it is a sword that kills.
- The Buddha

There is no doubt that life can be a bumpy ride.
But so were those roller coasters you loved as a kid.
Savor the adventure.
Find excitement in the uncertainty and the constant change.
Even let a touch of fear add spice to your life -
as you did on that roller coaster.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I, with a deeper instinct,
choose a man who compels my strength,
who makes enormous demands on me,
who does not doubt my courage or my toughness,
who does not believe me naive or innocent,
who has the courage to treat me like a woman.
- Anais Nin

I don't doubt God. I have firm faith absolutely in God.
It's religion I'm doubting.
- Bono

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool,
than to speak and remove all doubt.
- sometimes attributed to Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, or Samuel Johnson

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
- although attributed to St. Francis of Assisi,
this prayer first appeared (written in French) in 1912

Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic,
for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
- Robert Lindner

I have seen how the foundations of the world are laid,
and I have not the least doubt that it will stand a good while.
- Henry David Thoreau

The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch

Adventure is not outside man; it is within.
- George Eliot

We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past,
but by the love we're not extending in the present.
- Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
- Marianne Williamson

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.
- Chinese Proverb

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
- Lao Tzu

Everything has beauty,
but not everyone sees it.
- Confucius

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau

A ship in harbor is safe -
but that is not what ships are for.
- John A. Shedd

I am not afraid of storms
for I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott

Stand Tall, Stand Proud.
Know that you are unique and magnificent.
You do not need the approval of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Lord, grant that I might not so much
seek to be loved as to love.
- St. Francis of Assisi

To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu

One does not discover new lands without consenting
to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
- Andre Gide

Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.
- Khalil Gibran

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing,
of just going along,
listening to all the things you can't hear,
and not bothering.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)

A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu

Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
- Rabindranath Tagore

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore

To the people who love you,
you are beautiful already.
This is not because they're
blind to your shortcomings
but because they so clearly see your soul.
- Victoria Moran

You do not need anyone's permission to be your true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Love means not ever having to say you're sorry.
- Erich Segal

The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson

Life is not supposed to be fair.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Do not blame the thistle that you see no beauty.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
- Edmund Hillary

The world is perfect. It's a mess.
It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell

Self-respect is not a function of size, age, or wealth.
Breathe deep, sing loud and sweet,
"I am me, I am unique, I am magnificent."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
- Louisa May Alcott

Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition,
is not only a waste of energy
but the worst habit you could possibly have.
- Dale Carnegie

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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie