Best 4234 quotes in «belief quotes» category

As a younger man, I burned with enthusiasm for my work: I was to be a warrior, the champion of reviled or exiled passions. I would assail the forces marshaled to enslave these passions, the tyrannies imposed in the name of factitious moralities, the sadistic compulsions disguised as highest law. I would be, in my silent, expensive way, the apostle of a thrilling freedom. When did it abandon me, that faith? How often have I heard it repeated, nearly verbatim, that commonplace of every educated, sophisticated patient: I don’t believe in judgment, in divine judgment; I don’t believe that someone is sitting up in the sky frowning down at me. In the past I would have thought: Yes, you do— and that is your problem. In the fullness of time I would assist them in shaking free of this secret conviction. Now, though, my calling has deserted me. The premise wasn’t wrong: most patients suffer more than they know from obscure inner persecutions. What I did not realize, however, was how deeply I myself believed in such a judgment, how along with my patients I embraced with inalienable fidelity that very conviction. This conviction did not presume a personified judge— bearded, severe, enthroned. It presumed instead a law, inhuman, abstract, and implacable, the law to which we owed our lives, the law to which we owed our reckoning. Failure, worth, crisis, potential, fulfillment. Every patient returns to these words again and again. They are the words from which my profession is made, and each of these words presumes a judgment, a mark attained or missed. No one enters my office who does not believe in his very marrow that judgment, some judgment, is absolute and fixed. The person I am meant to be: that mythical creature, that being whom each patient longs and dreads to become, is itself a judgment, a standard one does not devise but to which one must account. What or who set the standard? What or who measured the body for its soul? What or who meant them to be the people they were meant to be? I am certain: belief in judgment is not what my patients reject or grow out of. The belief in judgment is what they cling to. Beneath their affections and afflictions, judgment is their one true love.

As Christians, we call ourselves people of faith, but how much practical faith do we really have?

As he walked, he felt the darkness behind him, following him. He swore he heard it whisper, “Run!

As human beings we are not doomed to a cold, emotionless, machine-like existence. We are creatures throbbing with mental, emotional and physical energy. Once we yank out the irrationalities and lies from our thoughts and replace them with the truth, we can lead satisfying, rich and fulfilling emotional lives. It is not, however, events either past or present which make us feel the way we feel, but our interpretation of those events. Our feelings are not caused by the circumstances of our long-lost childhood or the circumstances of the present. Our feelings are caused by what we tell ourselves about our circumstances, whether in words or in attitudes. What we tell ourselves can be either (1) truth or (2) lie. If you tell yourself untruths or lies, you will believe untruths and lies. If you tell yourself you’re a dumb jerk who can’t do anything right, you’ll believe it. If you believe something, you’ll act as though you believe it. That’s why your beliefs and misbeliefs are the most important factors of your mental and emotional life.

As I believe—I am, I can, I know.

As intellectualism suppresses belief in magic, the world's processes become disenchanted, lose the magical significance, and henceforth simply 'are' and 'happen' but no longer signify anything.

A single seed holds within it the potential of giving rise to forests beyond measure.

As long as grace abounds, I will work with all my strength.

As long as you call on God, He will answer you.

As long as there is life, there is a potential; and as long as there is a potential, there will be a success! You will sprout again when cut down! You will rise again even when you fall!

As long as this belief, ‘I am the doer’ is not gone, one has not yet attained an iota of exact religion. He is still in the auspicious-inauspicious [shubh-ashubh] state.

As long as we have MEMORIES, yesterday REMAINS and as long as we have HOPE, tomorrow AWAITS...

As long as you and I can see the same sky and breathe the same air, you and I are not impossible.

As long as you are the owner (‘I am Chandubhai and all this is mine’), the worldly life remains. When does the ownership go away? When the wrong belief goes away.

As more good comes your way, your belief will increase, until you move past it into the realm of conviction.

A spiritual realm is more obedient than a temporal one. In a spiritual realm, people obey the Supreme Being through his priests; in a temporal realm people don't obey wholeheartedly as they distrust their corrupt officials.

A spiritual teaching is a finger pointing toward Reality; it is not Reality itself. To be in a true and mature relationship with a spiritual teaching requires you to apply it, not simply believe in it. Belief leads to various forms of fundamentalism and shuts down the curiosity and inquiry that are essential to open the way for awakening and what lies beyond awakening. A good spiritual teaching is something that you work with and apply. In doing so, it works on you (often in a hidden way) and helps reveal to you the Truth (and falseness) that lies within you.

As some people turned to religion for comfort, so, Highsmith wrote in her notebook in September 1970, she took refuge in her belief that she was making progress as a writer. But she realised that both systems of survival were, however, fundamentally illusory. She wrote, she said, quoting Oscar Wilde because, 'Work never seems to me a reality, but a way of getting rid of reality'.

Assume nothing and believe only what you can prove.

As the caterpillar undergoes transformation and emerges as a butterfly; likewise, character undergoes transformation through experiences, aspirations and beliefs. How will you emerge?

As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or do not exist. For many are the obstacles that impede knowledge, both the obscurity of the question and the shortness of human life.

A story is a wedding in which we listeners are the groom watching the bride coming up the aisle. It is together, in an act of imaginary consummation, that the story is born. This act wholly involves us, as any marriage would, and just as no marriage is exactly the same as another, so each of us interprets a story differently, feels for it differently. A story calls upon us...as individuals-and we like that. Stories benefit the human mind.

At any moment we can demonstrate our faith by taking action that shows our belief in God's promises!

As we plant in tears, we shall harvest with joy.

At any given moment, your circumstances can change. You may not be where you want to be right now. You may not even be doing what you prefer to do. But, if you change your way of thinking and realize that you have all the opportunities available to you just like each one of us. You can begin to focus on what you want to achieve and make it happen

Atheism is a conclusion reached by the most reasonable methods and one which is not asserted dogmatically but is explained in its every feature by the light of reason. The atheist does not boast of knowing in a vainglorious, empty sense. He understands by knowledge the most reasonable and clear and sound position one can take on the basis of all the evidence at hand. This evidence convinces him that theism is not true, and his logical position, then, is that of atheism. We repeat that the atheist is one who denies the assumptions of theism. he asserts, in other words, that he doesn't believe in a God because he has no good reason for believing in a God. That's atheism -- and that's good sense.

A theist can't empirically prove that God exists but he believes in God because no one can allegedly disprove God's existence. By his logic, you must believe in anything you can't disprove. That means all things are real until disproved--including the tooth fairy, the Loch Ness Monster, Santa Claus, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc.

At home, my father ate all the most burnt pieces of toast. 'Yum!' he'd say, and 'Charcoal! Good for you!' and 'Burnt toast! My favorite!' and he'd eat it all up. When I was much older he confessed to me that he had not ever liked burnt toast, had only eaten it to prevent it from going to waste, and, for a fraction of a moment, my entire childhood felt like a lie, it was as if one of the pillars of belief that my world had been built upon had crumbled into dry sand.

Atheism is a lack of belief...what about the powers of darkness, and that of light, will you trace both to nothing? Then you must have created yourself.

...atheism leaves no room for excuses...

Atheism is without God. It does not assert no God. The atheist does not say that there is no God, but he says 'I know not what you mean by God. I am without the idea of God. The word God to me is a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation. I do not deny God, because I cannot deny that of which I have no conception, and the conception of which by its affirmer is so imperfect that he is unable to define it for me.

Athena always lived between two worlds: what she felt was true and what she as been taught by her faith.

At its Greek root, "to believe" simply means "to give one's heart to." Thus, if we can determine what it is we give our heart to, then we will know what it is we believe.

A true prophet would rather be believed false by many but actually true than believed true by many but actually false.

At the end of the day, what all people outright want from their life? To make their dreams come true, so as to escape from the mundane world. However, reality often prevents them from that. Others accept that fate, lacking the courage to follow their dreams or the belief that they will make it. They don't want to risk what they have built to walk on an undiscovered path that is uncertain where will lead. So, they stay in safe grounds.

[...] at this point the God-understanding stuff kind of makes him want to puke, from fear. Something you can't see or hear or touch or smell: OK. All right. But something you can't even feel? Because that's what he feels when he tries to understand something to really sincerely pray to. Nothingness. He says when he tries to pray he gets this like image in his mind's eye of the brainwaves or whatever of his prayers going out and out, with nothing to stop them, going, going, radiating out into like space and outliving him and still going and never hitting Anything out there, much less Something with an ear. Much much less Something with an ear that could possibly give a rat's ass.

At the quantum level our universe can be seen as an indeterminate place, predictable in a statistical way only when you employ large enough numbers. Between that universe and a relatively predictable one where the passage of a single planet can be timed to a picosecond, other forces come into play. For the in-between universe where we find our daily lives, that which you believe is a dominant force. Your beliefs order the unfolding of daily events. If enough of us believe, a new thing can be made to exist. Belief structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order.

Avoid all doubtful ideas and put your mind into the realms of true belief.

Awake, awake, you that sleep. Open your eyes, stand on your feet, and behold and see what a sea of blood and wrath is here!" See and believe; believe and consider; consider and fear; fear and fly; and make haste in your work. Your work is great and mighty; diversions are many; adversaries are strong; your strength is small; your time is short; your account is great. Death and judgment are at the door. Therefore, up and be doing, now or never.

Awaken the divinity within thy soul.

Awe-inspiring God. Amazing God. Awesome God. Almighty God.

A wish was not truly a wish, until it was properly wished.

A wise man is someone who knows how to convert obstacles into resources.

A wish becomes a greatest desire at the very moment when a person's belief in the seemingly impossible is stronger than any doubt. -Kevin McNamara

A willing heart will believe anything and die for anything

A woman is only as beautiful as she believes she is, if she can't convince herself, no one else can.

China Whales follow the whale-roads. Geese, roads of magnetized air. To go great distance, exactitudes matter. Yet how often the heart that set out for Peru arrives in China, Steering hard. consulting the charts the whole journey.

Awakening is the ultimate of religion. Religion is, not really, in believing something outside of your being. It is not in believing or following some authoritative figure, the church, temple, organization or any ideological system of belief. Religion is trusting in what is eternal within you.

A woman may try to control the man. But God appointed man as the head of the family.

Be careful of the lie you believe about yourself, sooner or later, you will be convinced of it.