Faith

"Vjera se prihvaća slobodnom voljom, a ne razumom."

"But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last."

"There is a faith that is enriched by the concepts of reason, and there is a reason that is enriched by the gifts of faith. (introduction, p. 6)"

"If faith produce no works, I see That faith is not a living tree. Thus faith and works together grow; No separate life they e'er can know: They're soul and body, hand and heart: What God hath joined, let no man part."

"Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever has not kindness has not faith."

"Faith is a vice pretending to be a virtue, its lies and errors and frothy nonsense deluding us and distracting us from action. There's no salvation in wishful thinking, only inertia. Faith is the enemy of reason. The one thing every single one of us here must be united in despising is faith. It's the barren refuge of the vacuous, the fearful, the frauds, and the obstacles to accomplishment."

"Buddhism does not demand blind faith from its adherents. Here mere belief is dethroned and is substituted by confidence based on knowledge, which, in Pali, is known as Saddha. The confidence placed by a follower on the Buddha is like that of a sick person in a noted physician, or a student in his teacher."

"We may infer from any defeat of ours that it is due either to lack of faith or failure to obey. No other reason can suffice."

"Faith and God belong together somewhat as sense experience and physical reality do."

"Faith Saves.—Virtue gives happiness and a state of blessedness only to those who have a strong faith in their virtue:—not, however, to the more refined souls whose virtue consists of a profound distrust of themselves and of all virtue. After all, therefore, it is "faith that saves" here also! (214)"

"It is always a metaphysical belief on which our belief in science rests, —and that even we knowing ones of to-day, the godless and anti-metaphysical, still take our fire from the conflagration kindled by a belief a millennium old, the Christian belief, which was also the belief of Plato, that God is truth, that the truth is divine... (344)"

"That faith makes blessed under certain circumstances, that blessedness does not make of a fixed idea a true idea, that faith moves no mountains but puts mountains where there are none: a quick walk through a madhouse enlightens one sufficiently about this."

"»Glaube« heißt Nicht-wissen-wollen, was wahr ist."

"The truest visions of religion are illusions, which may be partially realised by being resolutely believed. For what religion believes to be true is not wholly true but ought to be true; and may become true if its truth is not doubted."

"Intellect separated from faith will lack the firm belief in its own power to be the guide on the path of life. Without this inner conviction it will hesitate to follow in earnest its own conclusions and commands."

"Faith may reward, but only those who believe in God — not those who believe in rewards."

"Faith is not just something you have, it's something you do."

"Orthodoxy is the ability to say two and two make five when faith requires it."

"Fear is the opposite of faith."

"“Faith,” she said gently. “But, Will darling, I just never have seen any of the mountains they say it moved.”"

"Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God."

"Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists."

"It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason."

"In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't."

"But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love."

"We walk by faith, not by sight."

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

"For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right."

"The enormous faith of many made for one."

"“You strong in your faith, then?” she said, as if she couldn’t leave things alone. Oats sighed. “I try to be.” “But you read a lot of books, I’m thinking. Hard to have faith, ain’t it, when you read too many books.”"

"And nothing prevents people from believing, when the guidance comes to them, except that they say: Has Allah raised up a mortal to be a messenger? Say: Had there been in the earth angels walking about secure, We would have sent down to them from the heaven an angel as messenger. Say: Allah suffices for a witness between me and you. Surely He is ever Aware of His servants, Seeing. And he whom Allah guides, he is on the right way; and he whom He leaves in error, for them thou wilt find no guardians besides Him. And We shall gather them together on the day of Resurrection on their faces, blind and dumb and deaf. Their abode is hell. Whenever it abates, We make them burn the more. This is their retribution because they disbelieve in Our messages and say: When we are bones and decayed particles, shall we then be raised up into a new creation? See they not that Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth, is able to create the like of them? And He has appointed for them a term, whereof there is no doubt. But the wrongdoers consent to naught but denying."

"What is wanted is not the will-to-believe, but the wish to find out, which is its exact opposite."

"We may define "faith" as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of "faith". We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence."

"If you think that your belief is based upon reason, you will support it by argument, rather then by persecution, and will abandon it if the argument goes against you. But if your belief is based on faith, you will realize that argument is useless, and will therefore resort to force either in the form of persecution or by stunting and distorting the minds of the young in what is called "education". This last is particularly dastardly, since it takes advantage of the defencelessness of immature minds. Unfortunately it is practiced in greater or less degree in the schools of every civilised country."

"Faith is cold as ice. Why are little ones born only to suffer for the want of immunity or a bowl of rice? Well, who would hold a price on the heads of the innocent children if there's some immortal power to control the dice?"

"Faith is clearly not enough for many people. They crave hard evidence, scientific proof. They long for the scientific seal of approval, but are unwilling to put up with the rigorous standards of evidence that impart credibility to that seal."

"Bid, then, the tender light of faith to shine By which alone the mortal heart is led Unto the thinking of the thought divine."

"Faith: The opposite of dogmatism."

"There are three lessons I would write, — Three words — as with a burning pen, In tracings of eternal light Upon the hearts of men. Have Hope. Though clouds environ now, And gladness hides her face in scorn, Put thou the shadow from thy brow, — No night but hath its morn. Have Faith. Where'er thy bark is driven, — The calm's disport, the tempest's mirth, — Know this: God rules the hosts of heaven, The habitants of earth. Have Love. Not love alone for one, But men, as man, thy brothers call; And scatter, like the circling sun, Thy charities on all. Thus grave these lessons on thy soul, — Hope, Faith, and Love, — and thou shalt find Strength when life's surges rudest roll, Light when thou else wert blind."

"[A]re you tough enough to have faith in the things worthy of faith? A belief in your own particular God … an adherence to the tenets of your particular religion … all this with a decent regard and respect for the God and religions of others. Believe without proselytizing. Believe without peddling. Believe without working both sides of the street, trying to sell to others that which is uniquely your own. But most major here, simply believe. There’s no alternative to faith … and God help us, there’s no salvation without it."

"Reason ambitions only a world; faith gives it infinity."

"Lack of faith doesn’t always make people secular. It often makes them seek out substitutes which provide some of the same things found in traditional religions, i.e. an all-encompassing view of the world, a sense of right and wrong, a place in which they belong and feel at home, etc... [T]hose are real human needs that almost everyone feels in some sense or another."

"Set on your foot, And with a heart new-fir'd I follow you, To do I know not what: but it sufficeth That Brutus leads me on."

"Thou almost makest me waver in my faith To hold opinion with Pythagoras, That souls of animals infuse themselves Into the trunks of men."

"In science, all conclusions are provisional, subject to new evidence and better arguments, the very antithesis of religious faith."

"Faith ... is the unspoiled seed, the cause of abilities; Faith grows into the tree of Awakening."

"In People with no faith Bright qualities do not grow, Just as a green sprout Never grows from seeds burned by fire."

"Christian faith merely substitutes, provisionally, for clear knowledge: statements of the Holy Scripture on this subject are unmistakable."

"The saddest thing that can befall a soul Is when it loses faith in God and woman."

"Beware of doubt—faith is the subtle chain, Which binds us to the infinite; the voice Of a deep life within, that will remain Until we crowd it thence."