Virtues

"Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits. It is intellectual bankruptcy. With faith, you don't have to put any work into proving your case. You can "just believe.""

"The idea of faith interested him, even fascinated him, not as an intellectual idea, not as a concept or some abstract theoretical framework, but as a way of controlling people, as a way of understanding and so manipulating them. As a flaw, in the end, as something which was wrong with others that was not wrong with him."

"Faith is the eye that sees nothing and rejoices in it."

"“She is armed with the power of the spirit. The power of faith.” Dravid had resisted the urge to yawn. He had heard this kind of “empty-hand, spirit-power” mania too many times to even give it credence by mocking it. He had also seen any number of similarly deluded cults and spiritual blind-faithers walk like fools into the trajectory of safe-care weapons, only to have their very real physical bodies torn to shreds by unspiritual projectiles and explosives that needed no faith in invisible deities to perform their lethal function. Faith might move mountains; but lasers cut flesh. And without flesh to sustain it, there was nothing left to harbor faith."

"There is one inevitable criterion of judgment touching religious faith in doctrinal matters. Can you reduce it to practice? If not, have none of it."

"Faith is a higher faculty than reason."

"The essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds; he whose words exceed his deeds, know verily his death is better than his life."

"Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again, and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, if the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."

"Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand."

"Est autem fides credere quod nondum vides; cujus fidei merces est videre quod credis."

"Blind faith in any institution does not make one honorable."

"The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world."

"God hath endowed us with different faculties, suitable and proportional to the different objects that engage them. We discover sensible things by our senses, rational things by our reason, things intellectual by understanding; but divine and celestial things he has reserved for the exercise of our faith, which is a kind of divine and superior sense in the soul. Our reason and understanding may at some times snatch a glimpse, but cannot take a steady and adequate prospect of things so far above their reach and sphere. Thus, by the help of natural reason, I may know there is a God, the first cause and original of all things; but his essence, attributes, and will, are hid within the veil of inaccessible light, and cannot be discerned by us but through faith in his divine revelation. He that walks without this light, walks in darkness, though he may strike out some faint and glimmering sparkles of his own. And he that, out of the gross and wooden dictates of his natural reason, carves out a religion to himself, is but a more refined idolater than those who worship stocks and stones, hammering an idol out of his fancy, and adoring the works of his own imagination. For this reason God is nowhere said to be jealous, but upon the account of his worship."

"Ἔστιν δὲ πίστις ἐλπιζοµένων ὑπόστασις, πραγµάτων ἔλεγχος οὐ βλεποµένων. Ἐν ταύτῃ γὰρ ἐµαρτυρήθησαν οἱ πρεσβύτεροι. Πίστει νοοῦµεν κατηρτίσθαι τοὺς αἰῶνας ῥήµατι Θεοῦ, εἰς τὸ µὴ ἐκ ϕαινοµένων τὰ βλεπόµενα γεγονέναι."

"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good."

"The power of any faith comes not from its coercion of critics and dissenters. It comes from the moral integrity and the intellectual strength of its believers."

"No doctrine can be a proper object of our faith which it is not more reasonable to believe than to reject. […] In receiving therefore the most mysterious doctrines of revelation, the ultimate appeal is to reason: not to determine whether she could have discovered these truths; not to declare whether considered in themselves they appear probable; but to decide whether it is not more reasonable to believe what God speaks, than to confide in our own crude and feeble conceptions."

"I would fain ask one of these bigotted Infidels, supposing all the great Points of Atheism … were laid together and formed into a kind of Creed, according to the Opinions of the most celebrated Atheists; I say, supposing such a Creed as this were formed, and imposed upon any one People in the World, whether it would not require an infinitely greater Measure of Faith, than any Set of Articles which they so violently oppose."

"Even theologians — even the great theologians of the thirteenth century, — even Saint Thomas Aquinas himself — did not trust to faith alone, or assume the existence of God."

"I have faith; not perhaps in the old dogmas, but in the new ones; faith in human nature; faith in science; faith in the survival of the fittest. Let us be true to our time, Mrs. Lee!"

"In order to provide you, my dearest son Reginald, with a summary of the whole Christian life, to be kept ever before your eyes, our entire aim in this work will be to discuss these three virtues: first of all faith, then hope, and finally charity. This is, in fact, the order followed by the Apostle, and it is also what sound reason demands."

""I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing." "Oh," says man, "but the Babel fish is a dead give-away, isn't it? It proves You exist, and so therefore You don't." "Oh, I hadn't thought of that," says God, who promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. "Ah, that was easy," says man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white, and gets killed on the next zebra crossing. Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys."

"Otium cum dignitate"

"Where is there dignity unless there is also honesty?"

"It is terrifying to see how easily, in certain people, all dignity collapses. Yet when you think about it, this is quite normal since they only maintain this dignity by constantly striving against their own nature."

"Every human being has dignity and value no matter what their citizenship papers say."

"Respect for human dignity and individual freedoms reaffirms a core tenet of civilized people everywhere."

"Americans still admire dignity. But the word has become unmoored from any larger set of rules or ethical system. But it's not right to end on a note of cultural pessimism because there is the fact of President Obama. Whatever policy differences people may have with him, we can all agree that he exemplifies reticence, dispassion and the other traits associated with dignity. The cultural effects of his presidency are not yet clear, but they may surpass his policy impact. He may revitalize the concept of dignity for a new generation and embody a new set of rules for self-mastery."

"Washington absorbed, and later came to personify what you might call the dignity code. The code was based on the same premise as the nation's Constitution — that human beings are flawed creatures who live in constant peril of falling into disasters caused by their own passions. Artificial systems have to be created to balance and restrain their desires. The dignity code commanded its followers to be disinterested — to endeavor to put national interests above personal interests. It commanded its followers to be reticent — to never degrade intimate emotions by parading them in public. It also commanded its followers to be dispassionate — to distrust rashness, zealotry, fury and political enthusiasm."

"What is dignity? The measure of liberty."

"Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority."

"By indignities men come to dignities."

"Remember this, — that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life."

"Dignity is like air … When there’s enough of it, you don’t notice it... When there’s a lack of [it], you suffocate. When you’re full of dignity, you can focus on other things like your goals, your interests, anything. When you feel humiliated..., your brain focuses huge amounts of attention on your humiliation. You obsess on how people don’t appreciate your human value."

"There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity that never dreads contact and communion with others, however humble."

"Put your dignity above your head and your heart under your feet so that whoever stays will stay and whoever leaves will leave Do not look back for if their presence means something then your dignity means everything Do not enter the life of someone who does not need you and do not impose yourself on someone who rejects you It is better to leave in pain and proud than to remain enjoying and humiliated No one carries your burden but your back As for the rest they would like to know your story So ask yourself Am I in a place that deserves my ambition? If the answer is no don't hesitate Leave without hesitation Places that stifle your ambition steal your soul so don't waste your time with them Remember that the soul flourishes in places that are in harmony with your ambition and dreams where you find yourself challenging your limits and creating your future with your own hands If you feel that you are in a closed circle that stifles your creativity then it is time to break that circle and search for a new space."

"It is more offensive to outshine in dignity than in personal attractions."

"Revere thyself, and yet thyself despise."

"True dignity abides with him alone Who, in the silent hour of inward thought, Can still suspect, and still revere himself, In lowliness of heart."

"Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity."

"But clay and clay differs in dignity, Whose dust is both alike."

"We have exchanged the Washingtonian dignity for the Jeffersonian simplicity, which was in truth only another name for the Jeffersonian vulgarity."

"With grave Aspect he rose, and in his rising seem'd A pillar of state; deep on his front engraven Deliberation sat, and public care; And princely counsel in his face yet shone Majestic, though in ruin: sage he stood, With Atlantéan shoulders, fit to bear The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look Drew audience and attention still as night Or summer's noontide air."

"The dignity of truth is lost With much protesting."

"Otium cum dignitate."

"Feldman argues, correctly in our view, that because the central core meaning of dignity is not clear, there are dangers in using it as a value from which to develop specific rights.63 He points out that dignity can be used as an instrument of legal paternalism: Classical liberal notions such as autonomy depend on the state respecting the right of individuals to choose both the desirable ends of their own lives and (within certain limits) the means by which they pursue those ends. The presence of dignity, by contrast .. is determined objectively, at least in part. A government, court or tribunal concerned with dignity need not defer to the subjective judgment of an indiviual as to what is good for him or her. Instead it is open to public authorities to make their own assessments as the demands of dignity and the kinds of existence or activity whicch are conducive to it.64 An example of the paternalistic use of dignity is the French case in which the Conseil d'Etat upheld orders made by local authorities in Versailles and Marseilles banning dwarf throwing competitions on the grounds that such spectacles were an affront to human dignity.65"

"The fundamental dispute between the conception of dignity taken by the Linacre Centre and Kant on the one hand, and by Dworkin and Beyleveld and Brownsword on the other, comes down to whether human dignity is an empowering notion, conferring rights and individual interests, or whether it is a constraint. The dispute in our view is insoluble. This is because the concept at the heart of the debate, dignity, has no clear meaning.61 Joel Feinberg uses the term dignity in a normative sense: Respect for persons may simply be respect for their rights, so that there canno be the one without the other; and what is called human dignity may simply be the recognizable capacity to assert claims. To respect a person then or think of him as possessed of human dignity is tot hink of hm as a potetial maker of claims.62"

"D Beyleveld and R Brownsword, “Human Dignity in Bioethics and Biolaw” (2001). p.242; p.33"

"In the most sophisticated modern-day examination of dignity, Beyleveld and Brownsword also contend: [T]he right to choose is a basic expression of one's dignity; and there is no more fundamental expression of one's dignity than the right to make life-saving or life-terminating choice. Dignity, in other words, is embedded in the right to choose itself, irrespective of the aprticular choice that one makes.60 In this regard, dignity is being used both as a behicle to justify something as being important and then also as a means to extinguish it and thereby detract from its importance in the most direct fashion possible."

"[P]erhaps the most widely utilised argument by pro-euthanasia advocates is that allowing a patient to die in pain against his or her wishes is undignified. Dworkin turns the notion of dignity on its head by suggesting that even though it is dignity that makes life inherently valuable it is also the reason euthanasia should be permissible. He states that a true appreciation of dignity requires respect for individual freedom and the ability for each to make his or her own moral decisions, because freedom is necessary for self-respect, and therefore it follows euthanasia should be available on request.58 Thus, on the one hand he contends that by virtue of the dignity we all have, life is “intrinsically” valuable. This of its self seems contradictory since something cannot have intrinsic worth if its value is derived from something else. But he then contends that by the very reason of a constituent element of dignity (freedom) it is then permissible to destroy that which is inherently precious.59"