Philosophy

"To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man."

"Is God fair? The Christians say that God damns forever anyone who is skeptical about truth of bunkistic religion as revealed unto the holy haranguers. What this means is that a God, if any, punishes a man for using his reason. If there is a God in existence, reasons should be available for his existence. Assuming that such a precious thing as a man's eternal future depends on his belief in a God, then the materials for that belief should be overwhelming and not at all doubtful. Yet here is a man whose reason makes it impossible for him to believe in a God. He sees no evidence of such an entity. He finds all the arguments weak and worthless. He doubts and he denies. Then is a God fair in visiting upon such a skeptic the penalty for his inevitable intellectual attitude? The intelligent man refuses to believe fairy tales. Can a God blame him? If so, then a God is not as fair as an ordinarily decent man. And fairness, we think, is more important than piety."

"Doubt grows with knowledge."

"I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. ... it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. ... I'm not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here ... I might think about it a little bit ... but I don't have to know an answer, I don't feel frightened about not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it is as far as I can tell. It doesn't frighten me."

"Incredulity doesn't kill curiosity; it encourages it."

"Not that the incredulous person doesn't believe in anything. It's just that he doesn't believe in everything."

"Several years have now elapsed since I first became aware that I had accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true, and that consequently what I afterward based on such principles was highly doubtful; and from that time I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building from the foundation..."

"Another meme of the religious meme complex is called faith. It means blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence. The story of Doubting Thomas is told, not so that we shall admire Thomas, but so that we can admire the other apostles in comparison. Thomas demanded evidence. Nothing is more lethal for certain kinds of meme than a tendency to look for evidence. The other apostles, whose faith was so strong that they did not need evidence, are held up to us as worthy of imitation. The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry."

"The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom."

"I slept with Faith, and found a corpse in my arms on awaking; I drank and danced all night with Doubt, and found her a virgin in the morning."

"He would not, with a peremptory tone, Assert the nose upon his face his own."

"Inquiry into the evidence of a doctrine is not to be made once for all, and then taken as finally settled. It is never lawful to stifle a doubt; for either it can be honestly answered by means of the inquiry already made, or else it proves that the inquiry was not complete."

"If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it—the life of that man is one long sin against mankind."

"We should never believe anything we have not dared to doubt."

"Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by Action alone."

"Doubt is natural to a human being, for his conceptions are infinite, his powers are only finite."

"All doubt is cowardice — all trust is brave."

"Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt there truth is—'tis her shadow."

"Another error is an impatience of doubt, and haste to assertion without due and mature suspension of judgment. For the two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action commonly spoken of by the ancients: the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impassable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So it is 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."

"To be a Prodigal's favourite,—then worse truth, A Miser's Pensioner,—behold our lot!"

"One country, one constitution, one destiny."

"Pluck one thread, and the web ye mar; Break but one Of a thousand keys, and the paining jar Through all will run."

"Tes destins sont d'un homme, et tes vœux sont d'un dieu."

"Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident, It is the very place God meant for thee; And should'st thou there small room for action see, Do not for this give room for discontent."

"The seed ye sow, another reaps; The wealth ye find, another keeps; The robes ye weave, another wears; The arms ye forge, another bears."

"Truly some men there be That live always in great horrour, And say it goeth by destiny To hang or wed: both hath one hour; And whether it be, I am well sure, Hanging is better of the twain; Sooner done, and shorter pain."

"Ich fühl 's das ich der Mann des Schicksals bin."

"Every man meets his Waterloo at last."

"The irrevocable Hand That opes the year's fair gate, doth ope and shut The portals of our earthly destinies; We walk through blindfold, and the noiseless doors Close after us, forever."

"They only fall, that strive to move, Or lose, that care to keep."

"Unseen hands delay The coming of what oft seems close in ken, And, contrary, the moment, when we say "'Twill never come!" comes on us even then."

"We are but as the instrument of Heaven. Our work is not design, but destiny."

"The future works out great men's destinies: The present is enough for common souls, Who, never looking forward, are indeed Mere clay wherein the footprints of their age Are petrified forever."

"All, soon or late, are doom'd that path to tread."

"No living man can send me to the shades Before my time; no man of woman born, Coward or brave, can shun his destiny."

"Character is fate. (Destiny)."

"Art and power will go on as they have done,—will make day out of night, time out of space, and space out of time."

"Life treads on life, and heart on heart; We press too close in church and mart To keep a dream or grave apart."

"We talk about destiny, about what's meant to be, when in reality it's usually a combination of failure plus time, a series of adjusted circumstances, a question of human resilience and ability to reconfigure our expectations."

"God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin; nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, they who are elected . . . are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power. through faith, unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only. The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, whereby He extendeth or withholdeth mercy, as He pleaseth, for the glory of His Sovereign power over His creatures, to pass by; and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin, to the praise of His glorious justice. (Chap. III — Articles I, III, VI and VII)"

"Quisque suos patimur manes."

"And from his ashes may be made The violet of his native land."

"And all the bustle of departure—sometimes sad, sometimes intoxicating—just as fear or hope may be inspired by the new chances of coming destiny."

"But He, that hath the steerage of my course, Direct my sail!"

"What is done cannot be now amended."

"They that stand high have many blasts to shake them; And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces."

"A man whom both the waters and the wind, In that vast tennis-court, hath made the ball For them to play upon."

"If he had been as you and you as he, You would have slipt like him."

"Things at the worst will cease or else climb upward To what they were before."

"What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?"