A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus
on the course to victory. - Arthur Golden
A person who doubts himself is
like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against
himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be
convinced of it. - Ambrose Bierce
By
doubting, we come at the truth. - Cicero
Can that
which is the greatest virtue in philosophy, Doubt (called "the father of
inventions" by Galileo), be in religion what the priests term it, the
greatest of sins? - Christian Nestell
Bovee
Doubt and
fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does
not slay them, thwarts himself at every step. - James Allen
Doubt
can only be removed by action. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Doubt comes in
at the window when inquiry is denied at the door. - Benjamin Jowett
Doubt
is a profound and effective spiritual motivator. Without doubt, no
truism is transcended, no new knowledge found, no expansion of the
imagination possible. Doubt is unsettling to the ego, and those who
are drawn to ideologies that promise the dispelling of doubt by
proffering certainties will never grow. In seeking certainty, they
are courting the death of the soul, whose nature is forever churning
possibility, forever seeking the larger, forever riding the melting
edge of certainty's glacier. - James
Hollis
Doubt is
a sentinel on the watch-tower of the brain, charged with the duty of sounding
an alarm, whenever its enemies – superstition, falsehood, ignorance and
unreason – attempt to invade the citadel of truth. - Henry M. Taber
Doubt is an
incentive to truth, and patient inquiry leadeth the way. - Hosea Ballou
Doubt
is excellent when it is a question of securing what we already possess, but it
can be fatal if it impedes us in pursuit of what we seek. - Carlos Fuentes
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one. - Voltaire
Doubt is
not a thing "shot into the soul" from without like "a loaded
shell shot into a fortress." It springs up in the soul itself; and the
more you attempt to "fling it away" without satisfying it, the deeper
and more ineradicable it grows. - A
Layman
Doubt
is not the opposite of confidence. Doubt can actually be a virtue; it
is a form of self-reflection that anyone in a leadership position
should exercise now and again. Having doubts about a course of action
is a manifestation of a creative and lively mind, one that is engaged
in the pursuit of a goal. The ability to question that pursuit means
that you are open to change and circumstance. You may change or you
may not, but at least you are open to the real world and the twists
and turns it may toss you. - John
Baldoni
Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith. - Paul
Tillich
Doubt
is so much the fashion, and, in truth, so much the necessity of our
time, that there is danger that it come to be looked upon as in
itself a good. It is good to doubt the false, if the doubt be pursued
to the overthrow of the false; it is good to doubt the true that has
come to us by tradition or education alone, if the doubt be pursued
to the establishment of the true; otherwise there is no good in doubt
at all. That feeble life that truth, traditionally held, can give to
the nature is better than the bloodlessness of mere doubt. Strong
minds doubt, but doubt is no proof of strength; noble minds doubt –
in these days, all the noblest must pass through doubt – but doubt
is no proof of nobility. The strength and the nobility are shown when
the doubts are grappled with till they yield up some hidden treasure
of truth. Then the truth is but the second and crowning reward; the
first reward began when the struggle began, being found in the growth
of that intellectual and moral strength which was at once the parent
and the offspring of the contest. - C.
W. Moulton
Doubt is the beginning, not the
end, of wisdom. - George Iles
Doubt
is the beginning of wisdom. Doubt is the precursor of inquiry;
inquiry leads to Evidence; Evidence is the foundation of Knowledge;
and Knowledge is the parent of Liberty and Power. Concerning
sceptics, a philosophical writer once remarked, "That they are
men who pick holes in the fabric of Knowledge wherever it is weak and
faulty; and when these places are properly mended, the whole of the
building becomes more firm and solid than it was before." -
Andrew
Jackson
Doubt
is the difficult mind state of perplexity. It's like being at a
crossroads and now knowing which way to go. We go back and forth
between alternatives and are then brought to a standstill by
bewilderment and indecision. When doubt is overpowering, we can't
move. It doesn't even allow us the opportunity to take a wrong turn
and learn from our mistakes. - Joseph
Goldstein
Note
the difference between a scientist and an athlete. Doubt is a
scientist's stock in trade. Progress is made by focusing on the
evidence that refutes a theory and by improving the theory
accordingly. Skepticism is the rocket fuel of scientific advance. But
doubt, to an athlete, is poison. Progress is made by ignoring the
evidence; it is about creating a mind-set that is immune to doubt and
uncertainty. - Matthew
Syed
Doubt
is the father of invention. - Galileo Galilei
Doubt
is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom. - George Iles
Doubt is
the herald of progress; the genius of reason; the pathway to truth; the advance
guard in the contest with intellectual darkness. - Henry M. Taber
Doubt
is the vestibule which all must pass before they can enter into the
temple of wisdom; therefore, when we are in doubt and puzzle out the
truth by our own exertions, we have gained a something that will stay
by us, and which will serve us again. But, if to avoid the trouble of
the search we avail ourselves of the superior information of a
friend, such knowledge will not remain with us; we have
not bought but borrowed it.
- Charles
Caleb Colton
Doubt
is the whetstone of understanding. - John
dos Passos
Doubt
is your intellectual conscience pleading with you to be honest with
yourself. - Peter
Boghossian
Doubt must
be no more than vigilance, otherwise it can become dangerous. - G. C. Lichtenberg
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself. -
Christian Bovee
Doubt,
genuine doubt, is a good thing; not as an end, mark you, for so it is deadly,
but as a means to an end. - David James
Burrell
Doubt, indulged and cherished, is in danger of becoming denial; but
if honest, and bent on thorough investigation, it may soon lead to full
establishment of the truth. - Ambrose Bierce
Doubt, of whatever kind, can be
ended by action alone. - Thomas Carlyle
Give me the benefit of your
convictions, if you have any, but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have
enough of my own. - Johann Von Goethe
He is without faith who is afraid of doubters. - J. Donald Johnston
How prone
to doubt, how cautious are the wise! - Homer
I can
live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing I think it is much more
interesting to live not knowing than to have
answers that might be wrong. - Richard P. Feynman
I respect faith, but doubt is what
gets you an education. - Wilson Mizner
If we are ever in doubt about what
to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that
we had done. - John Lubbock
If you would be a real seeker
after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far
as possible, all things. - Rene Descartes
In all
affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on
the things you have long taken for granted. - Bertrand Russell
In the
ages of ignorance, it was a crime to doubt; now it is the sign of intelligence.
- Andrew Jackson Davis
It is by doubting that
we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth - Peter
Abelard
Just think of
the tragedy of teaching children not
to doubt. - Clarence
Darrow
Kill the snake of doubt in your soul, crush the worms of fear in
your heart and mountains will move out of your way. - Unknown
Men
become civilised, not in proportion to their willingness to believe,
but in proportion to their readiness to doubt. - H.
L. Mencken
Modest
doubt is call’d the beacon of the wise.
- William
Shakespeare
Most
men appear wiser in their doubts than in their belief. - Norman
MacDonald
Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose
the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt. - Shakespeare
People may doubt what you say, but they will
believe what you do. - Lewis Cass
The best way is to forget doubts and set
about the task in hand. - Robert Silliman Hillyer
The
depth of a man's questioning is more important than his answers. -
Andre Malraux
The great experimental principle, then, is
doubt, that philosophic doubt which leaves to the mind its freedom and
initiative, and from which the virtues most valuable to investigators in
physiology and medicine are derived. - Claude Bernard
The
human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we
are right, while those who believe with certainty that they possess
the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty,
pain, and injustice. - Saul Alinsky
The
irritation of doubt causes a struggle to attain a state of belief. -
Charles Sanders Peirce
The
minute you begin to have doubts, the floor under your feet starts to
shake. - Kobe Abe
The
only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of
today. - Franklin
D. Roosevelt
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
To
doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient
solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. - Henri
Poincare
To
doubt is never pleasant, often painful, sometimes agonizing. And in
so far as this prompts to inquiry and urges us to decision, it is
very useful; but when it induces us to decide without inquiry or
evidence, or without the proper use of them, the result is like
declaring victory before fighting the battle. If we were so
constituted that we could not doubt, what security would there be for
the truth? What could more cripple the mind than to deprive it either
of the power doubting or the power of believing? To face frankly and
fairly the terrors of uncertainty requires courage. Indeed, to think
at all, responsibly, rationally, and with absolute fidelity to truth,
upon many subjects requires the highest degree of courage. It is
easier, perhaps, to stand before a loaded cannon and see the match
applied, than to adopt a conclusion utterly destructive to past
convictions long cherished, and to the authority upon which they
rested. - Logan
E. Bleckley
To
have doubted one’s own first principles, is the mark of a civilized
man. - Ralph
Waldo Emerson
To believe is
very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to
live, to be lulled into security is to die. - Oscar
Wilde
We know accurately only when we know
little; with knowledge doubt increases. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When
even the brightest mind in our world has been trained up
from childhood in a superstition of any kind, it will never be
possible for that mind, in its maturity, to examine sincerely,
dispassionately, and conscientiously any evidence or any circumstance
which shall seem to cast a doubt upon the validity of that
superstition. I doubt if I could do it myself. - Mark Twain
When
in doubt of what is right, consult your pillow overnight. - Mexican
Proverb
When in doubt, back out on a
technicality. - Walter Shapiro
When
in doubt, do nothing. - George John Whyte-Melville
When in doubt, do without. - Hofni
Samuel
When
in doubt, Don’t. - Unknown
When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There
is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting
like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap. - Cynthia
Heimel
When
in doubt, punt! - John Heisman
When in doubt, strategize; if it
doesn't work, reorganize. - Srini Rangan
When
in doubt, take a deep breath and keep moving. - Laurel K. Hamilton
When in doubt, take it as a
compliment. - Angie Lyman
When
in doubt, take a deep breath and keep moving. - Laurel K. HamiltonWhen unhappy, one doubts
everything; when happy, one doubts nothing. - Joseph Roux
Who knows most,
doubts most. - Robert Browning
Who never doubted, never half
believed. Where doubt is, there truth is - it is her shadow. - Ambrose
Bierce
With
knowledge grows doubt. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Yet
in doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom. - J.
R. R. Tolkien
You cannot be a man of faith
unless you know how to doubt. - Thomas Merton
Your own doubt is your opponent’s
greatest strength. - Unknown
