There’s no point in believing in things that exist.
There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.
There is a force that controls all your decisions. It influences how you think and feel every moment you’re alive. It determines what you will do and what you will not do. It determines how you feel about anything that occurs in your life. That force is your beliefs.
There are misfortunes in life that no one will accept; people would rather believe in the supernatural and the impossible.[Il y a de ces malheurs que nul ne veut accepter dans la vie. On aime mieux croire au surnaturel, à l’impossible.]
The word belief is a difficult thing for me. I don’t believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it – I don’t need to believe it.
The violets in the mountains can break the rocks if you believe in them and allow them to grow!
The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.
The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay, often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than constrain others.
The man who is unhappy will, as a rule, adopt an unhappy creed, while the man who is happy will adopt a happy creed; each may attribute his happiness or unhappiness to his beliefs, while the real causation is the other way round.
The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
The facts of life do not penetrate to the sphere in which our beliefs are cherished; they did not engender those beliefs, and they are powerless to destroy them.[Les faits ne pénètrent pas dans le monde où vivent nos croyances, ils n’ont pas fait naître celles-ci, ils ne les détruisent pas.]
The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favor of its truth.
