“I had no doubts as to the correctness of my own beliefs, that human nature could be altered, that man could be forced to evolve morally.”

— Roger Zelazny , book Today We Choose Faces

Part 2, Chapter 9 (p. 147)
Today We Choose Faces (1973)

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Roger Zelazny 112

American speculative fiction writer 1937–1995

Charles Sheffield book Proteus In The Underworld

Source: Behrooz Wolf (aka The Proteus Trilogy), Proteus In The Underworld (1995), Chapter 11 (pp. 148-149)

“From a Darwinian point of view, human beliefs are adaptations to our part of the world. No doubt much of what we believe must be roughly accurate, or else we would not have survived. But the beliefs we have evolved might latch on to the world only enough to help us stumble our way through it, and then only for the time being. Human belief-systems could be useful illusions, appearing and disappearing as they prove to be more or less advantageous in the random walk of natural selection. Might not evolution be one of these illusions? Scientific naturalism is the theory that human beliefs are evolutionary adaptations whose survival has nothing to do with their truth. But in that case scientific naturalism is self-defeating, since on its own premises scientific theories cannot be known to be true.”

John Gray (1948) British philosopher

Cross-correspondences (p. 69)
The Immortalization Commission: The Strange Quest to Cheat Death (2011)

“once I was open, could hope, I had no doubt
but that was the worst thing that I could do”

Natalie Merchant (1963) American singer-songwriter

Song lyrics, Motherland (2001), The Worst Thing

“He had doubted the correctness of the law of refraction of light but when he found in 1661 that he could deduce it from his Principle, he not only resolved his doubts about the law but felt all the more certain that his Principle was correct.”

Morris Kline (1908–1992) American mathematician

Source: Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times (1972), p. 580
Context: Fermat knew that under reflection light takes the path requiring least time and, convinced that nature does indeed act simply and economically, affirmed in letters of 1657 and 1662 his Principle of Least Time, which states that light always takes the path requiring least time. He had doubted the correctness of the law of refraction of light but when he found in 1661 that he could deduce it from his Principle, he not only resolved his doubts about the law but felt all the more certain that his Principle was correct.... Huygens, who had at first objected to Fermat's Principle, showed that it does hold for the propagation of light in media with variable indices of refraction. Even Newton's first law of motion, which states that the straight line or shortest distance is the natural motion of a body, showed nature's desire to economize. These examples suggested that there might be a more general principle. The search for such a principle was undertaken by Maupertuis.

“I believe man suffers from an appalling ignorance of his own nature. I produce my own view in the belief that it may be something like the truth.”

William Golding book Lord of the Flies

Source: Lord of the Flies

“In the reckless phrase of the confirmed joiner in the fight for whatever relief oppressed humanity was fighting for, I had volunteered "to be useful wherever and however I could best serve," and was drafted into a Communist outfit all unknowing; this no doubt because my name was on the list of contributors to funds in aid of Sacco and Vanzetti for several years. Even from Mexico, I sent what bits of money I could, when I could, to whatever group solicited at the moment: I never inquired as to the shades of political belief because that was not what was important to me in that cause, which concerned common humanity.”

Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist

The Never-Ending Wrong (1977)

“I wonder if I could eat a child if I had the chance.'
'I doubt if I could cook one,' said Constance.”

Shirley Jackson book We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Source: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold, (1802)
The last three lines of this form the introductory lines of the long Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood begun the next day.
Context: My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

“It's probably a reflection of my own, if I may say, loneliness. I don't know. It could be the whole human condition.”

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) prominent American realist painter and printmaker

Hopper’s respond on a comment of an interviewer about the 'lack of communication' in his painting art
1941 - 1967
Source: an interview with Aline Saarinen, 'Sunday Show', NBC-TV 1964, transcript, p. 3

“In the past, it was easier to believe in my own effectiveness. If I worked hard, with good colleagues and good ideas, we could make a difference. But now, I sincerely doubt that.”

Margaret J. Wheatley (1941) American writer

Source: Finding Our Way: Leadership For an Uncertain Time (2005), p. 327

“I had no doubts as to the correctness of my own beliefs, that human nature could be altered, that man could be forced to evolve morally.”

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