“Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.”
Book I, v, 8
The Advancement of Learning (1605)
Source: The Advancement Of Learning
Context: 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.
“Faith is not a certainty. Faith is the courage to live with uncertainty.”
The Case for God, first broadcast on BBC1, 6 September 2010
“Tolerance grows only when faith loses certainty; certainty is murderous.”
“To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting.”
No. 61.
Maxims and Moral Sentences
“It's not doubt that drives people crazy, it's certainty that does.”
Un chagrin de passage (1994, A Fleeting Sorrow, translated 1995)
