Source: The Roving Mind (1983), p. 43
Context: Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?"
"Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be."
“You're always believing ahead of your evidence. What was the evidence I could write a poem? I just believed it. The most creative thing in us is to believe in a thing.”
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Robert Frost 265
American poet 1874–1963Related quotes
Edie : Girl On Fire (2006)
Context: But I really, since I exist, at all, I believe that it's possible for people... I've lived through impossible situations. So I believe in it. I just believe, and that's the magic... That's the whole thing, you talk about magic that there's to believe in, and it is there. But most people don't really believe in it. And I refuse, like, since I'm still alive and done the things I've done and seen things and understood things as far as I have, and I am alive, I mean physically intact. When I shouldn't be, according to medical reports and so forth. I mean I should be, not here. That's all there is to it. So the magic's working and it's a rare situation.
statement
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The Atheist Experience
“You must believe: a poem is a holy thing — a good poem, that is.”
Poetry and Craft (1965)
Wars I Have Seen (1945)
Source: The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
“I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.”
Lecture III, Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered
1900s, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)