“What you believe is without a clue. What I believe is always true.”

Ender's Game series, Shadow of the Hegemon (2001)

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Seventh Son (1987), Chapter 9.

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Context: I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost, — and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment.

Speaking to the rest of the Hollywood Ten during their preparation for testimony, in answer to a hypothetical prosecution ploy, "Do you believe in free speech for fascists?" From Odd Man Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten by Edward Dmytryk (1996, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL).

“A true believer in what? The prosperity gospel? New Republican Jesus who rewards his faithful flock for their faith with the ability to make money fast? That’s self-serving cant, and you know it. Wish-fulfillment as religion.” A twitch of the cheek: Persephone unamused. “Don’t get me started on the gap between the Vatican and their flock.”
Source: The Laundry Files, The Apocalypse Codex (2012), Chapter 7, “Communion” (p. 125)

If it does matter, then you must justify your beliefs; if it doesn’t, then you must justify belief itself.
Source: Faith vs. Fact (2015), p. 63

Blue Like Jazz (2003, Nelson Books)