“If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.”
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Thomas Paine 262
English and American political activist 1737–1809Related quotes
Post Reporter's Pulitzer Prize Is Withdrawn; Pulitzer Board Withdraws Post Reporter's Prize (19 April 1981)
Variant transcription from "Death of a Genius" in Life Magazine: "Certainly there are things worth believing. I believe in the brotherhood of man and the uniqueness of the individual. But if you ask me to prove what I believe, I can't. You know them to be true but you could spend a whole lifetime without being able to prove them. The mind can proceed only so far upon what it knows and can prove. There comes a point where the mind takes a leap—call it intuition or what you will—and comes out upon a higher plane of knowledge, but can never prove how it got there. All great discoveries have involved such a leap."
Unsourced variant: "The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you and you do not know how or why. All great discoveries are made in this way." The earliest published version of this variant appears to be The Human Side of Scientists by Ralph Edward Oesper (1975), p. 58 http://books.google.com/books?id=-J0cAQAAIAAJ&q=%22solution+comes+to+you+and+you+do+not+know%22&dq=%22solution+comes+to+you+and+you+do+not+know%22&hl=en, but no source is provided, and the similarity to the "Life Magazine" quote above suggests it's likely a misquote.
Source: Attributed in posthumous publications, Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 136
Source: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
“I believe in God, but I don't think you have to go crazy to prove it.”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“Do you believe in God?
I, I believe in nothing but God!”
Source: Echoes from the Bottomless Well (1985), p. 65
Finny, on his trust in Gene.
Source: A Separate Peace (1959), P. 163
“When I believe in nothing, I do not want to meet you when you believe in nothing.”
Cuando no creo en nada, no quisiera encontrarme contigo, cuando no crees en nada.
Voces (1943)
Quoted in " Goodbye Margherita Hack, “The Lady of the Stars.”", iitaly.org (1 July 2013) http://www.iitaly.org/magazine/focus/facts-stories/article/goodbye-margherita-hack-lady-stars?mode=colorbox.