Quotes about believer
page 27

“For the record? I have never been her baby. In fact, I reject the notion of coming out of her body. I prefer to believe I was hatched, or perhaps purchased.”

Jen Lancaster (1967) American writer

Source: Pretty in Plaid

Baby

“Done time in the lock-up, done time on the streets. Done time on the upswing, and time in defeat. I know what I'm askin'. I know it's a lot. Just to say that I love you. Believe it or not.”

Jerry Garcia (1942–1995) American musician and member of the Grateful Dead

Love, Time

“What gave you this idea of an imperfect god?'

'I don't know. It seems quite feasible to me. That is the only god I could imagine believing in, a god whose passion is not a redemption, who saves nothing, fulfills no purpose--a god who simply is.”

Stanisław Lem book Solaris

Source: Solaris

God, Imagination, Idea, Passion

“i believe that basically you write for two people; yourself to try and make it absolutely perfect; or if not that then wonderful. then you write for who you love whether they can read or write or not and whether they are alive or dead.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Love, People, Reading, Perfection

“Ask once, believe you have received, and all you have to do to receive is feel good.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Feeling

“I've come to believe that in everyone's life, there's one undeniable moment of change, a set of circumstances that suddenly alters everything.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Life, Change

“I believe that being happy is the only important thing. Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or torturous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.”

Joanne Harris (1964) British author

Happiness, Heart

“[I]f you believe in God omnipresent, then you must believe everything that comes into your life, person or event, must have something of God in it to be experienced and loved; not hated.”

Elizabeth Goudge book Green Dolphin Street

Source: Green Dolphin Street

Love, Life, God, Hate

“My view is that if there is no evidence for it, then forget about it. An agnostic is somebody who doesn’t believe in something until there is evidence for it, so I’m agnostic.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Forgetting

“There are so many things we've been brought up to believe that it takes you an awfully long time to realize that they aren't you.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

Time

“How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

As quoted in Love, Sex, Death & The Meaning of Life : The Films of Woody Allen (2001) by Foster Hirsch, p. 50.

God

“Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.”

Ansel Adams (1902–1984) American photographer and environmentalist

People, Painting

“But she was waiting patiently. She no longer believed in talk. It never rescued anything. At seventy she had come to believe in time alone.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

Time, Waiting

“Given the world that he created, it would be an impiety against God to believe in him.”

John Banville The Sea

Source: The Sea

God, World

“As a child, my number one best friend was the librarian in my grade school. I actually believed all those books belonged to her.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

Books, School

“We believe what we see.’… What do you do when you’re in the dark?”

Yann Martel (1963) Canadian author best known for the book Life of Pi

“To hell with you all, I DO believe”

Cecelia Ahern book If You Could See Me Now

Source: If You Could See Me Now

Hell

“Our job is not to figure out the 'how'. The 'how' will show up out of the commitment and believe in the 'what”

Jack Canfield (1944) American writer

“Kat felt her heart beat faster, adrenaline pumping through her veins, and she knew he was right. She studied him for a long time. "Do you believe in curses, Hale?"

He looked at her. "I believe in you.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Study, Time, Heart

“You see? I know where every single book used to be in the library.' She pointed to the shelf opposite. 'Over there was, which was a hugely popular fishing book and one of a series, I believe.”

Jasper Fforde (1961) British novelist

Source: Shades of Grey

Books, Fish

“The previously unloved may find it hard to believe that they are now loved; that is such a miracle, they feel; such a miracle.”

Alexander McCall Smith book The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

Source: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

Love, Feeling

“I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

First published in the "Roger Ebert's Journal" column (19 May 2010) http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/cannes-7-a-campaign-for-real-movies

“Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.
Marcus Aurelius”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

“Pierre was right when he said that one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and I now believe in it. Let the dead bury the dead, but while I'm alive, I must live and be happy.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

Happiness, Dead

“Although I'm sure there are plenty of tall, gorgeous, life-of-the-party guys who are also true to their wives, I happen to believe that a disproportionate number of them are cheaters.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Baby Proof

Life, Guy

“Believe this," he whispered, and kissed her with the sharp, sleek kiss, the silver kiss, so swift and true, and razor sharp, and her warmth was flowing into him.”

Annette Curtis Klause book The Silver Kiss

Source: The Silver Kiss

Kiss

“The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love. That's the message we're brought up with, isn't it? Believe or die! Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Rant in E-Minor (1997)
Variant: The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love. That's the message we're brought up with, isn't it? Beleive or die! Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.

Love, God, Forgiveness, Question

“I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.”

Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French intellectual and literary figure

Source: Violent Silence: Celebrating Georges Bataille

Truth

“I know there are people who believe you should forgive and forget. For the record, I'd like to say I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first.”

Sue Grafton (1940–2017) American writer

Source: V is for Vengeance

People, Forgiveness, Forgetting

“He's the kind of liar who totally forgets what he told you the last time, but he believes every single lie with such conviction that sometimes he can convince you of it.”

Holly Black book White Cat

Source: White Cat

Lie, Time, Forgetting

“Our story has three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. And although this is the way all stories unfold, I still can't believe that ours didn't go on forever.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Way, Parting

“She has man's brain--a brain that a man should have were he much gifted--and woman's heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me when He made that so good combination.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

God, Fashion, Heart

“People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception.”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

Source: Giovanni's Room

People, Strong

“Books swept me away, this way and that, one after the other; I made endless vows according to their lights for I believed them.”

Annie Dillard (1945) American writer

Books, Way, Light

“As much as some people would like to believe, for their own peace of mind, that the appearance of evil in this world had a clean cause, the truth was never that simple.”

Marisha Pessl (1977) American writer

Source: Night Film

People, Truth, World, Peace

“Knowing that wishes don’t always come about in the way that we think, but if you believe and keep your mind open, there’s a really good chance they will manifest in some way.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Night Star

Way, Thinking, Chance

“It's not enough to believe! Don't you see that, you stupid girl? You could spend your whole life hoping and believing! If a love affair is one-sided, then it's only ever a question, never an answer. You can't live your life waiting for an answer.”

Sophie Kinsella book Twenties Girl

Source: Twenties Girl

Love, Life, Stupidity, Hope

“Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Truth

“I have always been a romantic; one of those who believes that a woman in pink circus tights holds all the secrets of the world.”

Tom Robbins (1932) American writer

Secret, World

“That's the way it goes. Some things happen and some things don't. This one is obviously just wasn't meant to be. Except deep down… I still believe it was.”

Sophie Kinsella book The Undomestic Goddess

Source: The Undomestic Goddess

Way

“Pain is real when you get other people to believe in it. If no one believes in it but you, your pain is madness or hysteria.”

Naomi Wolf book The Beauty Myth

Source: The Beauty Myth (1991), Chapter 7 : 'Violence', p. 254

Pain, People, Madness

“If you don't believe there's a price for this sweet paradise, just remind me to show you the scars.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

“believe me. Sometimes when life looks to be at its grimmest, there's a light hidden at the heart of things.
Clive Barker, Abarat”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkspell

Life, Light, Heart

“I think it's important for girls to be confident. Believe in yourself and… everybody's hot”

Paris Hilton (1981) American socialite

Confidence, Girl, Thinking

“It is the possibility that keeps me going, and though you may call me a dreamer or a fool or any other thing, I believe that anything is possible.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Fools

“The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

People, Religion, Problem

“The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Source: The Quintessence of Ibsenism

“It is a sin to believe evil of others but it is seldom a mistake.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Evil

“When I get free, I believe I'll show you your spine. I'll hand it to you so casually, politely even, as if expecting you to remark upon it.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

“When it comes to believing in yourself, put your eye on the mark and don’t blink. If you have a goal, a dream, or an aspiration…believe in yourself while you are on the way to your destination, and you will have already arrived.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

Dreams, Way

“Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.”

Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer

Lie, Forgetting

“When you believe in something, stand up for it, even if everyone is sitting.”

Natasha Friend (1972) American writer

Source: Perfect

“Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has. That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature.”

Max Brooks book World War Z

Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

People, Stupidity, Nature

“You must make, always. You must act, if you believe something. Talking about acting is like boasting about pictures you're going to paint. The most terrible bad form.”

John Fowles book The Collector

Source: The Collector

Painting

“I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Parent, For Parents

“I can't believe anyone would voluntarily run 26 miles. Sometimes I sit on the couch cross-legged because I don't feel like walking to the bathroom.”

Jen Lancaster (1967) American writer

Feeling

“Faith in faith' he answered himself. 'It isn't necessary to have something to believe in. It's only necessary to believe that somewhere there's something worthy of belief.”

Alfred Bester book The Stars My Destination

Source: The Stars My Destination

Faith

“One of the oddest things about being grown-up was looking back at something you thought you knew and finding out the truth of it was completely different from what you had always believed.”

Patricia Briggs book Bone Crossed

Source: Bone Crossed

Truth

“I am no longer afraid of getting old. Indeed I can't believe I ever said anything so stupid. So childish. So offensive and.
But mainly, so very, very stupid. I desperately want to grow old.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Stupidity

“When you meet someone who is truly great, he makes you believe you can be great, too. This is the kind of relationship you want, and it's the only kind of relationship worth having.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

“Infidel, n. In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Religion

“I don't believe in guilt, I believe in living on impulse as long as you never intentionally hurt another person, and don't judge people in your life. I think you should live completely free”

Angelina Jolie (1975) American actress, film director, and screenwriter

Variant: I don't believe in guilt, I believe in living on impulse as long as you never intentionally hurt another person, and don't judge people in your life. I think you should live completely free...

Life, People, Thinking, Hurt

“Love does not exist, it's like religion, the state wants you to believe in that kind of crap so they can control you, and f**k your head up.”

Irvine Welsh book Trainspotting

Source: Trainspotting

Love, Religion

“The degree that the individual maintains a show before others that he himself does not believe, he can come to experience a special kind of alienation from self and a special kind of wariness of others.”

Erving Goffman book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Source: 1950s-1960s, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 1959, p. 229

“Maybe, there's a moment growing up when something peels back… Maybe, maybe, we look for secrets because we can't believe our mind.”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted

Secret

“I was still hesitant to let myself let go, because I still believed in the fragility of happiness.”

Ishmael Beah book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Source: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Happiness

“People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Interview With The Vampire (1976)
Source: Interview with the Vampire

God, People, Evil

“I don't want people to know me. I want them to believe my version.”

William Shatner (1931) Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, author, and film director

People

“It's not what I expected," he said. "They're far more organized than our intelligence had led us to believe.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Battle for Skandia

Intelligence

“What we believe is heavily influenced by what we think others believe”

Thomas Gilovich (1954) American psychologist

Source: How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life

Thinking

“Probably I dont believe in a lot of things that I used to believe in but that doesnt mean I dont believe in anything.”

Cormac McCarthy The Sunset Limited

Source: The Sunset Limited

“But Tik Tok believes everything's circular, including men and women. He says nature seems to go around and around, and that we all have bits of everything.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

Women, Men, Nature

“Because you aren't who you think you are. You aren't what everyone else believes. You might have delivered countless deaths but you love more fiercely than anyone I've ever known.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Passion

Love, Death, Thinking

“I can't believe that I changed so little. I expected to look old and hollow and gray, but I guess it's only me on the inside that has shriveled and deteriorated.”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Source: Go Ask Alice

Change

“I can't believe it! Reading and writing actually paid off!”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

Reading

“Amy Cahill didn't believe in omens. But black snow was falling, the earth was rumbling beneath her feet, her brother was meowing, and her uncle Alistair was prancing on the beach in pink pajamas.
She had to admit, the signs were not promising.”

Peter Lerangis book The Viper's Nest

Source: The Viper's Nest

“In the instant their lips first met, there was a flicker of something almost electrical that made him believe the feeling would last forever.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Guardian

Source: The Guardian

Feeling

“Allow a friend to believe in a bogus prospectus or a false promise and you cease, after a short while, to be a friend at all.”

Christopher Hitchens Letters to a Young Contrarian

Source: Letters to a Young Contrarian

Falseness

“It is almost impossible to state what one in fact believes, because it is almost impossible to hold a belief and to define it at the same time.”

William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) American poet

Time

“The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.”

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer

Truth

“There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Men, Evil

“Don't believe in God. Love the world just the way it is.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Love, God, World, Way

“I regret how much I believed in the future.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Future

“What is too absurd to believe is believed because it is too absurd to be a lie.”

Robert Jordan Lord of Chaos

Sebban Balwer
(15 October 1994)
Source: Lord of Chaos

Lie

“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself, believe.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Tear

“Sometimes things don't turn out the way you want them to, Haven. Sometimes the people you choose to believe are wrong.”

Sarah Dessen book That Summer

Source: That Summer

People, Way

“In a world where billions believe their deity conceived a mortal child with a virgin human, it's stunning how little imagination most people display.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

People, World, Imagination

“I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness.” - Jem Carstairs”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Variant: I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness.
Source: Clockwork Angel

People

“Cleaning is considered a vital part of the training process in all traditional Japanese disciplines and is a required practice for any novice. It is accorded spiritual significance. Purifying an unclean place is believed to purify the mind.”

Mineko Iwasaki (1949) Japanese Geisha

Source: Geisha, a Life

Parting, Training

“The Rom believe you should take the road that calls to you, and never turn back. Because you never know what adventures await."… "So we're going to take this road," he murmured, "and see where it leads.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Mine Till Midnight

“Believe nothing of me
except that I felt your beauty
more closely than my own.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Source: The Spice Box of Earth

Beauty

“Harry Dresden: I can't believe I'm about to say this. So think real careful about where this is coming from: Have you people ever considered talking when you've got a problem?”

Jim Butcher Turn Coat

Source: The Dresden Files, Turn Coat (2009), Chapter 23

People, Problem, Thinking

“In the end what matters is not how good we are but how good God is. Not how much we love Him but how much He loves us. And God loves us whoever we are, whatever we’ve done or failed to do, whatever we believe or can’t.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Love, God

“Don't explain. Your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Economic Warfare Quotes

“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

The Controller, Mustapha Mond, in Ch. 17
Variant: People believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe in God.
Source: Brave New World (1932)

“I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States