Quotes about believer (10000 quotes, page 3)

“Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For indeed that's all who ever have.”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

Source: The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future

People , World , Change

“Happy was she who could believe without seeing, who was at one with the duration and continuity of life.”

Julio Cortázar book Hopscotch

Source: Hopscotch

Life , Happiness

“What if custom is wrong? demanded the part of her that believed in the code of chivalry. A knight must set things right.”

Tamora Pierce book First Test

Source: First Test

Parting

“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”

Umberto Eco book Foucault's Pendulum

Source: Foucault's Pendulum

Father's Day , For Father , Wisdom , Dependency

“I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.”

Alan Turing Computing Machinery and Intelligence

Source: Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950), p. 442.
Source: Computing machinery and intelligence

Education , Thinking

“We tend to disempower ourselves. We tend to believe that we don’t matter. And in the act of taking that idea to ourselves we give everything away to somebody else, to something else.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Idea

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

Beauty , Peaceful , Beauty , Housing

“i think thats one of the problems with the world today, nobody knows who they are. everyone is running around looking for an identity, or trying to borrow one, only they dont know it. they actually think they know who they are and hat they are? theyre just a bunch of schleppers… who have no idea what a search for personal truth and identity really is, which would be alright if they didn't get in your way, but they insist that they know everything and that if you dont live their way then youre not living properly and they want to take your space away… they actually want to somehow get into your space and live in it and change it or destroy it… they just cant believe that you know what you are doing and that you are happy and content with it. you see thats the problem right there. if they could see that then they wouldnt have to feel threatened and feel that they have to destroy you before you destroy them. they just cant get it through their philistine heads that you are happy where you are and dont want to have anything to do with them. my space is mine and thats enough for me.”

Hubert Selby Jr. Requiem for a Dream

Source: Requiem for a Dream

Truth , World , Way , Feeling

“I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of Him.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

God

“Three things are necessary for man to be saved: knowledge of what is to be believed, knowledge of what is to be desired, and knowledge of what is to be done.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Two Precepts of Charity (1273)
Sermons on the Ten Commandments (Collationes in decem praeceptes, c. 1273), Prologue (opening sentence)
Variant translation: Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.
Original: (la) Tria sunt homini necessaria ad salutem: scilicit scientia credendorum, scientia desiderandorum, et scientia operandorum.

“To escape responsibility for violence we imagine it is enough to pledge never to be the first to do violence. But no one ever sees himself as casting the first stone. Even the most violent persons believe that they are always reacting to a violence committed in the first instance by someone else.”

René Girard (1923–2015) French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science

Source: The One by Whom Scandal Comes

Imagination , Personality

“It is true if you believe it to be true.”

Louise L. Hay (1926–2017) American writer

Source: You Can Heal Your Heart: Finding Peace After a Breakup, Divorce, or Death

Good Night , Cute

“I believe that anyone can be successful in life, regardless of natural talent or the environment within which we live. This is not based on measuring success by human competitiveness for wealth, possessions, influence, and fame, but adhering to God's standards of truth, justice, humility, service, compassion, forgiveness, and love.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Page 28
Post-Presidency, Our Endangered Values (2005)
Source: Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis

Love , Life , God , Truth

“No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?”

George Orwell book Animal Farm

Source: Animal Farm

Decision , Animals , Happiness

“I don't want to believe. I want to know.”

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

“What I believe in my heart must make sense in my mind.”

Ravi Zacharias (1946) Indian philosopher

Sense , Heart

“We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

"In Front of Your Nose" http://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/nose/english/e_nose, Tribune (22 March 1946)
Context: The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

“I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some kind of a Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.”

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) French artist

God , Thinking

“I've always been an ironic dreamer, unfaithful to my inner promises.
Like a complete outsider, a casual observer of whom I thought I was,
I've always enjoyed watching my daydreams go down in defeat.
I was never convinced of what I believed in.
I filled my hands with sand, called it gold, and opened them up to let it slide through.
Words were my only truth.
When the right words were said, all was done; the rest was the sand that had always been.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

Truth , Unfaithfulness

“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Possibly a paraphrase of Bertrand Russell in My Philosophical Development (1959): "This is one of those views which are so absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them." It is similar in meaning to Orwell's line from Notes on Nationalism (1945): "One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool." However, Russell was commenting not on politics, as Orwell was, but on some philosophers and their ideas about language.
Misattributed
Variant: Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.

Idea

“I am not made like any of those I have seen. I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“Believe me, I know what it's like to feel all alone… the worst kind of loneliness in the world is isolation that comes from being misunderstood, it can make people lose their grasp on reality. - Sienna Brooks”

Dan Brown book Inferno

Source: Inferno

People , World , Feeling , Reality

“I believe in one day and someday and this perfect moment called.”

Jacqueline Woodson book Brown Girl Dreaming

Source: Brown Girl Dreaming

Perfection

“When someone shows you their true colors, believe them.”

Dolly Parton (1946) American singer-songwriter and actress

Source: Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business

Color

“People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

People , Religion

“I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.”

Dorothy Day (1897–1980) Social activist

People

“A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.”

Daniel Kahneman book Thinking, Fast and Slow

Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), Chapter 5, "Cognitive ease", page 62 (ISBN 9780141033570).

People , Truth , Way

“You are where you are in life because of what you believe is possible for yourself.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Life

“I believe that love--not imitation--is the sincerest form of flattery. Your imitator thinks that you can be duplicated; your lover knows you can't.”

Marilyn vos Savant (1946) US American magazine columnist, author and lecturer

Love , Lovers , Thinking

“everyone tells you what's good for you. they don't want you to find your own answers. they want you to believe theirs.”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Source: Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives

“Whatever you believe with feeling becomes your reality.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Feeling , Reality

“I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.”

Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989) American political and social activist

Source: Revolution for the Hell of It (1968), p. 187.

War , People

“Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning.”

Viktor E. Frankl (1905–1997) Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor

Source: Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust

Life , Pleasure

“When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Missing You , Beauty , Thinking , Past

“She believed in angels, and, because she believed, they existed”

Clarice Lispector book The Hour of the Star

Source: The Hour of the Star

Angels

“The little things, Emma. The gestures, the moments. And the big. I let him see my heart. I gave it to him, even when I believed he couldn't or wouldn't take it. I gave it anyway-a gift. Even if he broke it. I was very brave. Love is very brave.”

Nora Roberts book Bed of Roses

Source: Bed of Roses

Love , Heart

“I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea

Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1929-1932 (1973), p. 3
Source: Gift from the Sea
Context: I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable. All these and other factors combined, if the circumstances are right, can teach and can lead to rebirth.

Love , World , Understanding , Suffering

“It takes two people to make a lie work: the person who tells it, and the one who believes it.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

People , Lie , Personality

“SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE IN FATE, OTHERS DON’T. I DO, and I don’t. It may seem at times as if invisible fingers move us about like puppets on strings. But for sure, we are not born to be dragged along. We can grab the strings ourselves and adjust our course at every crossroad, or take off at any little trail into the unknown.”

Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002) Norwegian anthropologist and adventurer

Source: Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft

Fate , People , Time

“Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

As quoted in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book (1923) by Elbert Hubbard, p. 62

Faith , Hope , Beauty

“What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

The Crown of Wild Olive, lecture IV: The Future of England, section 151 (1866).

Thinking

“If you need to invoke your academic pedigree or job title for people to believe what you say, then you need a better argument.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

People

“The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours.”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Source: Battling Unbelief: Defeating Sin with Superior Pleasure

God , Patience

“I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

http://www.studyworld.com/newsite/Quotes/QuoteByTopic.asp?i=Dream

Dreams , Freedom

“It’s called the American Dream, 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Life Is Worth Losing (2005)
Context: They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin’ years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later 'cause they own this fuckin' place. It’s a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club.... The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice.... And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes every day, because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream, 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it.

Dreams

“I believe that all men, black, brown, and white, are brothers.”

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) American sociologist, historian, activist and writer

Men

“What is troubling us is the tendency to believe that the mind is like a little man within.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Remarks to John Wisdom, quoted in Zen and the Work of WIttgenstein by Paul Weinpaul in The Chicago Review Vol. 12, (1958), p. 70
Attributed from posthumous publications

“Sometimes I believe that God wants to try me, both now and later on; I must become good through my own efforts, without examples and without good advice.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

God , Effort

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt without an original source in her writings, for example in the introduction to It Seems to Me : Selected Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt (2001) by Leonard C. Schlup and Donald W. Whisenhunt, p. 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=UeFWjTMcLZYC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false. But archivists have not been able to find the quote in any of her writings, see the comment from Ralph Keyes in The Quote Verifier above.
Disputed

Deep , Success , Beauty , Motivational

“There is no point asserting and reasserting what the heart cannot believe.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Heart

“I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Books, Brain Droppings (1997)

People

“We must believe in free will — we have no choice.”

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991) Polish-born Jewish-American author

An ironic statement which Singer made in many interviews over many years; here quoted in "Isaac Singer’s Promised City" http://www.city-journal.org/html/7_3_urbanities-isaac.html City Journal (Summer 1997)
Variants or variant translations:
We must believe in free will — we have no other choice.
You must believe in free will; there is no choice.
We have to believe in free will. We’ve got no choice.
This makes more sense if you consider the statement "we must believe in free will; we have no [other logical] choice"

“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”

Galileo Galilei Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina

Variant: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
Source: Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615)
Context: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.
Context: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.<!-- ¶22

God , Feeling , Sense

“People have a habit of inventing fictions they will believe wholeheartedly in order to ignore the truth they cannot accept.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

People , Truth

“Natural selection eliminates and maybe maintains, but it doesn't create… Neo-Darwinists say that new species emerge when mutations occur and modify an organism. I was taught over and over again that the accumulation of random mutations led to evolutionary change [which] led to new species. I believed it until I looked for evidence.”

Lynn Margulis (1938–2011) American evolutionary biologist

Nature , Change

“I believe in deeds, not words.”

Tamora Pierce book Alanna: The First Adventure

Source: Alanna: The First Adventure

“I believe, Eragon, that you are full of love and that you are looking for one who will reciprocate your affection. No shame exists in that.”

Christopher Paolini book Eragon

Source: Eragon

Love

“Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

“When you aren't sincere you need to pretend, and by pretending you end up believing yourself; that's the basic principle of every faith.”

Alberto Moravia (1907–1990) Italian writer and journalist

Quando non si è sinceri bisogna fingere, a forza di fingere si finisce per credere; questo è il principio di ogni fede.
Source: Gli indifferenti (1929; repr. Milano: Corbaccio, 1974) p. 238; Tami Calliope (trans.) The Time of Indifference (South Royalton, Vt.: Steerforth Press, 2000) p. 207.

Faith , Sincerity

“We no longer believe because it is absurd: it is absurd because we must believe.”

Julio Cortázar book Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

Source: Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

“I don't believe in empirical science. I only believe in a priori truth.”

Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics

Truth , Science

“I drink much less than most people think, and I think much more than most people would believe.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Source: Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

People , Drink , Thinking

“You are unhappy because you believe in such a thing as happy.”

Lorrie Moore (1957) American writer

Happiness

“It's a difficult question and not one you can answer until you're faced with it. Keep in mind that many people have died for their beliefs; it's actually quite common. The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe." -Brom”

Christopher Paolini book Eragon

Source: Eragon

People , Courage , Question , Suffering

“No one can believe how powerful prayer is and what it can effect, except those who have learned it by experience. Whenever I have prayed earnestly, I have been heard and have obtained more than I prayed for. God sometimes delays, but He always comes.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

God , Learning

“You do good work for a long-enough time, I believed, and you'd get noticed.”

Yanni (1954) Greek pianist, keyboardist, composer, and music producer

Yanni in Words. Miramax Books. Co-author David Rensin

Time

“God the Almighty has made our rulers mad; they actually think they can do—and order their subjects to do—whatever they please. And the subjects make the mistake of believing that they, in turn, are bound to obey their rulers in everything.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Source: Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed (1523), p. 83

God , Thinking , Madness

“I don't believe in that "no comment" business. I always have a comment.”

Martha Beall Mitchell (1918–1976) Wife of American politician

Quoted by Nigel Rees in his book Why Do We Say ...? (1987), ISBN 0-7137-1944-3.
See Wikipedia on no comment.

Business

“We see the strongest guarantee of peace for Europe in a policy of expansion. When have we exploited the embarrassments of other peoples? When Russia was at war with Japan, the Tsar was able to take his last regiment away from our frontier. We did not regard Morocco as an object of war, we looked on while East Africa was divided, while France was creating a great colonial empire of Tunis, Algiers and Morocco, while Italy occupied Tripolis, while Persia was divided between Britain and Russia into two spheres of interest—the world could always rely on the German Kaisers and the German people's love of peace. And what thanks have we had? A world of enemies…When one awakens in this way from a beautiful dream one must not follow that dream again, must not in future believe that renunciation of a world policy will be a guarantee of permanent freedom. They grudged us the right to economic development. We thank the Chancellor for what he said yesterday concerning our security in the East and West.”

Gustav Stresemann (1878–1929) German politician, statesman, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Speech in the Reichstag (6 April 1916), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 75
1910s

Love , War , People , World

“The historical Jesus will be to our time a stranger and an enigma. The study of the Life of Jesus has had a curious history. It set out in quest of the historical Jesus, believing that when it had found Him it could bring Him straight into our time as a Teacher and Savior. It loosed the bands by which He had been riveted for centuries to the stony rocks of ecclesiastical doctrine, and rejoiced to see life and movement coming into the figure once more, and the historical Jesus advancing, as it seemed, to meet it. But He does not stay; He passes by our time and returns to His own. What surprised and dismayed the theology of the last forty years was that, despite all forced and arbitrary interpretations, it could not keep Him in our time, but had to let Him go. He returned to his own time, not owing to the application of any historical ingenuity, but by the same inevitable necessity by which the liberated pendulum returns to its original position.”

Albert Schweitzer book The Quest of the Historical Jesus

Source: The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906), p. 397

Life , History , Study , Teachers

“To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.”

Henri Poincaré book Science and Hypothesis

Douter de tout ou tout croire, ce sont deux solutions également commodes, qui l'une et l'autre nous dispensent de réfléchir.
Preface, Dover abridged edition (1952), p. xxii
Science and Hypothesis (1901)

“That's what I like about the World Series. It gives me a chance to talk with lots of writers, a chance for them to understand me better than in the past. When Roberto Clemente is mentioned, he is always mentioned with injuries. They say I'm moody, selfish, temperamental. That's not the real me. I was born with a serious face. If you know my life, if you know me well by taking the time to learn to know me, then you'll understand me. Most places I go, people say "smile." I don't like that. I don't believe in being a hypocrite. If the occasion is for smiling, I will be smiling. I'm a very happy person.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Clemente Says He is Very Happy" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=42oeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QckEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1983%2C4221206 by the Associated Press, in The Daytona Beach Morning Journal (October 16, 1971), p. 1-C
Other, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

Life , People , World , Smile

“Esaias says: “The wolf also shall feed with the lamb, and the leopard shall take his rest with the kid; the calf also, and the bull, and the lion shall eat together; and a little boy shall lead them. …” I am quite aware that some persons endeavour to refer these words to the case of savage men, both of different nations and various habits, who come to believe, and when they have believed, act in harmony with the righteous. But although this is [true] now with regard to some men coming from various nations to the harmony of the faith, nevertheless in the resurrection of the just [the words shall also apply] to those animals mentioned. For God is rich in all things. And it is right that when the creation is restored, all the animals should … revert to the food originally given by God … that is, the productions of the earth.”

Irenaeus (130–202) Bishop and saint

Book 5, Chapter 33, Section 4. Translated by Philip Schaff et al. (full text at Wikisource).
Against Heresies

Men , God , Faith , Food

“The left believes in a hierarchy of victimhood, if you are L. G. B. T. Q., then we suggest that you are very top of the victimhood hierarchy. You have been most. Those are people whose opinions do not matter at all. Because those are the people who are the beneficiaries of the system. They don’t get to talk about the system because they were the ones who built the system.”

Ben Shapiro (1984) American journalist and attorney

About .

People

“"I never believed in God before." — that I understand. But not: "I never really believed in Him before."”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 53e

God , Understanding

“This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this presidential campaign: to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together — unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction — towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2008, A More Perfect Union (March 2008)

Children , Hope , History , Understanding

“The difference between ethics and morality is quite essential. What is beneficial for one people is the ethics. Morality is the matter of intention, when I say I believe something is good and I will do it because my motivation is right. The fact that in the end it will be a disaster, is not my fault, I did it for good reasons. I despise that. I think that it is the excuse of the weaker. I am not interested in intentions. I am interested in consequences. Any one can have good intentions, which I believe is the matter of decency. I do not discuss others’ intentions. I assume that anyone has good intentions. But it is so trivial, that I am not interested in it. I am interested in what comes next. If I will not benefit from the outcome, I am not interested in good intentions.”

Zoran Đinđić (1952–2003) Serbian politician

From Zoran Djindjic's speech held to students of Banja Luka University, 20.02.2003.

People , Motivation , Thinking

“If you hear of any incident about me - a fight, a change of clothes, a little extra gel in the hair, don't believe it till you talk to me.”

Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer

http://www.flixster.com/actor/leonardo-di-caprio/leonardo-dicaprio-quotes

Change , Fight , Clothes

“They [men] have corrupted this [God's supernatural] order by making profane things what they should make of holy things, because in fact, we believe scarcely any thing except which pleases us.”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher

The Art of Persuasion

Men , God

“I took my baby on a Saturday bang,
Boy, is that girl with you?
Yes, we're one and the same.
Well, I believe in miracles,
And a miracle has happened tonight,
But if you're thinking about my baby,
It don't matter if you're black or white.”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

Dangerous (1991)

Girl , Boy , Thinking , Baby

“I would not let her work until she was eighteen, and believe me, since the time she was being strolled down the street in her stroller, people were saying, “Can I use her in my commercial? Can I put her in my movie?” “No!” But I did let her take any class that she wanted to take. Singing, acting, dancing…”

Michelle Phillips (1944) Singer, actress

On raising her daughter, Chynna Philips, The Huffington Post (August 25, 2016)

People , Singing , Time , Dance

“You can't believe it, you can't conceive it,
And you can't touch me, 'cause I'm untouchable,
And I know you hate it, and you can't take it,
You'll never break me, 'cause I'm unbreakable.”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

Unbreakable
Invincible (2001)

Hate

“If thou art, Reader, slow now to believe
What I shall say, it will no marvel be,
For I who saw it hardly can admit it.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XXV, lines 46–48 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Art

“Let me say it again. I don't believe in black majority rule ever in Rhodesia—not in a thousand years. I repeat that I believe in blacks and whites working together. If one day it is white and the next day it is black, I believe we have failed and it will be a disaster for Rhodesia.”

Ian Smith (1919–2007) Prime Minister of Rhodesia

Nigel Rees, "Sayings of the Century", Unwin paperbacks, 1984, p. 247.
Radio broadcast, March 20, 1976.
Peter Godwin, Comment in the Guardian(UK) Newspaper http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/nov/25/comment.zimbabwe.

“If you try, everything you strive for will come close to you, and you will reap the benefit. May God give you that help, that grace, that wisdom, and His qualities. May He do what is good. If you believe in Him, He will never let go of you. If you intend Him, He will come looking for you. If you call Him, He will call you. If you love Him, He will love you. If you search for Him, He will search for you. Know this. Amin. Amin.”

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (1900–1986) Sri Lankan Sufi leader

Love , Wisdom , God , Search

“Traditionally, art has been for the select few. We have been brainwashed to believe that Michaelangelo had to pat you on the head at birth. Well, we show people that anybody can paint a picture that they're proud of. It may never hang in the Smithsonian, but it will certainly be something that they'll hang in their home and be proud of. And that's what it's all about.”

Bob Ross (1942–1995) American painter, art instructor, and television host

Linda Shrieves (July 7, 1990) "Bob Ross Uses His Brush to Spread Paint and Joy", The Orlando Sentinel, p. E1.

People , Art , Home , Birth

“I sing in the language of the Heart. It's an invented language that I've had for a very long time. I believe I started singing in it when I was about 12. Roughly that time. And I believed that I was speaking to God when I sang in that language.”

Lisa Gerrard (1961) Australian musician, singer and composer

God , Singing , Time , Heart

“If tyranny is going to come in the United States, it's going to come from people who are so fearful of the liberty of Americans, that they believe that the government should shut down all sorts of freedoms that we hold dear.”

Ben Shapiro (1984) American journalist and attorney

2018-08-01
Is The Second Civil War Coming?
The Ben Shapiro Show
593
38:35
https://soundcloud.com/benshapiroshow/ep593
2018

People , Fear , Freedom

“The truth is that Dickens's criticism of society is almost exclusively moral. Hence the utter lack of any constructive suggestion anywhere in his work. He attacks the law, parliamentary government, the educational system and so forth, without ever clearly suggesting what he would put in their places. Of course it is not necessarily the business of a novelist, or a satirist, to make constructive suggestions, but the point is that Dickens's attitude is at bottom not even destructive. There is no clear sign that he wants the existing order to be overthrown, or that he believes it would make very much difference if it were overthrown. For in reality his target is not so much society as ‘human nature’. It would be difficult to point anywhere in his books to a passage suggesting that the economic system is wrong as a system.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

"Charles Dickens" (1939)
Charles Dickens (1939)

Truth , Books , Education , Law

“It makes it easier to get happiness. I do believe in a material world to a certain extent. I think material happiness is quite an important step before you look for spiritual happiness. There are people who think the other way round. They might also be right. But in the kind of education and the world where I have grown up, and we all are growing up, a certain level of consumerism become a reality. (as an answer to the question: Do you think that money can buy happiness?)”

Shahrukh Khan (1965) Indian actor, producer and television personality

From interview with Rajeev Masand

Money , People , World , Education

“I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.”

Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) American astronaut; first person to walk on the moon

First On The Moon : A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E Aldrin, Jr. (1970) edited by Gene Farmer and Dora Jane Hamblin, p. 113, states of this: "Like many a quote which gets printed once and therefore enshrined in the libraries of all newspapers and magazines, this particular one was erroneous. Neil recalled having heard the quote, and he even recalled having repeated it once. He did not subscribe to its thesis, however, and he only quoted it so that he could disagree with it."
Misattributed

Exercises

“For a while, I thought of myself as an atheist until I realized it was a belief, too. It's a shame everything has to have a label. I feel that if I was figuratively dropped on the Earth and there was a political line, I would be just left of center. The difference for me is that conservatives are more interested in property values and rights and free markets, and liberals are more interested in human rights. In the end, there are people who don't fit into the marketplace and are not equipped. I believe the government should step in where the free market fails.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Las Vegas CityLife, August 9, 2007 http://www.lvcitylife.com/articles/2007/08/10/ae/stage/iq_15893857.txt
Interviews, Print Interviews

People , Feeling

“I just can’t believe anyone would start a band just to make the scene and be cool and have chicks. I just can’t believe it.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

As quoted in Option (1992-01-02).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print

“But the other conception, namely the infusion of the soul, it is piously and suitably believed, was without any sin, so that while the soul was being infused, she would at the same time be cleansed from original sin and adorned with the gifts of God to receive the holy soul thus infused. And thus, in the very moment in which she began to live, she was without all sin.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Weimar edition of Martin Luther's Works, English translation edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], Vol. 4, 694

God , Soul , Time

“Believing that these propositions, and the [conclusions] I draw from them can not be successfully controverted, I, for the present, assume their correctness, and proceed to try to show, that the abandonment of the protective policy by the American Government, must result in the increase of both useless labour, and idleness; and so, in pro[por]tion, must produce want and ruin among our people.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

"Fragments of a Tariff Discussion", Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1, p. 415 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln1/1:423?rgn=div1;view=fulltext; according to the source Lincoln's "scraps about protection were written by Lincoln, between his election to Congress in 1846, and taking his seat in Dec. 1847".
1840s

People , Drawing