Quotes about believer
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“I'm an atheist: I don't know what it means to believe in God.”

Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012) Italian neurologist

Source: Interview with Piergiorgio Odifreddi in Incontri con menti straordinarie (TEA, Milano, 2007), ISBN 978-88-502-1523-2.

God

“I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow creatures happy.”

Thomas Paine book The Age of Reason

1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)

Love, Life, God, Happiness

“I believe whatever doesn´t kill you simply makes you… stranger.”

Heath Ledger movie The Dark Knight

Movie The Dark Knight, character Joker

“I’m no expert with females”—the others
rolled their eyes at that—“but I believe an attempted decapitation communicates the
need for some space.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Lothaire

Communication

“Dogs are gonna take over the world. It's a known fact for those who believe it, kinda like the Bible.”

Green Day

World, Dogs

“Have I mentioned that I hate it when you're right?", she asked instead.
Alanna shook her head. "No, I don't believe you have. As far as I could tell, you never thought I was right.”

Tamora Pierce (1954) American writer of fantasy novels for children

Source: Trickster's Choice

Hate

“You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer.”

Byron Katie (1942) American spiritual writer

Source: Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (2002)

Reality, Suffering, For women

“That was the rule that you never mixed up troubles at home with life at school. When parents were poor or ignorant or mean, or even just didn't believe in having a TV set, it was up to their kids to protect them.”

Katherine Paterson book Bridge to Terabithia

Source: Bridge to Terabithia

Life, School, Home, Parent

“I believe in integrity. Dogs have it. Humans are sometimes lacking it.”

Cesar Millan (1969) Mexican - American dog trainer and television personality

Dogs

“All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

Source: The Writing of Thomas Paine

Fools

“People make mistakes in life through believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little.”

James Hilton book Lost Horizon

Source: Lost Horizon

Life, People, Time

“Things are not as easily understood nor as expressible as people usually would like us to believe. Most happenings are beyond expression; they exist where a word has never intruded.”

Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet

Source: Letters to a Young Poet

People

“And once again I believe that nothing that's important really becomes lost. We just delude ourselves, thinking that we own the things, the moments and the others. Still with me are all the dead persons who I loved, all the friends who turned away, all the happy days that faded. I lost nothing but the illusion that everything could be mine forever.”

Miguel Sousa Tavares (1952) Portuguese writer

Love, Happiness, Thinking, Personality

“Science doesn't make it impossible to believe in God, it just makes it possible not to believe in God”

Steven Weinberg (1933) American theoretical physicist

God, Science

“He who believes needs no explanation.”

Euripidés The Bacchae

Source: The Bacchae

“I don't believe we shall ever again have any form of society in which men will be free. One should not hope for it. One should not hope for anything. Hope is invented by politicians to keep the electorate happy.”

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) Italian film director, poet, writer and intellectual

Men, Happiness, Hope

“When we become advocates of a creed, something dies; we do not believe God, we only believe our belief about Him.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

God

“I believe there is little you cannot do once you set your mind to it.”

P. C. Cast book Burned

Source: Burned

“If you trust in yourself… and believe in your dreams… and follow your star… you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

Terry Pratchett book The Wee Free Men

Variant: Now... if you trust in yourself... and believe in your dreams... and follow your star... you'll still get beaten by people who spenttime working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy. Goodbye.
Source: The Wee Free Men

People, Dreams, Star, Learning

“She believed, of course… because without something to believe in, life would be intolerable.”

Rosamunde Pilcher book The Shell Seekers

Source: The Shell Seekers

Life

“You'd think, 'What if I make a mistake today, I'll regret it'. I don’t believe in regret, I feel everything leads us to where we are and we have to just jump forward, mean well, commit and just see what happens.”

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

Feeling, Thinking

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”

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

23 February 1944 http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~param/quotes/annefrank.html <br class="br">(1942 - 1944) <br class="br">Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

God, Happiness, People, Beauty

“every complaint is a little story the mind makes up that you completely believe in.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

“Amy's basically exploiting the sociopath's most reliable maxim. The bigger the lie, the more they believe it.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Lie

“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people”

Terry Pratchett book Guards! Guards!

Source: Guards! Guards!

Life, People, Problem, Thinking

“Do you feel loved by God because you believe he makes much of you, or because you believe he frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of him?”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Variant: Do you love the cross because it makes much of you? Or do you love it because it enables you to enjoy and eternity of making much of God?

Love, God, Feeling

“As for believing things, I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Variant: I can believe anything provided it is incredible.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense…”

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

Journal entry (1896-11-17), from the National Trust collection.
Source: The Complete Tales

World, Knowledge, Sense, Childhood

“I fell in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with her in the years we were apart. 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

John Tyree, Prologue, p. 4
Source: 2000s, Dear John (2006)

Love, Way, Parting

“Rosencrantz: I don't believe in it anyway.
Guildenstern: What?
Rosencrantz: England.
Guildenstern: Just a conspiracy of cartographers, then?”

Tom Stoppard book Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

“Lately I have come to believe that the principle difference between Heaven and Hell is the company you keep there….”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)
Variant: The principal difference between heaven and hell is the company you keep there.

Hell

“I don't believe in aging. I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

Age, Sun

“Some people believe that when you die, you cross the River of Death and have to pay the ferryman. People don’t seem to worry about that these days. Perhaps there’s a bridge now.”

Terry Pratchett book A Hat Full of Sky

Source: A Hat Full of Sky

Death, People

“It is so many years before one can believe enough in what one feels even to know what the feeling is”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

Feeling

“When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. When you do not, you live not just by the day — but by the minute.”

Iris Chang (1968–2004) American historian

Thinking, Future

“I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

"The Moral Problem"
1920s, Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)
Source: Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects
Context: There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.

Feeling, Personality

“Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Letter to Elisabeth Nietzsche, Bonn, 1865-06-11. Quoted in Walter Kaufmann, The Faith of a Heretic (opening epigram).
Variant: Here the ways of men divide. If you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.
Source: Twilight of the Idols

Men, Pleasure, Truth, Peace

“Believe everything you read”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

Reading

“They believed that prediction was just a function of keeping track of things. If you knew enough, you could predict anything. That's been cherished scientific belief since Newton.'
And?'
Chaos theory throws it right out the window.”

Michael Crichton book Jurassic Park

Source: Jurassic Park

“I was wise enough never to grow up, while fooling people into believing I had.”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

People, Fools

“It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you tell kids they're stupid--directly or indirectly--sooner or later they start to believe it.”

Erin Gruwell book The Freedom Writers Diary

Source: The Freedom Writers Diary

Stupidity

“Building a temple didn't mean you believed in gods, it just meant you believed in architecture.”

Terry Pratchett book Making Money

Source: Making Money

God

“I believe I have no prejudices whatsoever. All I need to know is that a man is a member of the human race. That's bad enough for me.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“People needed to believe in gods, if only because it was so hard to believe in people.”

Terry Pratchett book Pyramids

Source: Pyramids

God, People

“We don't ask you to believe in our ability to bring change, rather, we ask you to believe in yours.”

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

Change

“I love to read, and I don't believe that you have to finish one book before you start another.
--Mallory Pike”

Ann M. Martin (1955) American writer of children's literature

Source: Hello, Mallory

Love, Books, Reading

“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.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“The especial genius of Woman I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency.”

Margaret Fuller book Woman in the Nineteenth Century

Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)

“My father had taught me to be nice first, because you can always be mean later, but once you've been mean to someone, they won't believe the nice anymore. So be nice, be nice, until it's time to stop being nice, then destroy them.”

Laurell K. Hamilton A Stroke of Midnight

Source: A Stroke of Midnight

Time

“We never believe we're beautiful, no matter how many times we hear it. We never believe it until someone says it in the right way.”

Francine Prose (1947) American writer

Beauty, Way, Time

“Something was badly amiss with the spiritual life of the planet… Too many demons inside people claiming to believe in God.”

Salman Rushdie book The Satanic Verses

Source: The Satanic Verses

Life, God, People

“I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Cf. Richard Dawkins (2003), A Devil's Chaplain: «There is more than just grandeur in this view of life, bleak and cold though it can seem from under the security blanket of ignorance. There is deep refreshment to be had from standing up and facing straight into the strong keen wind of understanding: Yeats's 'Winds that blow through the starry ways'.»
1920s, What I Believe (1925)
Source: Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects
Context: Religion, since it has its source in terror, has dignified certain kinds of fear and made people think them not disgraceful. In this it has done mankind a great disservice: all fear is bad. I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Many a man has borne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about man's place in the world. Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigour, and the great spaces have a splendour of their own.

“Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe remember you can achieve.”

Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001) Entrepreneur

People, Thinking, For women

“If there were a verb meaning "to believe falsely," it would not have any significant first person, present indicative.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

Pt II, p. 162
Philosophical Investigations (1953)
Context: One can mistrust one's own senses, but not one's own belief.
If there were a verb meaning "to believe falsely," it would not have any significant first person, present indicative.

Personality, Falseness

“It is better to be taught to think critically than to be told on what to believe.”

Christopher Paolini book Eldest

Source: Eldest

Thinking

“Everyone wishes to be loved, but in the event, nearly no one can bear it. Everyone desires love but also finds it impossible to believe that he deserves it.”

James Baldwin book Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone

Source: Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone

Love

“Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not.”

Flannery O’Connor book Wise Blood

Source: Wise Blood

Faith

“It's a disease. Nobody thinks or feels or cares any more; nobody gets excited or believes in anything except their own comfortable little God damn mediocrity.”

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road

Source: Revolutionary Road

God, Disease, Feeling, Thinking

“Believe in life! Always human beings will progress to greater, broader, and fuller life.”

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

Last message to the world (written 1957); read at his funeral (1963)

Life

“… All the shops have been smashed open. There was a whole bunch of people across the street helping themselves to musical instruments, can you believe that?"

"Yeah," said Rincewind. "… Luters, I expect.”

Terry Pratchett book The Light Fantastic

Source: The Light Fantastic

People, Music, Help

“I have not yet spoken my last word about women. I believe that if a woman succeeds in withdrawing from the mass, or rather raising herself from above the mass, she grows ceaselessly and more than a man.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Source: Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy

Women

“If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Noam Chomsky in interview by John Pilger on BBC's The Late Show, November 25, 1992 http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/14177.htm. <br class="br">Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994

People

“I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.

I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.

I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond, that character—not wealth or power or position—is of supreme worth.

I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.

I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individual's highest fulfillment, greatest happiness and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.

I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist

Love, Life, God, Hate

“I believe in God but people are liars. It's those people who say they are appointed by God who I don't believe in.”

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

Source: The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer

God, People

“No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Justice in War-Time (1916), p. 70
1910s

“You are old beyond your years Zoeybird. Believe in yourself and you will find a way. But remember darkness does not always equate to evil just like light does not always bring good.”

P. C. Cast book Marked

Source: Marked

Way, Light, Evil

“I believe in using words, not fists… I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

No known source; also attributed to Susan Sarandon.[citation needed]
Disputed

People, Food, Sex, Time

“Ask yourself these three questions, Tatiana Metanova, and you will know who you are. Ask: What do believe in? What do you hope for? What do you love?”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Variant: Ask yourself three questions and you will know who you are. Ask 'What do you believe in? What do you hope for? But most important - ask what do you love?
Source: The Bronze Horseman (2001)

Love, Hope, Question

“I really don't see what is so romantic about proposing. One may be accepted - one usually is, I believe - and then the excitement is ended. The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Algernon, Act I.
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Context: I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty.

“No one believes a liar. Even when she's telling the truth.”

Sara Shepard (1973) Author

Source: Heartless

Truth

“A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Source: Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Truth, Personality

“Most witches don’t believe in gods. They know that the gods exist, of course. They even deal with them occasionally. But they don’t believe in them. They know them too well. It would be like believing in the postman.”

Terry Pratchett book Witches Abroad

Source: Witches Abroad

God

“He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God.”

Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics

God, Thinking

“Do you know, I always thought unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before!"

Well, now that we have seen each other," said the unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you.”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Source: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland And Through The Looking Glass

“We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.”

John Henry Newman (1801–1890) English cleric and cardinal

Letter to Mrs William Froude, 27 June 1848.

“But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”

Thomas Paine book The Age of Reason

Source: 1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)

Happiness, Faith

“Different authors have different points of view. You can't just say, 'I believe in the Bible.”

Bart D. Ehrman (1955) American academic

“Adiyogi’s legacy offers you the licence to believe in the god of your choice, or not to believe at all. And if you do not find a god to your taste, it allows you the freedom to create one. That is how the Indian subcontinent arrived at an exuberant 330 million gods and goddesses at last count! To see the divine in a tree, rock or elephant is not considered absurd because every speck of creation is seen as a portal to the ultimate reality. These”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Source: Adiyogi: The Source of Yoga

God, Reality, Tree, Freedom

“Speak English!' said the Eaglet. 'I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and I don't believe you do either!”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“The majority of my patients consisted not of believers but of those who had lost their faith.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

Faith

“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.”

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) British-American economist

Attributed to Kenneth Boulding in: United States. Congress. House (1973) Energy reorganization act of 1973: Hearings, Ninety-third Congress, first session, on H.R. 11510. p. 248
1970s
Variant: Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet, is either mad or an economist.

World