Quotes about doubt
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“And without a doubt it is more comfortable to endure blind bondage than to work for one's liberation; the dead, too, are better suited to the earth than the living.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Second Sex

Source: The Second Sex

Dead

“WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES when we go against our instincts? What are the consequences of not speaking out? What are the consequences of guilt, shame, and doubt?”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

“In writing a novel, when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns.”

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter

Variant: When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.

Guy

“The Beast Lord way: often wrong but never in doubt.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Way

“some choices you make with your heart some with your head but when in doubt choose head over heart…. it will keep you alive.
-merry gentry”

Laurell K. Hamilton A Caress of Twilight

Source: A Caress of Twilight

Heart

“So tell me, Mr. Science Journalist, do you still doubt the existence of miracles?""

""I just tole you. You're my miracle.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

True Believer

Science

“Sometimes doubting is not a lack of faith, but an expression of it. Sometimes to doubt is to merely insist that God be taken seriously not frivolously, to insist that our faith is placed in and upheld by something other than seeming conjuring tricks.”

Mark Buchanan (1961) American physicist

Source: Your God Is Too Safe

God, Faith

“When in doubt, ignore and be horribly unimpressed”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

“Doubts [can] be swept away only by deeds.”

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

Source: Their Finest Hour

“Love is blind, there was no doubt about it. In Tara's case it was also deaf, dumb, dyslexic, had a bad hip and the beginnings of Alzheimer's”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Source: Last Chance Saloon

Love

“It would be better for us to have some doubts in an honest pursuit of truth, than it would be for us to be certain about something that was not true.”

Daniel Wallace (1959) American author

Truth

“Promise me, Amelie, that you’ll crucify me with silver before you allow me to fall in love.”

“I hardly think there’s any chance of that,” Amelie said. "I doubt you have the capacity.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Love, Thinking, Chance

“I wished that love could be simple, that it was always given and returned in the same measure, equally and at the same time, that all the planets aligned in a perfect way to dispel all doubts, that it was easy to understand and never painful.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Heart of Betrayal

Love, Pain, Way, Understanding

“A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failures certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

Failure, Personality

“You have a great heart, but will only find it to be so through great pain. This is the wisdom of love, and its doubtful gift…. I have endured much suffering and still remain unbitter and unclosed.”

Alison Croggon (1962) contemporary Australian poet, playwright and fantasy novelist

Source: The Naming

Love, Wisdom, Pain, Suffering

“A second chance—that’s the delusion. There never was to be but one. We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.”

Henry James book The Middle Years

Source: The Middle Years

Art, Passion, Chance, Madness

“Whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding
as it should.”

Max Ehrmann (1872–1945) American writer, poet, and attorney

Source: Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life

Universe

“If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for… but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.”

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love

Source: Time Enough for Love

Parting

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.
Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 7, p. 31

Life

“People must believe what they can, and those who believe more must not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have believed it all yourself if you hadn't seen some of it.”

George MacDonald book The Princess and the Goblin

Source: The Princess and the Goblin

People

“To put to rest any doubts you might have… I’m jealous of every man who comes within ten feet of you. I’m jealous of the clothes on your skin and the air you breathe. I’m jealous of every moment you spend out of my sight”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Scandal in Spring

Clothes

“Stop your doubting, my love. I knew you would find me. ~Jack”

Melissa de la Cruz book Misguided Angel

Source: Misguided Angel

Love

“He never lets go of Annie's hand. Not when they walk, not when they eat. I doubt he ever plans to.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“Trust those who seek the truth but doubt those who say they have found it.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Variant: Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it
Context: Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it; doubt all, but do not doubt yourself.

Truth

“When I look into his eyes, I could see without a doubt that he loved me more than anyone else in the world, that I was his salvation, the same way that he was mine.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Love, World, Way

“the seed of doubt was there, and it stayed, and every now and then sent out a little root. It changed everything, to have that seed growing. It made Ender listen more carefully to what people meant, instead of what they said. It made him wise.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

People, Change

“I don't want it to be attributed to a loss of control on my part. When I throw you out of the window, I want there to be no doubt the act was deliberate.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Loss, Parting

“Life is short. If you doubt me, ask a butterfly. Their average life span is a mere five to fourteen days.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: The Funny Thing Is...

Life

“No, mademoiselle, I would not like to see the children's menu. I have no doubt that the children's menu itself tastes better than the meals on it. I would like to order à la carte. Or don't you serve fish to minors?”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Eternity Code

Children, Fish

“We walk into a bar, and you're aware of all the eyes on you.
We walk into a bar, and I'm aware of all the eyes on you, too.
For you, this translate into confidence. But me?
All I can feel is doubt.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Feeling, Confidence

“All great discoveries… are products as much of doubt as of certainty, and the two in opposition clear the air for marvelous accidents.”

Mark Helprin book Winter's Tale

Source: Winter's Tale

“Maybe-- maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-- never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself?”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden (1952)
Context: Maybe that's the reason," Adam said slowly, feeling his way. "Maybe if I had loved him I would have been jealous of him. You were. Maybe-maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself? I can see it pretty clearly. I can see how you loved him and what it did to you. I did not love him. Maybe he loved me. He tested me and hurt me and punished me and finally he sent me out like a sacrifice, maybe to make up for something. But he did not love you, and so he had faith in you. Maybe — why, maybe it's a kind of reverse.

Love

“I dedicate this novel to Gala, who was constantly by my side while I was writing it, who was the good fairy of my equilibrium, who banished the salamanders of my doubts and strengthened the lions of certainties…”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Source: Hidden Faces

“Any belief that puts itself beyond doubt nurtures its own collapse.”

Stephen R. Donaldson book Reave the Just and Other Tales

Source: Reave the Just and Other Tales

“The history of the twentieth century was dominated by the struggle against totalitarian systems of state power. The twenty-first will no doubt be marked by a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power.”

Eric Schlosser book Fast Food Nation

Source: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

History

“I never seek to defeat the man I am fighting, " he explained. "I seek to defeat his confidence. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals - true equals - only when they both have equal confidence.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Men, Confidence, Victory, Fight

“Power without guilt, love without doubt….”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Love

“I never, even for a moment, doubted what they’d told me. This is why it is that adults and even parents can, unwittingly, be cruel: they cannot imagine doubt’s complete absence. They have forgotten.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Imagination, Parent

“Most of all, I want you to know without a doubt that I've got your back. And your front. And your sides. I've got all of you and I'm not letting go.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: Fever

“Because your eyes are slant and slow,
Because your hair is sweet to touch,
My heart is high again; but oh,
I doubt if this will get me much.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Source: The Complete Poems of Dorothy Parker

Heart

“Progress is born of doubt and inquiry. The Church never doubts, never inquires. To doubt is heresy, to inquire is to admit that you do not know—the Church does neither.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Source: Thomas Paine From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'

“Don't dig up in doubt what you planted in faith.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Faith

“Magnus knelt first. Clary would never have guessed that. Magnus was so proud, but then it was a pride that transcended the emptiness of gestures. She doubted it would shame him to kneel when it meant nothing to him.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“We humans look rather different from a tree. Without a doubt we perceive the world differently than a tree does. But down deep, at the molecular heart of life, the trees and we are essentially identical.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

Life, World, Tree, Heart

“The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

Why I Am An Agnostic (1929)
Source: Why I Am An Agnostic and Other Essays

Death, Wisdom, God, Fear

“My doubts stand in a circle around every word, I see them before I see the word, but what then! I do not see the word at all, I invent it.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Source: Diaries, 1910 1923

“When in doubt, look intelligent.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Intelligence

“I do not know why the dead do not come back to life. Perhaps death is so wonderful, in ways we cannot comprehend, that they prefer it over and above their friends and loved ones, although I am inclined to doubt that be the case.”

Tom Robbins book Jitterbug Perfume

Source: Jitterbug Perfume

Love, Life, Death, Way

“I doubt you can understand the magnitude of the stupidity in your statement”

Robert Jordan The Wheel of Time

Source: The Gathering Storm

Stupidity, Understanding

“I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this.

[, New York Times, April 19, 1992]”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Time

“Some people claim that marriage interferes with romance. There's no doubt about it. Anytime you have a romance, your wife is bound to interfere.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Marriage, People

“The sole philosophy open to those who doubt the possibility of truth is absolute silence -- even mental.”

Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) French philosopher

Source: An Introduction to Philosophy

Truth, Silence

“You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”

Max Ehrmann (1872–1945) American writer, poet, and attorney

Source: Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life

Star, Tree, Universe

“As always at these times when he felt really in need of God the front of his mind was serene, but the deeper part, where faith did constant battle with doubt, was terrified that there would be no answer.”

Stephen King book Desperation

Source: Desperation

God, Faith, Time, Parting

“To be loved because of one's merit, because one deserves it, always leaves doubt; maybe I did not please the person whom I want to love me, maybe this, or that - there is always a fear that love could disappear.”

Erich Fromm book The Art of Loving

Source: The Art of Loving

Love, Fear, Personality

“It is solely by risking life that freedom is obtained;… the individual who has not staked his or her life may, no doubt, be recognized as a Person; but he or she has not attained the truth of this recognition as an independent self-consciousness.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German philosopher

Source: Phenomenology of Spirit

Life, Truth, Freedom, Personality

“I still doubt it will work."
"You'd doubt the sun's rising if you weren't proven wrong each day," Raoden
said with a smile.”

Brandon Sanderson Elantris

Source: Elantris

Smile, Sun

“A weak man has doubts before a decision; a strong man has them afterwards.”

Karl Kraus (1874–1936) Czech playwright and publicist

Decision, Strong

“A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

Personality

“Think the best of each other, especially of those you say you love. Assume the good and doubt the bad.”

Jeffrey R. Holland (1940) Mormon leader

Source: Created for Greater Things

Love, Thinking

“I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.”
Cogito, ergo sum.

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

Variant: Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum.

(English: "I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am")

Thinking

“Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions.”

Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian psychiatrist

Fear, Problem, Personality

“Hours of crisis often call for sacrifice. In matters of consequence, when have doubt and fear given the best advice? Why not heed faith, courage, and honor?”

Brandon Mull Fablehaven

Source: Fablehaven

Fear, Faith, Courage

“You doubt because you love truth.”

George MacDonald book Lilith

Lilith

Love, Truth

“Jesus," said Clary.
"I doubt he'd fit (in the wooden box)."
"." Clary was apalled.
-Clary & Jace, pg.255-”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Box

“And I realized that I’d tolerated him this long because of self-doubt.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

“Without a doubt… the worst part of being a single woman was having to take care of your own car.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Rainshadow Road

Cars, Parting

“Christianity is a life, not a doctrine… I'm not saying never doubt or question. The Lord gave you a mind so that you would make honest use of it. I'm saying you must be sure that the doubts and questions are your own.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Life, Question

“If I could believe in myself, why not give other improbabilities the benefit of the doubt?”

David Sedaris book Holidays on Ice

Source: Holidays on Ice

“Waitress: "And to drink?"
Artemis: "Spring water. Irish, if you have it. And no ice, please. As your ice is no doubt made from tap water, which rather defeats the purpose of spring water.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Eternity Code

Spring, Drink, Water

“and then Zach said a really bad word, but I doubt DeeDee noticed because it was in Farsi”

Ally Carter Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Source: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

“Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Men

“You are very amiable, no doubt, but you would be charming if you would only depart.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Three Musketeers

Source: The Three Musketeers

“Doubt … is an illness that comes from knowledge and leads to madness.”

Gustave Flaubert Memoirs of a Madman

Source: Memoirs of a Madman

Knowledge, Madness

“Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made.”

Roger A. Caras (1928–2001) American photographer

Love, Faith, Dogs, Universe

“Men Wanted: For hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”

Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922) Anglo-Irish polar explorer

The first published appearance of this "ad" is on the first page of a 1949 book by Julian Lewis Watkins, The 100 Greatest Advertisements: Who Wrote Them and What They Did. (Moore Publishing Company), except with the Americanized word "honor", rather than "honour".

Men, Success

“When I begin to doubt my ability to work the word, I simply read another writer and know I have nothing to worry about. My contest is only with myself, to do it right, with power, and force, and delight, and gamble.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Reading

“Passionately obsessed by anything we love--an avalanche of magic flattens the way ahead, levels, rules, reasons, dissents, bears us with it over chasms, fears, doubts. Without the power of that love….”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

Love, Fear, Way, Passion

“Will: 'Singing the praises of our fair city? We treat you well here, don't we, James? I doubt I'd have that kind of luck in Shanghai. What do you call us there again?'
Jem: 'Yang guizi… foreign devils.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Singing

“When in doubt, shut up.”

Caroline B. Cooney (1947) American writer

“Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

Knowledge

“Doubt is the origin of wisdom”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

Wisdom

“I could hear hopefulness in her voice, but also doubt. She was waiting for me to admit the obvious: I’d forgotten. I was toast. I was boyfriend roadkill.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Diaries

Source: The Demigod Diaries

Hope, Waiting

“Everything seems asleep, and yet going on all the time. It is a goodly
life that you lead, friend; no doubt the best in the world, if only you are
strong enough to lead it!”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Source: The Wind in the Willows

Life, World, Strong, Time

“When we are sure that we are on the right road there is no need to plan our journey too far ahead. No need to burden ourselves with doubts and fears as to the obstacles that may bar our progress. We cannot take more than one step at a time.”

Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American writer

Fear, Time

“My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.”

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) novelist

Source: The History of Pendennis (1848-1850), Ch. 6.
Context: It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all. Some of us can't: and are proud of our impotence, too.

Love