quotations about doubt
When a doubt is once received, men labour rather how to keep it a doubt still, than how to solve it; and accordingly bend their wits.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
Doubt is not the opposite of confidence. Doubt can actually be a virtue; it is a form of self-reflection that anyone in a leadership position should exercise now and again. Having doubts about a course of action is a manifestation of a creative and lively mind, one that is engaged in the pursuit of a goal. The ability to question that pursuit means that you are open to change and circumstance. You may change or you may not, but at least you are open to the real world and the twists and turns it may toss you.
JOHN BALDONI
Lead By Example
With knowledge grows doubt.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
Doubt is often as that angel that troubled the waters of old, so that they might become a source of healing to the crippled and diseased.
ALEXANDER HENRY CRAUFURD
Enigmas of the Spiritual Life
Doubt is a ghastly apparition.
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
Like belief, doubt takes a lot of different forms, from ancient Skepticism to modern scientific empiricism, from doubt in many gods to doubt in one God, to doubt that recreates and enlivens faith and doubt that is really disbelief.
JENNIFER MICHAEL HECHT
introduction, Doubt: A History
A lot of people see doubt as legitimate philosophical posture. They think of themselves in the middle, whereas of course really, they're nowhere.
JOHN LE CARRÉ
The Honourable Schoolboy
The irritation of doubt causes a struggle to attain a state of belief.
CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE
Values in a Universe of Chance