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

All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain you gain all, if you lose you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that He exists.

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world beyond the horizon.

Just as no one can be forced into belief, so no one can be forced into unbelief.

I believe the most important single thing beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.

I don't call myself a Buddhist. I'm a free spirit. I believe I'm here on earth to admire and enjoy it, that's my religion.

Basically I believe the world is a jungle, and if it's not a bit of a jungle in the home, a child cannot possibly be fit to enter the outside world.

Absurdity n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers.

It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.

The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

I am just a common man who is true to his beliefs.

It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip.

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

If children understand that beliefs should be substantiated with evidence as opposed to tradition, authority, revelation or faith, they will automatically work out for themselves that they are atheists.

Some men are just as sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know.

My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.

Mind, word and act, all three must be filled with the belief that all is His play, that is the genuine path.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we're hard-wired to form tribalistic religions.

The word "belief" is a difficult thing for me. I don't believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing and then I know it - I don't need to believe it.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

Faith is much better than belief. Belief is when someone else does the thinking.

The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.

Man is a credulous animal and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.

I would believe only in a God that knows how to Dance.

Belief creates the actual fact.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic, because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.

It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it's perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God.

Old beliefs die hard, even when demonstrably false.

Rational beliefs bring us closer to getting good results in the real world.

Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving, or the class of people served.

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

If some people have the belief or view that the Dalai Lama has some miracle power, that's totally nonsense.

I believe the destiny of your generation - and your nation - is a rendezvous with excellence.

Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.

I can tell you honest friend what to believe: believe life, it teaches better that book or orator.

All that one gains by falsehood is not to be believed when he speaks the truth.

He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.

Moralities, ethics, laws, customs, beliefs, doctrines - these are of trifling import. All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm.

If you were to destroy the belief in immortality in mankind, not only love, but every living force on which the continuation of all life in the world depended, would dry up at once.

The want of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome.

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.

A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance.

Man can believe the impossible but man can never believe the improbable.

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.

Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power, but that of self interest backed by force.

Liars, when they speak the truth, are not believed.

It will, I believe, be everywhere found that as the clergy are or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.

Your belief in God is merely an escape from your monotonous, stupid and cruel life.

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever - this is a somewhat new kind of religion.

Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul, unbelief in denying them.

A good character carries with it the highest power of causing a thing to be believed.

Imagination grows by exercise and, contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

I find it hard to believe that human beings are the crowning achievement of life on earth. Something better than us has to come along.

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather, it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.

In the Church, considered as a social organism, the mysteries inevitably degenerate into beliefs.

Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.

The thing always happens that you really believe in, and the belief in a thing makes it happen.

Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them.

To believe in something and not to live it is dishonest.

Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don't let yourself believe it will happen to you.

I try not to speak about all the charities and people I help, because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return.

Miracles only happen if you believe in miracles.

God is love, generosity and forgiveness; If we believe in this, we will never allow our weaknesses to paralyze us.

God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.

No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.

And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief of holding on.

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.

That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe forms my idea of God.

I mean as an athlete, as a competitor, you have to have that belief in yourself.

Strong beliefs win strong men and then make them stronger.

Don't believe in miracles - depend on them.

I don't believe in fate or destiny. I believe in various degrees of hatred, paranoia and abandonment. However much of that gets heaped upon you, doesn't matter - it's only a matter of how much you can take and what it does to you.

Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief, a cynical community is a corrupt community.

I hate careless flattery, the kind that exhausts you in your efforts to believe it.

America is a Nation with a mission - and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace - a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman.

The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself.

Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn't matter.

Optimism - the doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly.

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word and thought throughout our lifetime.

If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.

It's my belief we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain.

Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.

Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

Truth is inseperable from the illusory belief that from the figures of the unreal, one day, in spite of all, real deliverance will come.

It's not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.

When you have come to the edge of all the light you have, And step into the darkness of the unknown, Believe that one of the two will happen to you, Either you'll find something solid to stand on, Or you'll be taught how to fly!

Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence, but we thought if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that.

Since I move about with you, eat like you and talk with you, you are deluded in the belief that this is but an instance of common humanity. Be warned against this mistake. I am also deluding you by My singing with you, talking with you, and engaging Myself in activities with you. But any movement My Divinity may be revealed to you, you have to be ready prepared for that moment.

Women are proverbially too individualistic! There is a popular belief born out of folk - experience that three women cannot live in unison!

The belief that recipients of government aid are better off the more we spend on them is remarkably persistent. No matter how many times this central tenet of liberalism gets debunked, like Brett Favre it just keeps coming back.

The most common error made in matters of appearance is the belief that one should disdain the superficial and let the true beauty of one's soul shine through. If there are places on your body where this is a possibility, you are not attractive - you are leaking.

I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.

The Gateway to Christianity is not through an intricate labyrinth of dogma, but by a simple belief in the person of Christ.

Some believe all that parents, tutors and kindred believe. They take their principles by inheritance and defend them as they would their estates because they are born heirs to them.

Where belief is painful, we are slow to believe.

The world we see, that seems so insane, is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

I'm very much a Christian in ideals and ethics, especially in terms of belief in fairness, a deep set obligation to others, and the virtues of charity, tolerance, and generosity, that we associate with traditional Christian teaching.

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

The word 'Antichrist' to me is the collective disbelief in god.

Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life.

`Father O father! what do we here, In this land of unbelief and fear? The Land of Dreams is better far, Above the light of the morning star.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

Now God be praised that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.

Religious beliefs evolved by group-selection, tribe competing against tribe, and the illogic of religions is not a weakness but their essential strength.

I don't believe it. Prove it to me and I still won't believe it.

We've persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people - a belief that out of the ashes of war a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq we have met our responsibility. Now it's time to turn the page.

The gentleness, modesty, and sweetness of her character were warmly expatiated on, that sweetness which makes so essential a part of every woman's worth in the judgment of man that, though he sometimes loves where it is not, he can never believe it absent.

Truth lives in fact for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass so long as nothing challenges them just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.

A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs and knowledge, slowly accumulated in the course of centuries; elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it.

Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.

When a man tells you who he is... believe him.

I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.

You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you.

In my conscience I believe the baggage loves me, for she never speaks well of me herself, nor suffers any body else to rail at me.

A belief in hell, and the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton, have never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumor.