#lief

Such evidence is not the only kind which produces belief; though positivism maintains that it is the only kind which ought to produce so high a degree of confidence as all minds have or can be made to have through their agreements. ↗

— Chauncey Wright

#belief #confidence #degree #evidence #high

Religion may be defined thus: a belief in, and homage rendered to, existences unseen and causes unknown. ↗

— Frances Wright

#causes #defined #existences #homage #may

A necessary consequent of religious belief is the attaching ideas of merit to that belief, and of demerit to its absence. ↗

— Francis Wright

#attaching #belief #consequent #ideas #merit

Our religious belief usurps the place of our sensations, our imaginations of our judgment. We no longer look to actions, trace their consequences, and then deduce the rule; we first make the rule, and then, right or wrong, force the action to square with it. ↗

— Francis Wright

#actions #belief #consequences #deduce #first

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

— Frank Lloyd Wright

#belief #believe #happen #happens #makes

If we are to believe he is really alive with all that that implies, then we have to believe without proof. And of course that is the only way it could be. If it could be somehow proved, then we would have no choice but to believe. We would lose our freedom not to believe. And in the very moment that we lost that freedom, we would cease to be human beings. Our love of God would have been forced upon us, and love that is forced is of course not love at all. Love must be freely given. Love must live in the freedom not to love; it must take risks. Love must be prepared to suffer even as Jesus on the Cross suffered, and part of that suffering is doubt. ↗

— Frederick Buechner

#christianity #free-will #god #jesus #freedom

The three-thousand hitting thing was the first time I let individual pressure get to me. I was uptight about it. When I saw the hit going through, I had a sigh of relief more than anything. ↗

— Carl Yastrzemski

#anything #first #first time #get #going

Too many pitchers, that's all, there are just too many pitchers Ten or twelve on a team. Don't see how any of them get enough work. Four starting pitchers and one relief man ought to be enough. Pitch 'em every three days and you'd find they'd get control and good, strong arms. ↗

— Cy Young

#arms #control #days #enough #every

Old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#demonstrably #die #die hard #even #false

In the midst of aches in the joints, anxiety over the payment of bills, concern for the safety of those you love, envy of the rich, fear of robbers, dog-weariness at the end of a long day, and the unacceptable slipping away of youth, there does occasionally appear, like a ray of light piercing the clouds, a moment of joy. Perhaps you have entered the house and sat down before removing your boots. A friend has pressed a drink into your hands, and is telling you the latest news. You see from his face that he's glad you've come in; and you are glad too. Glad to be sitting down, glad of the warming glow of the dirnk, glad of your friend's furrowed brow and eager speech. For this moment, nothing more is required. It is in its way unimprovable. This is what I mean by the Great Enough. ↗

— William Nicholson

#great-enough #relief #friendship