Quotes to inspire and reflect

In our dreams (writes Coleridge) images represent the sensations we think they cause; we do not feel horror because we are threatened by a sphinx; we dream of a sphinx in order to explain the horror we feel.

People were always asking for good sound proofs; doubt springs eternal in the human breast, even in countries where the Inquisition can read your very thoughts in your eyes.

A faith which does not doubt is a dead faith.

I am afraid I shall not find Him [God]: but I shall still look for Him, if He exists. He may be appreciative of my efforts.

Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand / with a grip that kills it.

Do we, holding that the gods exflt, / deceive ourselves with unsubstantial dreams / and lies, while random careless chance and change / alone control the world?

Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatic. The man who knows nothing thinks he is teaching others what he has just learned himself; the man who knows a great deal can’t imagine that what he is saying is not common knowledge, and speaks more indifferently.

The most positive men are the most credulous.

Religion is as effectually destroyed by bigotry as by indifference.

No man should dogmatize except on the subject of theology. Here he can take his stand, and by throwing the burden of proof on the opposition, he is invincible. We have to die to find out whether he is right.

We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.

There are two kinds of people in the world: the conscious dogmatists and the unconscious dogmatists. 1 have always found myself that the unconscious dogmatists were by far the most dogmatic.

Bigot, n. One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.

Physicians are like kings—/They brook no contradiction.

What do I want in a doctor? Perhaps more than anything else—a friend with special knowledge.

Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.

Let no one suppose that the words doctor and patient can disguise from the parties the fact that they are employer and employee.

Who ever saw one physician approve of another’s prescription, without taking something away, or adding something to it?

As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live, a physician will be made fun of, but he will be well paid.

Doctors cut, burn, and torture the sick, and then demand of them an undeserved fee for such services.

Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks more ancient.

Keep away from physicians. It is all probing and guessing and pretending with them. They leave it to Nature to cure in her own time, but they take the credit. As well as very fat fees.

Better a tooth out than always aching.

Our marriage is dead, when the pleasure is fled: / 'Twas pleasure first made it an oath.

I have heard earnest American sociologists say that American children have a right to the divorce experience as an enriching element of an advanced civilisation.

My deeply held belief is that if a god of anything like the traditional sort exists, our curiosity and intelligence are provided by such a god.

What is divine escapes men’s notice because of their incredulity.

If we meet no gods, it is because^we harbor none. If there is grandeur in you, you will find grandeur in porters and sweeps.

Earth’s crammed with heaven, / And every common bush afire with God.

The mystery of a person, indeed, is ever divine to him that has a sense for the godlike.

There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.

Them which is of other naturs thinks different.

We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.

I hold it cowardice / To rest mistrustful where a noble heart / Hath pawned an open hand in sign of love.

When you grow suspicious of a person and begin a system of espionage upon him, your punishment will be that you will find your suspicions true.

At the gate which suspicion enters, love goes out.

Discussion in America means dissent.

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

Say, Not so, and you will outcircle the philosophers.

In a dead religion there are no more heresies.

I came, I saw, I was confused.

Assent—and you are sane— / Demure—you’re straightway dangerous— / And handled with a Chain—.

Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.

Rejection is a form of self-assertion. You have only to look back upon yourself as a person who hates this or that to discover what it is that you secretly love.

The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.

Once I thought that Lake Forest was the most glamorous place in the world. Maybe it was.

Disillusion can become itself an illusion / If we rest in it.

The proof that a philosopher does not know what he is talking about is apt to sadden his followers before it reacts on himself.