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Doubt: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Live to explain thy doctrine by thy life. PRIOR TO Dr. Sherlock. On his Practical Discourse Concerning Death. As thou these ashes, little brook! will bear Into the Avon, Avon to the tide Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas, Into main ocean they, this deed accurst, An emblem yields to friends and enemies How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified By truth, shall spread throughout the world dispersed.— WORDSWORTH — Ecclesiastical Sketches. Pt. II. Wicliffe.
Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt there truth is 'tis her shadow.— BAILEY — Festus. Sc. A Country Town.
He would not, with a peremptory tone, Assert the nose upon his face his own.— COWPER — Conversation. L. 121.
Uncertain ways unsafest are, And doubt a greater mischief than despair.— SIR JOHN DENHAM — Cooper's Hill. L. 399.
Doubt indulged soon becomes doubt realized.— F. R. HAVERGAL — Royal Bounty. The
Imagination of the Thoughts of the Heart. The doubtful beam long nods from side to side.— POPE — Rape of the Lock. Canto V. L. 73.
Fain would I but I dare not; I dare, and yet I may not; I may, although I care not for pleasure when I play not.— SIR WALTER RALEIGH — A Lover's
Verses. But the gods are dead- Ay, Zeus is dead, and all the gods but Doubt, And Doubt is brother devil to Despair!— JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY — Prometheus.
Christ. But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.— Shakespeare — S. Macbeth. Act III. Sc. 4. L. 24.
But yet, madam- I do not like "But yet," it does allay The good precedence; fie upon "But yet; " "But yet" is as a gaoler to bring forth Some monstrous malefactor.— Shakespeare — Antony and Cleopatra. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 49.
He that is more than a youth, is not for me, and he that is less than man, I am not for him.— Shakespeare — Much Ado About Nothing. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 40.
Modest doubt is call'd The beacon of the wise.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 15.
No hinge nor loop, To hang a doubt on; or woe upon thy life!— Shakespeare — Othello. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 366.
C. Our doubts are traitors And make us lose the good we oft might win By fearing to attempt.— Shakespeare — Measure for Measure. Act I. Sc. 4. L. 77.
To be once in doubt Is once to be resolv'd.— Shakespeare — Othello. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 179.
To be, or not to be, that is the question : Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 56.
To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting. STANISLAUS (King of Poland)-Maxims and Moral Sentences. No. 61. There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.— TENNYSON — In Memoriam. Pt. XCV. St. 3.
Of the terrible doubt of appearances, Of the uncertainty after all, that we may-be deluded, That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all, That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only, May-be the things I perceive, the animals, plants, men, hills, shining and flowing waters, The skies of day and night, colors, densities, forms, may-be these are (as doubtless they are) only apparitions, and the real something has yet to be known.— WALT. WHITMAN — Of the Terrible
Doubt of Appearances.
Vous ne prouvez que trop que chercher à connaître N'est souvent qu' apprendre à douter. You prove but too clearly that seeking to know Is too frequently learning to doubt.— MME DESHOULIÈRES
Non menno che saper, dubbiar m'aggrata. Doubting charms me not less than knowledge.— DANTE — Inferno. XI. 93.