Shirley Jackson Quotes

A belief may be larger than a fact.

The typical person has no trouble believing without knowing. What people need to realize is simply that you do not need to believe to know.

To believe, it seemed, one had to want to believe.

Science and religion are both the same thing. They're there; they're life. If it's not science, it's not a fact.

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.

Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not.

That is the definition of faith - acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.

We can't assume what we don't believe.

Belief is a toxic and dangerous attitude toward reality. After all, if it's there it doesn't require your belief- and if it's not there why should you believe in it?

I don't believe. I know.

The world begins with what we believe.

It need not discourage us if we are full of doubts. Healthy questions keep faith dynamic. In fact, unless we start with doubts we cannot have a deep-rooted faith. One who believes lightly and unthinkingly has not much of a belief. One who has a faith which is not to be shaken has won it through blood and tears-has worked his or her way from doubt to truth as one who reaches a clearing through a thicket of brambles and thorns.

Carl did not want to believe. He wanted to know.

If I wanted to doubt, then I could doubt endlessly, but at some point a person has to stop questioning and act, and at that point you have to trust something to be true. You have to act as if something is true, and so you choose the thing you have the most reason to believe in, you have to live in the world that you have the most hope in.

It’s critical that we know what we believe, no matter what we feel...that we know what is true, no matter what we see.

Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.

Belief is nearly the whole of the universe whether based on truth or not.

You do not believe, you only believe that you believe.

There’s no point in believing in things that exist.

Some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe.

Knowing the 'right answers' does not mean we believe them. To believe them means to act as though they're true.

... always keep in mind that an article of faith is not something that the faithful assume. Faith, for those who have it, is the most certain form of knowledge, not a tentative opinion.

Seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn't believing. It's where belief stops, because it isn't needed any more.

The devout belief that the world is explainable is both a terrible vulnerability and a stout shield.

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.