Quotations about:
    conviction


Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.


Other people’s truth may comfort us, but only your own persuades us.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 4 (1966)
    (Source)
 
Added on 27-Jul-23 | Last updated 27-Jul-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by McLaughlin, Mignon

The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Monstrous Regiment (2003)
    (Source)
 
Added on 21-Apr-23 | Last updated 21-Apr-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Pratchett, Terry

Narrow-mindedness: allowing one’s prejudices to become convictions.

No picture available
Marcelene Cox (1900-1998) American writer, columnist, aphorist
“Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1944-06)
    (Source)
 
Added on 20-Feb-23 | Last updated 27-Mar-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Cox, Marcelene

Time has a way of demonstrating
The most stubborn are the most intelligent.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1933-2017) Russian poet, writer, film director, academic [Евге́ний Евтуше́нко, Evgenij Evtušenko]
“A Career” (1957)
    (Source)
 
Added on 26-Sep-22 | Last updated 26-Sep-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Yevtushenko, Yevgeny

Every fool stands convinced; and everyone convinced is a fool; and the faultier a man’s judgment, the firmer his conviction.

[Todo necio es persuadido, y todo persuadido necio; y quanto mas erroneo su dictamen, es mayor su tenacidad.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 183 (1647) [tr. Fischer (1937)]
    (Source)

(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translation:

All Fools are Opiniatours, and all Opiniatours are Fools. The more Erroneous their Opinions are, the more they hug them.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]

Every fool is fully convinced, and every one fully persuaded is a fool: the more erroneous his judgment the more firmly he holds it.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]

Fools are stubborn, and the stubborn are fools, and the more erroneous their judgment is, the more they hold onto it.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]

 
Added on 13-May-22 | Last updated 20-Feb-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Gracián, Baltasar

We should strive only to think and speak rightly, without seeking to win others over to our own taste and opinions; that is too great an undertaking.

[Il faut chercher seulement à penser et à parler juste, sans vouloir amener les autres à notre goût et à nos sentiments; c’est une trop grande entreprise.]

Jean de La Bruyere
Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 1 “Of Works of the Mind [Des Ouvrages de l’Esprit],” § 2 (1.2) (1688) [tr. Stewart (1970), “Of Books”]
    (Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

We must only endeavour to think and speak justly our selves, without aiming to bring others over to our taste and sentiment; We shall find that too great an enterprize.
[Bullord ed. (1696) "Of Polite Learning"]

We must only endeavour to think and speak justly our selves, without aiming to bring others over to our Taste and Sentiments; that would be too great an Enterprize.
[Curll ed. (1713), "Of Works of Wit and Eloquence"]

We must only endeavour to think and speak justly ourselves, without aiming to bring others over to our Taste and Sentiments; that would be too great an Enterprize.
[Browne ed. (1752), "Of Works of Genius"]

We should only endeavor to think and speak correctly ourselves, without wishing to bring others over to our taste and opinions; this would be too great an undertaking.
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]

 
Added on 14-Mar-22 | Last updated 6-Jun-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by La Bruyere, Jean de

Herr Docktor Getwin Mittelmind (PhD, MD, BFA, University of Salzburg) was a spark who specialized in mad psychology. A specialized field to be sure. He was not locked away in Castle Heterodyne because he built giant anteaters. No, he was locked away in Castle Heterodyne because he could take a perfectly ordinary group of people and within six days they would build a giant anteater — because it was the logical thing to do.

Phil Foglio (b. 1956) American writer, cartoonist
Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg (2020) [with Kaja Foglio]
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Dec-21 | Last updated 13-Dec-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Foglio, Phil

We were like a lot of clocks, he thought, all striking different hours, all convinced we were telling the right time.

Susan Ertz
Susan Ertz (1887-1985) Anglo-American writer
The Story of Julian (1931)
    (Source)
 
Added on 9-Nov-21 | Last updated 9-Nov-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Ertz, Susan

A man may be in as just possession of Truth as of a City, and yet be forced to surrender.

Thomas Browne (1605-1682) English physician and author
Religio Medici, Part 1, sec. 6 (1643)
    (Source)
 
Added on 29-Sep-21 | Last updated 29-Sep-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Browne, Thomas

History is not a catalogue but a version of events … a convincing version of events. If an historian is any good, he is convinced by his own version of events and then tries to put this conviction across.

A. J. P. Taylor (1906-1990) British historian, journalist, broadcaster [Alan John Percivale Taylor]
“The view from Twisden Rd.”, interview by Duncan Fallowell, The Spectator (28 May 1983)
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Sep-21 | Last updated 13-Sep-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Taylor, A. J. P.

And the funny thing was that people who weren’t entirely certain they were right always argued much louder than other people, as if the main person they were trying to convince were themselves.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Diggers, ch. 4 (1990)
    (Source)
 
Added on 6-Apr-21 | Last updated 23-Feb-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Pratchett, Terry

The men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own convictions.

James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US President (1881), lawyer, lay preacher, educator
“Gustave Schleicher,” Speech, House of Representatives (17 Feb 1879)
    (Source)
 
Added on 29-Jan-21 | Last updated 29-Jan-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Garfield, James A.

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim “that aa drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.” If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what you will, is the great high-road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgement of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech, Washingtonian Temperance Society, Springfield, Illinois (22 Feb 1842)
    (Source)
 
Added on 21-Jan-21 | Last updated 21-Jan-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Lincoln, Abraham

How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Dictation (2 Dec 1906), The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 2 (2013)
    (Source)

A sentiment that may be behind the spurious Twain quotation, "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."
 
Added on 29-Oct-20 | Last updated 29-Oct-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Twain, Mark

The difference between a conviction and a prejudice is that you can explain a conviction without getting angry.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Anonymous

No definitive source is found for this quotation. Frequently attributed to Gregory Benford, Deeper than the Darkness (1970), but it has shown up anonymously at least as early as 1951 as "filler" material in periodicals. Also sometimes attributed to Samuel Butler or Dorothy Sarnoff, but not with any citation.
 
Added on 24-Aug-20 | Last updated 24-Aug-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by ~Other

One person with a belief, is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
Considerations on Representative Government, ch. 1 (1861)
    (Source)

Often misquoted, "One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests."
 
Added on 28-Jul-20 | Last updated 28-Jul-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Mill, John Stuart

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) American writer, journalist, activist, politician
I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked, ch. 20 (1935)
    (Source)

A regular comment of his on the campaign trail. The wording is Sinclair's, though there are earlier references with the same sentiment (see here for more discussion).

Often misattributed to H. L. Mencken. (e.g., "Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced") though not found in his work.
 
Added on 16-Jul-20 | Last updated 16-Jul-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Sinclair, Upton

Acquitting the guilty convicts the judge.

[Iudex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur.]

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sentences [Sententiae], #296
    (Source)

Motto of the Edinburgh Review. Alt. trans.:
  • "When the guilty man is let off, the judge stands condemned."
  • "The judge is condemned when the criminal is acquitted." [tr. Lyman (1856), #868]
There were multiple collections made of Publilius Syrus' Sententiae in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. This appears in all of them, but often with different line/sentence numbers, incl. #256 and #257.
 
Added on 5-Feb-20 | Last updated 5-Feb-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Publilius Syrus

When blithe to argument I come,
Though armed with facts, and merry,
May Providence protect me from
The fool as adversary,
Whose mind to him a kingdom is
Where reason lacks dominion,
Who calls conviction prejudice
And prejudice opinion.

Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978) American author, poet
“Moody Reflections,” The New Yorker (13 Feb 1954)
    (Source)
 
Added on 5-Feb-20 | Last updated 5-Feb-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by McGinley, Phyllis

Be not afraid! In admitting a creator, refuse not to examine his creation; and take not the assertions of creatures like yourselves, in place of the evidence of your senses and the conviction of your understanding.

Frances "Fanny" Wright (1795-1852) Scottish-American writer, lecturer, social reformer
A Course of Popular Lectures, Lecture 3, “Of the more Important Divisions and Essential Parts of Knowledge” (1829)
    (Source)
 
Added on 20-Sep-19 | Last updated 20-Sep-19
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Wright, Fanny

Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that, if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe, say, or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.

Rick Warren (b. 1954) American Christian pastor and author
“Rick Warren on Muslims, Evangelism & Missions,” interview with Brandon A. Cox, Christian Post (2 Mar 2012)
    (Source)
 
Added on 27-May-19 | Last updated 27-May-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Warren, Rick

The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves; and we injure our own cause, in the opinion of the world, when we too passionately and eagerly defend it.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon, Vol. 1, #240 (1820)
    (Source)
 
Added on 18-Jan-19 | Last updated 18-Jan-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Colton, Charles Caleb

Considering the temptations under which politicians are placed, of changing their opinions, or rather their professions of opinion, from motives of self interest, the world will not give them credit for motives of honest conviction, unless when the change shall be to their manifest loss and disadvantage.

Henry Taylor (1800-1886) English dramatist, poet, bureaucrat, man of letters
The Statesman: An Ironical Treatise on the Art of Succeeding, ch. 17 (1836)
    (Source)
 
Added on 22-Aug-17 | Last updated 22-Aug-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Taylor, Henry

Just as every conviction begins as a whim so does every emancipator serve his apprenticeship as a crank. A fanatic is a great leader who is just entering the room.

Heywood Broun (1888-1939) American journalist, author
New York World (6 Feb 1928)
    (Source)
 
Added on 24-May-17 | Last updated 24-May-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Broun, Heywood

Unwilling executants do not make for good execution.

Liddell Hart - unwilling executants - wist_info quote

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, military historian (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
The German Generals Talk, ch. 4 (1948)
 
Added on 25-Jan-16 | Last updated 25-Jan-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Liddell Hart, B. H.

It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Attributed)
 
Added on 16-Oct-15 | Last updated 26-Jan-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Twain, Mark

Everyone is prejudiced in favor his own powers of discernment, and will always find an argument most convincing if it leads to the conclusion he has reached for himself; everyone must then be given something he can grasp and recognize as his own idea.

Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Letters, Book 1, Letter 20 [tr. Radice (1963)]
 
Added on 30-Jul-15 | Last updated 30-Jul-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Pliny the Younger

Some people are to be reasoned, some flattered, some intimidated, and some teased into a thing; but, in general, all are to be brought into it at last, if skillfully applied to, properly managed, and indefatigably attacked in their several weak places.

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #183 (22 May 1749)
    (Source)
 
Added on 23-Jul-15 | Last updated 12-Oct-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Chesterfield (Lord)

There is no better way to convince others than first to convince oneself.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
(Attributed)
    (Source)

In Martin Luther, Table Talk (1566) [tr. Smith & Gallinger (1915)].
 
Added on 16-Jul-15 | Last updated 16-Jul-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Cicero, Marcus Tullius

Earthly minds, like mud walls, resist the strongest batteries: and though, perhaps, sometimes the force of a clear argument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless stand firm, and keep out the enemy, truth, that would captivate or disturb them. Tell a man passionately in love that he is jilted; bring a score of witnesses of the falsehood of his mistress, it is ten to one but three kind words of hers shall invalidate all their testimonies.

John Locke (1632-1704) English philosopher
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book 4, ch. 20, “Of Wrong Assent, or Error” (1690)
 
Added on 15-May-15 | Last updated 15-May-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Locke, John

In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. […] No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavors to establish.

David Hume (1711-1776) Scottish philosopher, economist, historian, empiricist
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sec. 10 “Of Miracles,” Part 1 (1748)

Often given as just, "A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence."
 
Added on 24-Apr-15 | Last updated 24-Apr-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Hume, David

But in stating prudential rules for our government in society I must not omit the important one of never entering into dispute or argument with another. I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many of their getting warm, becoming rude, & shooting one another. Conviction is the effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or weighing within ourselves dispassionately what we hear from others standing uncommitted in argument ourselves.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Thomas Jefferson Randolph (24 Nov 1808)
 
Added on 11-Jul-14 | Last updated 3-Aug-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Jefferson, Thomas

Rich men without convictions are more dangerous in modern society than poor women without chastity.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Plays Unpleasant, Preface (1898)
 
Added on 7-Jul-14 | Last updated 7-Jul-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Shaw, George Bernard

Propaganda thus serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 84 (1951)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Nov-12 | Last updated 11-Jan-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Hoffer, Eric

Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Natural Law,” Harvard Law Review (1918-11)
    (Source)

Legal citation: 32 Harvard Law Review 40, 41 (1918).
 
Added on 5-May-10 | Last updated 21-Dec-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.

Opinions are made to be changed — or how is truth to be got at?

Lord Byron
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Letter to John Murray (9 May 1818)
 
Added on 28-May-09 | Last updated 15-Jun-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Byron, George Gordon, Lord

But indeed Conviction, were it never so excellent, is worthless till it convert itself into Conduct. Nay properly Conviction is not possible ill then.

Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 9 (1831)
    (Source)
 
Added on 21-Apr-09 | Last updated 1-Jun-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Carlyle, Thomas

A fanatic is a man who does what he thinks th’ Lord wud do if He knew th’ facts iv the case.

[A fanatic is a man who does what he thinks the Lord would do if He knew the facts of the case.]

Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) American humorist and journalist
“Casual Observations,” Mr. Dooley’s Opinions (1901)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 28-Jan-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Dunne, Finley Peter

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) Irish poet and dramatist
“The Second Coming,” ll.1-8 (1920)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 29-Sep-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Yeats, William Butler

In my opinion, any faith that cannot withstand a little shaking isn’t constructed too well to begin with. Jesus built his church on a rock, not on swampland.

No picture available
John Russell (contemp.) ("jr")
Belief-L
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 10-Feb-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Russell, John "jr"

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?

Jane Austen
Jane Austen (1775-1817) English novelist
Sense and Sensibility, ch. 31 [Col. Brandon] (1811)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 23-Mar-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Austen, Jane