Doubtful Quotes
More Doubtful Quotes
It seems probable that the early Greeks were largely indebted to the Phoenicians for their knowledge of practical arithmetic or the art of calculation, and perhaps also learnt from them a few properties of numbers. It may be worthy of note that Pythagoras was a Phoenician; and according to Herodotus , but this is more doubtful, Thales was also of that race.
— W. W. Rouse Ball, A Short Account of the History of Mathematics (1905)
Here, where the world is quiet, Here, where all trouble seems Dead winds'and spent waves'riot In doubtful dreams of dreams.
algernon charles swinburne— 1866 Poems and Ballads,'The Garden of Proserpine'.
It's hard to say how long he'll be out but he's 100 per cent doubtful for the weekend, that's for sure.
phil brown— 13-Mar-2008, Hull Daily Mail
— There's no doubt that he's definitely doubtful - I think.
It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.
aiden wilson tozer— Glorify his name!, The Root of the Righteous, Ch. 39.
What is clear to one man may be doubtful to another.
— Lord Kenyon, Godfrey v. Hudson (1788), 2 Esp. 500; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 172.
The doubtful beam long nods from side to side.
Alexander Pope— Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1712), Canto V, line 73.
All those instances to be found in history, whether real or fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted Nature recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the instruction of their youth.
Edmund Burke— No. 1, volume v, page 286.
Dim as the borrowed beams of moon and stars To lonely, weary, wandering travellers Is reason to the soul; and as on high Those rolling fires discover but the sky Not light us here, so reason's glimmering ray Was lent, not to assure our doubtful way, But guide us upward to a better day: And as those nightly tapers disappear When day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere, So pale grows reason at religion's sight, So dies, and so dissolves in supernatural light.
john dryden— Religio Laici (1682).
Today and over the foreseeable future,traditional capitalism throughout most of the world has been thrown on a defensive from which it is doubtful that it can never recover.
robert heilbroner— Chapter II, Part 7, The Drift Away From Capitalism, p. 94
It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom . They fight for pride and power power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate.
Eric Hoffer— Quoted in War and Conflict Quotations: A Worldwide Dictionary of Pronouncements from Military Leaders, Politicians, Philosophers, Writers and Others (1997) by Michael C. Thomsett and Jean F. ThomsettParaphrased variant: "I doubt if the oppressed ever fight for freedom..."
False and doubtful positions, relied upon as unquestionable maxims, keep those who build on them in the dark from truth . Such are usually the prejudices imbibed from education , party, reverence, fashion , interest, et cetera.
john locke— Book IV, Ch. 7
...the old axiom that 'all power corrupts' has doubtful validity, because it derives from our neglect of Plato 's advice to find men carefully and train them by methods which make them fit for heroes.
oswald mosley— Excerpt from Beyond the Pale by Nicholas Mosley
We are thus led to a somewhat vague distinction between what we may call "hard" data and "soft" data. This distinction is a matter of degree, and must not be pressed; but if not taken too seriously it may help to make the situation clear. I mean by "hard" data those which resist the solvent influence of critical reflection, and by " soft " data those which, under the operation of this process, become to our minds more or less doubtful.
bertrand russell— p. 70. (Our Knowledge of the External World (1914))
Many agnostics (including myself) are quite as doubtful of the body as they are of the soul, but this is a long story taking one into difficult metaphysics. Mind and matter alike, I should say, are only convenient symbol in discourse, not actually existing things.
bertrand russell— What is an Agnostic? (1953).
In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the State has undertaken to provide it, is a right that must be made available to all on equal terms.
Earl Warren— Writing for the court, Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
In a doubtful case, a good character will have some weight with the Court, but in a clear conviction, it can be of no avail.
— Willes, J., R. v. Bembridge (1783), 22 How. St. Tr. 160.
Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries. – In a world where everything is doubtful, and where we may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, why this restless stir and commotion of mind? – Can it alter the cause, or unravel the mystery of human events?
— Often misattributed to Tryon Edwards. This quote does appear on p. 23 of Edwards' compilation, A Dictionary of Thoughts; however, it is clearly identified there as a quote by Hugh Blair, the Scottish author and preacher.
— A genuine Tryon Edwards quote on the subject of anxiety appears above in the Sourced section (from p. 22 of A Dictionary of Thoughts)
Ere on thy chin the springing beard began To spread a doubtful down, and promise man.
Matthew Prior— Matthew Prior, An Ode to the Memory of the Honourable Colonel George Villiers, line 5.
Where the law is known, and clear, though it be inequitable and inconvenient, the Judges must determine as the law is, without regarding the unequitableness or inconveniency, but where the law is doubtful and not clear, the Judges ought to interpret the law to be as is most consonant to equity, and least inconvenient.
— Vaughan, L.C.J., Dixon v. Harrison (1669), Vaughan's Rep. 37, 38, Fortesc. 392, 393.
If it were a doubtful point how the statute should be construed, I must consider myself as bound by the construction it has already received in two Courts in Westminster Hall
— Rooke, J., Cox v. Morgan (1801), 1 Bos. & Pull. 411.
Oh! rather give me commentators plain, Who with no deep researches vex the brain; Who from the dark and doubtful love to run, And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun.
George Crabbe— George Crabbe, The Parish Register, Part I. Introduction.
As it is generally seen, blank verse seems to be only a laborious and doubtful struggle to escape from the fangs of prose. [...] if it ever ventures to relax into simple and natural phraseology, it instantly becomes tame and the prey of its pursuer.
— Charles Symmons, The Æneis of Virgil (1817), "Preface".
One reason the informal organization chart is never drawn and printed is that it's doubtful every one knows all parts of it.
— Loren B. Belker (1997) The First-time Manager. p. 41
The Poet's leaves are gathered one by one, In the slow process of the doubtful years.
bayard taylor— Bayard Taylor, Poet's Journal, Third Evening
The Great War differed from all ancient wars in the immense power of the combatants and their fearful agencies of destruction, and from all modern wars in the utter ruthlessness with which it was fought. ... Europe and large parts of Asia and Africa became one vast battlefield on which after years of struggle not armies but nations broke and ran. When all was over, Torture and Cannibalism were the only two expedients that the civilized, scientific, Christian States had been able to deny themselves: and they were of doubtful utility.
— Winston Churchill, From The World Crisis, 1911-1918 : Chapter I (The Vials of Wrath), Churchill, Butterworth (1923)
The most temperate of persons is the one who controls hismself, and in doubtful events is self-contained.
— Majlisi, Bih?rul Anw?r, vol.78, p.373
Naught's had, all's spent Where our desire is got without content. 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy.
— Lady Macbeth, Scene II
In order to cease being a doubtful case, one has to cease being, that's all.
— Albert Camus, in The Fall (1956)
A dancing sparkle, a doubtful star , On the waste wind whirled and driven; But it seems to sing of a wilder worth , A time discrowned of doom and birth , And the kingdom of the poor on earth Come, as it is in heaven .
— G. K. Chesterton, in The Ballad of the White Horse (1911), Book IV : The Woman In The Forest
