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.
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— The Parish Register (1807), Part i, "Introduction". Compare "How commentators each dark passage shun, / And hold their farthing candle to the sun", Edward Young, Love of Fame, Satire vii, Line 97.
How convenient it would be to many of our great men and great families of doubtful origin, could they have the privilege of the heroes of yore, who, whenever their origin was involved in obscurity, modestly announced themselves descended from a god.
washington irving— Book II, ch. 3.
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..."
But there was no harshness in the eyes which, looking at the world from under their tawny eyebrows, gave the impression of a man ever alert to greet a redeeming instinct in others but often disappointed. He lived at a little distance from his body, regarding his own acts with doubtful side-glances. He had an odd autobiographical habit which led him to compose in his mind from time to time a short sentence about himself containing a subject in the third person and a predicate in the past tense.
james joyce— "A Painful Case"
What is clear to one man may be doubtful to another.
kenyon, lloyd, 1st baron kenyon— Godfrey v. Hudson (1788), 2 Esp. 500.
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.
Even doubtful accusations leave a stain behind them.
thomas fuller— Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732)
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
A case may not be the less doubtful because I entertain no doubt on the subject; but that is doubtful concerning which learned men differ.
— Heath, J., Cox v. Morgan (1801), 1 Bos. & Pull. 413.
Nature is infallible and is the voice of God, with this difference, that the language of the Holy Scripture can and should be interpreted in many ways (otherwise it would say many things contrary to the evidence of the senses), but the language of Nature is always the same, without metaphor, without allegory, without hyperbole, without doubtful, obscure, mysterious meanings. Nature speaks clearly to him who knows how to understand her, and has no need of interpretation.
— Antonio Vallisneri, in a letter to Louis Bourguet (30 August 1721)
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
