Doubt is as useful as it is poisonous. It can be a sharp instrument and lead to the truth. He teach us the art of asking great questions, not to believe and rely on without questioning. It leads us to wisdom and knowledge.
At the same time doubt is a paralyzing poison that never leads to death. A seed of bad thoughts. You have to get to know it, learn to use it. Learning to distinguish.
Below you read various quotes that reveal the real nature of doubt.
Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.
Suzy Kassem, American writer
Doubt is not creative.
Fanny Lewald, German writer
Faith lets you attempt the impossible. Doubt, on the other hand, prevents even the possible.
Marcel Baumert, German aphorist
Doubts: contradiction against oneself.
Walter Ludin, Swiss journalist
Doubt is terrible: no sooner is it sown than it starts to proliferate.
Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck-Seeger, German chemist
“But what if it fails?” This question has already prevented many happy ventures.
Otto Weiß, Austrian musician
We can never know, but we can always doubt.
Wolfgang J. Reus, German journalist
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States
It is doubt that makes good things evil.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet
The land of doubters is resignation.
Stefan Schütz, German notation author
The seed of doubt knows no failure.
Stefan Schütz, German notation author
Doubts are good as long as they go hand in hand with wisdom. But with anxiety in the bunch, they are neither helpful nor healthy.
Carl Peter Fröhling, German philologist and author
A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is always in doubt.
Unknown
Doubt is a cheap but effective poison.
Unknown
You put doubts to sleep by raising hopes.
Gerhard Uhlenbruck
Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt.
William Shakespeare, English poet
The two will eat away at any work.
Paracelsus, German physician
It is the flame of confusion and doubt that the wise man avoids.
Dschuang Dsi, Taoist philosopher
Minor doubts change a person’s goals; major doubts change his character.
Dschuang Dsi, Taoist philosopher
We question everything until we deny ourselves.
Manfred Schröder, German-Finnish poet
Doubts are the anchors that stop the flow of life.
Andrea Gerlach
Only trust yourself when others doubt you, but don’t hold their doubts against them.
Rudyard Kipling, British poet
Doubters are reminded of dragons. Two heads, one heart.
Swiss aphorist
The best protection against doubt is ignorance.
Prof. Querulix, German aphorist
The advantage of the stupid – security; the disadvantage of the clever – doubt.
Uli Löchner, German aphorist
Doubt is the coffin of faith and the cradle of science.
Unknown
Doubt poisons everything and destroys nothing.
Portuguese proverb
Doubt is impartial – it is just as fond of belief as it is of unbelief!
Gudrun Zydek, German writer
The worst enemy of happiness is doubt and nothing paralyzes our strength and upsets our mood more than a state of uncertainty and indecision.
Ernst Curtius, German historian
The worst worm: Doubt’s dagger thoughts.
Heinrich Heine, German poet
Doubt is a worm that gnaws at the heart from the inside.
Alexander Hauck. German author
Conscientious doubters are out night after night with a lighted candle to check whether it is dark.
Peter Horton, Austrian singer
People of action would benefit from a little doubt, doubters from occasional action.
Anselm Vogt, German secondary school teacher
A brave heart can bear the full truth, but not the doubts that gnaw at it in the darkness.
Molière, French poet
Positive quotes about doubt
Doubt is the beginning of wisdom
René Descartes, French philosopher
Doubting, to put it elegantly, means reflecting.
Erhard Blanck, German writer
Once again: intelligence and doubt are one and the same.
Stefan Nieperski, Polish poet
Only those who are serious about their work have doubts about their own abilities.
Johannes Scherr, Swiss writer
Only those who doubt leave themselves space to think.
Erhard Blanck, German alternative practitioner
Doubt is a completely natural thing for a person with sense.
Unknown
The really good questions are mostly doubts.
Erhard Blanck, German alternative practitioner
Those who do not doubt will not be convinced.
Friedrich Hölderlin, German theologian
Doubts are warning signs of uncritical trust.
Otto Baumgartner-Amstad, Swiss civil servant
Doubting climbs the tree of knowledge, being right hangs from it.
Thomas A. Edison, American inventor
Doubts: a training ground for knowledge.
Manfred Hinrich, German philosopher
Without a doubt, no security.
Jewish proverb
By questioning something, we come across the truth.
Marcus T. Cicero, Roman orator
Trust and doubt share the path.
Andrea Gerlach
Doubts are the first steps of the mind.
Elmar Kupke, German aphorist
The path to truth must begin with doubt, and if some see the devil in it, the scientific man cannot reach God without first having made the acquaintance of the devil.
Johann Caspar Bluntschli, Swiss-German expert in international law
Doubts are personal advances of the mind.
Elmar Kupke, German aphorist
You have to respect doubt, because it is not a mistake. It is like the salvation of the mind in the ocean of doctrines.
Sully Prudhomme, French lyricist
Doubt, the eye of control.
Manfred Hinrich, German philosopher
It is prudent and wise to doubt everything.
Voltaire, French philosopher
Doubt is no less appealing to me than knowledge.
Dante Alighieri, Italian poet
When in doubt, don’t!
French proverb
Doubt without despair is undoubtedly difficult.
Erhard Blanck, German alternative practitioner
Don’t do what you are doubtful about!
Latin proverb
Doubts are poison and medicine, shackle and staff, heaven and hell.
Karl Bentzel-Sternau, German writer
Today, I see doubt as a tool for self-reflection.
It is important that your thoughts don’t start going round in circles. That’s why it helps me to put them all together on one sheet of paper so that I can take a closer look at them as a group. It’s as if I no longer have to solve a difficult equation in my head.
For me, journaling and mind mapping are among the most important tools for transforming self-doubt into self-knowledge.
