Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Quotes

We cannot infer that because sciences of things divine and human are full of controversies and quarrels, therefore their whole subject-matter is uncertain ; for there have been many persons so enamoured of contradiction, as to turn into ridicule geometrical axioms.

I wouldn't like to be a non-believer in anything.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge.

In science, a healthy skepticism is a professional necessity, whereas in religion, having belief without evidence is regarded as a virtue.

If all you have is faith, then you never actually know anything.

I'm a strict, strict agnostic. It's very different from a casual, 'I don't know.' It's that you cannot present as knowledge something that is not knowledge. You can present it as faith, you can present it as belief, but you can't present it as fact.

When a man is required to believe certain doctrines, he is not free to think. A creed is to keep the mind from inquiry. Questions lead to doubt, and doubt is the death of faith.

People must believe what they can, and those who believe more must not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have believed it all yourself if you hadn't seen some of it.

Faith: The opposite of dogmatism.

If you don't believe it you won't understand it.

Things I don't understand don't destroy my faith in the things I do understand.

Belief is tricky because left to its own devices, it can court a kind of surety, an unquestioning allegiance that fears doubt and destroys difference.

Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

Faith minus vulnerability and mystery equals extremism. If you've got all the answers, then don't call what you do 'faith.'

Between understanding and faith immediate connections must subsist.

Superstition is only the fear of belief, while religion is the confidence.

The word 'belief' is a difficult thing for me. I don't believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it - I don't need to believe it.

He who knows all things and believes nothing is damned.

Knowledge, may it be said, is higher than magic and is more to be sought. It is quite possible to see what is happening and yet not know what is forward, for while seeing is believing, it does not follow that either seeing or believing is knowing.

Where knowledge ends, religion begins.

I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you an education.

Do you know because I tell you so, or do you know, do you know.

There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.

Religion deals in certainties and philosophy deals more in un-answered questions.