Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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1		"Faith is an internal acknowledgment of truth." Emanuel Swedenborg A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (Samuel M. Warren, compiler)

2		"We must nurture and not kill such germinations of faith as come to us through the ardor of our best meditations, the illumination of our most inspired dreams, the flash of vision." Creative Vision for Art and for Life (Richard Guggenheimer)

3		"That man who has seen through his understanding (which is the inner eye) what is hidden to external sight, and does not waver in this… - THIS is faith." Hildegard of Bingen, Mystical Writings (Fiona Bowie and Oliver Davies, editors)

4		"There is a very slight distinction, if any, between complete, conscious faith and love." Alan Watts (1915-1973), 'This Is IT and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience' The Quotable Spirit (Peter Lorie and Manuela D Mascetti, editors)

5		"Faith in the future is not dead in our hearts….it is hope, deepened and purified, which seems bound to save us." Building the Earth (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

6		"We have to have faith in our own abilities to take us to a place of safety for humanity and other sentient beings." The Mystic Hours, A Daybook of Interspiritual Wisdom & Devotion (Wayne Teasdale)

7		"Though we have lost our way ten thousand times, the longing just beyond the boundaries of the ordinary mind continues to trust and taste. We are irrationally hopeful, and that's often what it takes." Turning Toward the Mystery: A Seeker's Journey (Stephen Levine)

8		"We are born with the seed of belief buried deep inside us. Over the years it may go through many different external forms, but it is profoundly personal and not consciously chosen. It is inseparable from our angel, the guiding presence that Heraclitus said is our character and Wordsworth pictures as a star." The Soul's Religion, Cultivating a Profoundly Spiritual Way of Life (Thomas Moore)

9		"Faith is implanted in the spirit of man." Summons to Life, Contemporary Christian Insights (Martin Israel)

10		"Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles." Confucius (551-479 bce), 'The Confucian Analects', bk. 1:3 Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th edition (John Bartlett)

11		"Faith is the soul's witness to something not yet manifested, achieved or realised, but which yet the Knower within us, even in the absence of all indications, feels to be true or supremely worth following or achieving." A Greater Psychology, An Introduction to Sri Aurobindo's Psychological Thought (Sri Aurobindo, edited by A. S. Dalal)

12		"'I believe in the sun even when it is not shining', a Jewish prisoner wrote on the wall of a concentration camp. 'I believe in love even when I cannot feel it. I believe in God, even when He is silent.'" In Silence: Why We Pray (Donald Spoto, Ph.D.)

13		"The most important thing I inherited from my parents was faith. Its substance made me, on average, a trusting person, and its content can be stated equally simply: we are in good hands, and in gratitude for that fact we do well to bear one another's burdens." Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief (Huston Smith)

14		"We live according to what we believe is possible." Marilyn Ferguson's Book of PragMagic (Marilyn Ferguson)

15		"Faith is believing that the universe is on our side, and that the universe knows what it's doing. Faith is a psychological awareness of an unfolding force for good, constantly at work in all dimensions." A Return to Love, Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles (Marianne Williamson)

16		"The mystics reassure us, as the Buddha taught, 'On life's journey, faith is nourishment and virtuous deeds a shelter.'" Entering the Castle: An Inner Path to God and Your Soul (Caroline Myss)

17		"Faith is a spiritual certitude of the spiritual, the divine, the soul's ideal, something that clings to that even when it is not fulfilled in life, even when the immediate facts or the persistent circumstances seem to deny it. This is a common experience in the life of the human being; if it were not so, man would be the plaything of a changing mind or a sport of circumstances." A Greater Psychology, An Introduction to Sri Aurobindo's Psychological Thought (Sri Aurobindo, edited by A. S. Dalal)

18		"Hope is hearing the melody of the future. Faith is to dance it." Rubem Alves, contemporary Brazilian philosopher The Lion Christian Quotation Collection (Hannah Ward & Jennifer Wild, compilers)

19		"In these times when outer conditions change so rapidly, put trust in the one thing that never changes: God's perfect spirit and love for us." Visions and Prophecies for a New Age (Mark A. Thurston, Ph.D.)

20		"Trusting yourself and your own process means believing that your task is to be fully yourself and that if you are, you will have everything you genuinely need for your soul's growth….Recognize that what you want and what you need often are not the same and that it is quite rational to trust the universe, God, or your higher self and let go." The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By (Carol Pearson, Ph.D.)

21		"Faith is the opening of an inward eye, the eyes of the heart, to be filled with the presence of the Divine light." Thomas Merton, 'New Seeds of Contemplation' The Inner West, An Introduction to the Hidden Wisdom of the West (Jay Kinney, editor)

22		"Henceforth proceed with Faith to shine in the depths of the world." The Paraphrase of Shem (Gnostic text, ca. 1st century bce), The Other Bible (Willis Barnstone, editor)

23		"Everything begins with man's decision to cleave to God. 'Devekut' [devotion to God] is a starting point and not the end. Everyone is able to realize it instantaneously. All he has to do is to take his monotheistic faith seriously." The Messianic Idea in Judaism, And Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality (Gershom Scholem)

24		"The years of spiritual life on earth are as certain moons following conception, during which the form of divine desire is developed within us; and in due season we shall issue forth to see with our own eyes that which all things now foreshadow, all faiths make evident." Lamps of Western Mysticism (Arthur Edward Waite)

25		"Absence of doubt is trusting in the heart, trusting yourself. Being without doubt means that you have connected with yourself." Shambhala (Chogyam Trungpa)