“People imagine, and people believe: and it is belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen.”
“It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.”
“Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
“All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.”
“Given the nature of spiders, webs are inevitable. And given the nature of human beings, so are religions. Spiders can’t help making fly-traps, and men can’t help making symbols. That’s what the human brain is there for – the turn the chaos of given experience into a set of manageable symbols.”
“It is so shocking to find out how many people do not believe that they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult.”
“The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.”
“I’ve tried to believe, but I don’t, I can’t, and there’s no use pretending.”
