Hold faithfulness and sincerity¹ as first principles.

Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects

Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits.

Dan Barker, "Losing Faith in Faith", 1992

I always admired atheists. I think it takes a lot of faith.

Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Seoul Mates, 1991

If you can't have faith in what is held up to you for faith, you must find things to believe in yourself, for a life without faith in something is too narrow a space to live.

George E. Woodberry

Treat the other man's faith gently; it is all he has to believe with. His mind was created for his own thoughts, not yours or mine.

Henry S. Haskins

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973)

You have to accept the plan and realize that if you slip, and you might, you can’t use that as a reason to give up or stop.

Jennifer Hudson, I Got This: How I Changed My Ways and Lost What Weighed Me Down, 2012

And so faith is closing your eyes and following the breath of your soul down to the bottom of life, where existence and nonexistence have merged² into irrelevance³. All that matters is the little part you play in the vast drama.

Real Live Preacher, reallivepreacher.com weblog, September 4, 2003

God, I don’t have great faith, but I can be faithful. My belief in you may be seasonal⁴, but my faithfulness will not. I will follow in the way of Christ. I will act as though my life and the lives of others matter. I will love. I have no greater gift to offer than my life. Take it.

Real Live Preacher, RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, December 26, 2002

The universe seems wondrous⁵ to me, with or without God. It has powerful lines and uncompromising ways. Patience and time sit like sages⁶ on the planets, strong and impersonal⁷. There is a stark⁸ beauty to all of this.

Real Live Preacher, reallivepreacher.com weblog, September 4, 2003

We think having faith means being convinced God exists in the same way we are convinced a chair exists. People who cannot be completely convinced of God’s existence think faith is impossible for them. Not so. People who doubt can have great faith because faith is something you do, not something you think. In fact, the greater your doubt the more heroic your faith.

Real Live Preacher, RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, December 26, 2002

What I am actually saying is that we need to be willing to let our intuition guide us, and then be willing to follow that guidance directly and fearlessly.

Shakti Gawain

To believe in God or in a guiding force because someone tells you to is the height of stupidity. We are given senses to receive our information within. With our own eyes we see, and with our own skin we feel. With our intelligence, it is intended that we understand. But each person must puzzle it out for himself or herself.

Sophy Burnham

Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible.

Stanislaw Lem (1921 - 2006)

Desire, ask, believe, receive.

Stella Terrill Mann

Whatever God's dream about man may be, it seems certain it cannot come true unless man cooperates.

Stella Terrill Mann

If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.

William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)

He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Much Ado about Nothing", Act 1 scene 1

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

Wilson Mizner (1876 - 1933)