AtomicQuote

Russell Banks Quote

What you believe matters, however. It’s all anyone has to act on. And since what you do is who you are, your actions define you. If you don’t believe anything is true simply because you can’t logically prove what’s true, you won’t do anything. You won’t be anything. You’ll end up spending your life in a rocking chair looking out at the horizon waiting for an answer that never comes. You might as well be dead. It’s an old philosophical problem.

Russell Banks

What you believe matters, however. It’s all anyone has to act on. And since what you do is who you are, your actions define you. If you don’t believe anything is true simply because you can’t logically prove what’s true, you won’t do anything. You won’t be anything. You’ll end up spending your life in a rocking chair looking out at the horizon waiting for an answer that never comes. You might as well be dead. It’s an old philosophical problem.

Tags: beliefs, doing

Related Quotes

Key the mind, and set the soul free.

Anthony Liccione

Key the mind, and set the soul free.

Tags: answers, barriers, beliefs, caged, captured, dream, enslaved, eternity, fear, fly

The problem with a philosophy or a belief is that you soon start changing the facts to fit it.

Ashavan

The problem with a philosophy or a belief is that you soon start changing the facts to fit it.

Tags: belief, beliefs, facts, philosophy

The humanitarian philosophies that have been developed (sometimes under some religious banner and invariably in the face of religious opposition) are human inventions, as the name implies - and our sp...

Harry W. Kroto

The humanitarian philosophies that have been developed (sometimes under some religious banner and invariably in the face of religious opposition) are human inventions, as the name implies - and our sp...

Tags: acceptance, amnesty international, ancient dogma, atheism, atheist, autobiography, beliefs, biography, creator, democracy

There is no need for us all to be alike and think the same way, neither do we need a common enemy to force us to come together and reach out to each other. If we allow ourselves and everyone else the...

Anthon St. Maarten

There is no need for us all to be alike and think the same way, neither do we need a common enemy to force us to come together and reach out to each other. If we allow ourselves and everyone else the...

Tags: alike, beliefs, coercion, community, cooperation, divinity, divinity within, faith, follow your bliss, follow your dreams

Stephen Hawking said that his quest is simply "trying to understand the mind of God".

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking said that his quest is simply "trying to understand the mind of God".

Tags: beliefs, big bang, biology, cosmos, creationism, darwin, evolution, faith, god, hawkings

Humanity does not suffer from the disease of wrong beliefs but humanity suffers from the contagious nature of the lack of belief. If you have no magic with you it is not because magic does not exist b...

C. JoyBell C.

Humanity does not suffer from the disease of wrong beliefs but humanity suffers from the contagious nature of the lack of belief. If you have no magic with you it is not because magic does not exist b...

Tags: belief, beliefs, believing, disbelief, existence of magic, humanity, inspirational living, inspirational, life, life and living

Death would not surprise us as often as it does, if we let go of the misbelief that newborns are less mortal than the elderly.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Death would not surprise us as often as it does, if we let go of the misbelief that newborns are less mortal than the elderly.

Tags: age, aged, aphorism, aphorisms, aphorist, aphorists, belief, beliefs, birth, burial

I don't want to be around people who accept me as is, in my unrefined state of becoming. I consistently want people around me who push and encourage me to be my ultimate best, who bring out the inner...

Brandi L. Bates

I don't want to be around people who accept me as is, in my unrefined state of becoming. I consistently want people around me who push and encourage me to be my ultimate best, who bring out the inner...

Tags: 2014, affluence, ascension, atlanta, beliefs, belize, books, brandi bates, brandi l bates, human nature

Heresy would like to think of itself as 'invented Truth'. But of course, all Reason and Logic would agree that no man can ever create Truth; he can only discover it. If heresy were ever at all benefic...

Criss Jami

Heresy would like to think of itself as 'invented Truth'. But of course, all Reason and Logic would agree that no man can ever create Truth; he can only discover it. If heresy were ever at all benefic...

Tags: answers, apologetics, argumentation, beliefs, church, create, deceit, definition, discovery, doctrine

We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The Predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless...

Carlos Castaneda

We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The Predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless...

Tags: aliens, ancient history, anunnaki, beliefs, cause and effect, chaos, cognitive dissonance, cosmos, dreams, food
About Russell Banks

Russell Earl Banks (March 28, 1940 – January 8, 2023) was an American writer of fiction and poetry. His novels are known for "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters". His stories usually revolve around his own childhood experiences, and often reflect "moral themes and personal relationships".
Banks was a member of the International Parliament of Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.