One needs time to free oneself of wrong convictions. If it happens too suddenly, they go on festering.

So how can you create a conviction? 1) Start with the basic belief. 2) Reinforce your belief by adding new and more powerful references.

I have my country and my convictions. And I don't want to renounce either my country or my convictions. And I cannot betray either the first or the second. If your convictions are worth anything, you should be ready to stand up for them. And, if necessary, make some sacrifices. And if you're not ready, then you have no convictions at all. You just think you do. But those are not convictions and principles – just thoughts in your head.

The most difficult thing to accept for people who work hard at forming their beliefs on the basis of evidence is that not everyone forms their beliefs in that way. [...] Many people believe what and how they do precisely because they do not formulate their beliefs on the basis of evidence-- not because they're lacking evidence.

When we find a series of decisions running down from the time of Sir William Grant, we should be very cautious, and very slow to overrule them.

A conscience that is only sluggish, may submit to truth when it happens to meet with it: but a conscience under the seductions of passion, will not submit to it without great difficulty, and will devise some pretext, some expedient, for resisting the voice of truth that openly rebukes it.

Conviction is a fist of stone at the heart of all things. Its form is shaped by sure hands, the detritus quickly swept from view. It is built to withstand, built to defy challenge, and when cornered it fights without honour. There is nothing more terrible than conviction.

We believe slowly when belief brings pain.

It takes considerable effort to see facts (and remember them) while withholding judgment and resisting explanations.

A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree, and he turns away. Show him facts or figures, and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic, and he fails to see your point.

Believing takes practice.

I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral slob.

I should have the courage of my lack of convictions.

One ought to examine himself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others.