80 Doubt Quotes To Help You Stop Doubting Yourself And Your Dreams

By Stephanie Kirby

Writer, Entrepreneur and Inspirational quote curator

Updated November 15, 2022

If doubt keeps getting in your way, these doubt quotes will help you overcome.

Doubt is a sneaky little thing that can creep into your life without you even knowing if you’re not careful.

Before you know it, you find yourself second-guessing yourself, the people around you, your faith, and everything.

Doubt can take over and keep you stuck.

Learning how to overcome doubt can be an important step in learning how to live fully, step into full confidence, and go after your dreams.

If you need a little motivation, these doubt quotes can help.

Don’t forget to also check out these believe in yourself quotes celebrating self confidence.

If you enjoy this article, check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily motivation.

If you want more motivational quotes, check out our motivational quotes category page.

Wise Doubt Quotes

1. “Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.” – President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

2. “Doubts in your mind are a much greater roadblock to success than obstacles on the journey.” – Orrin Woodward

3. “Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem

4. “Don’t let them make you doubt yourself. All the greatest visionaries in history have been told they were insane at some point.” – Michele Jaffe

5. “Don’t ever doubt yourselves or waste a second of your life. It’s too short, and you’re too special.” – Ariana Grande

6. “If you want to achieve success then don’t doubt your dreams.” – Ryan D’souza

7. “Removing doubt is like removing a blindfold.” – Tim Fargo

8. “Never let self-doubt hold you captive.” – Roy Bennett

9. “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath

10. “When in doubt, throw doubt out and have a little faith.” – E. A. Buccchianeri

Doubt Quotes From Books

11. “Doubt … is an illness that comes from knowledge and leads to madness.” – Gustave Flaubert, Memoirs of a Madman

12. “If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.” – Yann Martel, Life of Pi

13. “You must be careful never to allow doubt to paralyze you. always take the decisions you need to take, even if you’re not sure you’re doing the right thing. You’ll never go wrong if, when you make a decision, you keep in mind an old German proverb: ‘The devil is in the detail.’ Remember that proverb and you’ll always be able to turn a wrong decision into a right one.” – Paulo Coelho, Brida

14. “Once you become self-conscious, there is no end to it; once you start to doubt, there is no room for anything else.” – Mignon McLaughlin, The Complete Neurotic’s Notebook

15. “Faith doesn’t mean that you never doubt. It only means that you never act upon your doubts.” – Orson Scott Card, Sarah

16. “He who replies to words of doubt doth put the light of knowledge out.” – William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

17. “It’s not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for awhile. We all must pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we… But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.” – Yann Martel, Life of Pi

18. “Hope and reality lie in inverse proportions, inside the walls of a hospital… Doubt is like dye. Once it spreads into the fabric of excuses you’ve woven, you’ll never get rid of the stain.” – Jodi Picoult, Lone Wolf

19. “I started having doubts right on top of my certainty.” – David James Duncan, The Brothers K

20. “I think that when in doubt about the truth of an issue, it’s safer and in better taste to select the least numerous of the adversaries.” – Ayn Rand, We the Living

Doubt Quotes About Self Doubt

21. “If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh

22. “I don’t believe anyone ever suspects how completely unsure I am of my work and myself and what tortures of self-doubting the doubt of others has always given me.” – Tennessee Williams

23. “You should never doubt yourself, because you never, ever know what’s around the corner.” – Kellie Pickler

24. “Fear and self-doubt have always been the greatest enemies of human potential.” – Brian Tracy

25. “I keep going because I doubt myself. It drives me to be better. I’ve learned that the mastery of self-doubt is the key to success.” – Will Smith

26. “Don’t stop yourself from greatness before you’ve begun from fear or from self-doubt. You were put here on this planet to do great things, to pioneer change by the way of your own personal uniqueness, and to express yourself and share your happiness with others.” – Kaiden Blake

27. “You’ve been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” – Louise L. Hay

28. “I swim in the oceans of judgments, and drown too deep in the puddles of self-doubt.” – Nimisha Toshniwal

29. “I’m not a perfectionist by a long shot, but self-doubt is a large part of my creative process.” – Keith Fullerton Whitman

30. “If, because of anxiety and self-doubt, you procrastinate and only think about working, you’ll feel more exhausted than if you’d created for hours.” – Eric Maisel

Doubt Quotes About Faith

31. “I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists.” – Robert Browning

32. “Doubt is a creature within the air. It grows when someone hesitates.” ― Toba Beta

33. “Faith and doubt both are needed – not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve.” – Lillian Smith

34. “Have faith in your faith-and doubt your doubts.” – Robert H. Schuller

35. “I do not believe there ever existed a Christian yet, who did not know and then doubt his interest in Jesus. I think, when a man says, ‘I never doubt,’ it is quite a time for us to doubt him.” – Charles Spurgeon

36. “One percent doubt is zero percent faith.” – Oprah Winfrey

37. “Doubt is a pain that is too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.” – Kahlil Gibran

38. “Faith isn’t the absence of doubt. It’s belief without proof, not without question.” – Rosemary Clement-Moore

39. “There can be no faith without doubt. No strength without temptation.” – Sherrilyn Kenyon

40. “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

Doubt Quotes For When You Find Yourself Second-Guessing Yourself

41. “When in doubt, don’t.” – Benjamin Franklin

42. “When in doubt tell the truth.” – Mark Twain

43. “When in doubt, use nutrition first.” – Roger Williams

44. “When in doubt, stand still.” – Julie Andrews

45. “When in doubt, make a fool of yourself.” – Cynthia Heimel

46. “When in doubt, scribble.” – Jean Wilson

47. “When in doubt, take a bath.” – Mae West

48. “When in doubt, do something.” – Harry Chapin

49. “When in doubt chicken out.” – Robin Jones Gunn

50. “When in doubt, make funny faces.” – Amy Poehler

More Doubt Quotes To Reflect On

51. “The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” ― Bertrand Russell

52. “Our doubts are traitors,
and make us lose the good we oft might win,
by fearing to attempt.”
― William Shakespeare

53. “Doubt everything. Find your own light.” ― Gautama Buddha

54. “We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!” ― Douglas Adams

55. “Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.” ― Voltaire

56. “I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul.” ― Bram Stoker

57. “If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.” ― René Descartes

58. “Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.” ― Richard P. Feynman

59. “The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.” ― Robert Hughes

60. “A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship.” ― J. R. R. Tolkien

Doubt Quotes To Help You Believe In Your Capabilities

61. “A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory.” ― Arthur Golden

62. “Self-doubt is very dangerous because it not only warps your perception of what you’re capable of but it also degrades your appreciation of your capacities.” ― J.D. Carter

63. The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt

64. “Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.” ― Christine Bovee

65. “Always keeping in mind that you become what you think about, be very careful about any thoughts you harbor that involve doubt.” ― Wayne W. Dyer

66. “Almost everyone experiences some form of doubt in themselves and it serves no purpose at all. All it does is hold you back from your goals in life.” ― Cameron Gates

67. “Self-doubt kills talent.” ― Edie McClurg

68. “A confident person is someone who does not indulge in self-doubt. He or she is well aware of his or her capabilities and moves forward confidently.” ― Jill Hesson

69. “Just remember to never doubt yourself, we are all capable of amazing things.” ― Rob Cristophe

70. “Success takes time, persistence, determination, and most importantly, believing in yourself! No doubting what you can achieve.” ― Catherine Pulsifer

Doubt Quotes To Enlighten You

71. “Sometimes I think it is my mission to bring faith to the faithless, and doubt to the faithful.”
― Paul Tillich

72. “When in doubt, walkout!” ― Marcelo Santos III

73. “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” ― Frederick Buechner

74. “The key to wisdom is doubt!” ― Marjane Satrapi

75. “Life is doubt, And faith without doubt is nothing but death.”
― Miguel de Unamuno

76. “Doubt is the privilege of those who have lived a long time.” ― José Saramago

77. “Everything is false, everything is possible, everything is doubtful.” ― Guy de Maupassant

78. “Expressing doubt is how we begin a journey to discover essential truths.” ― Kilroy J. Oldster

79. “We must be able to give way to doubt in life, but doubt must not fill the whole room.”― Erik Pevernagie

80. “Doubt makes a man decent.” ― Harry Crews

What Did You Learn From These Doubt Quotes?

These may be silly doubt quotes to end with, but they are full of wise words underneath it all.

And they speak to the fact that you shouldn’t let doubt control you and your life.

It’s tempting to think that when doubt comes in it’s something that you should listen to.

However, doubt is rarely an honest take on a situation.

Instead, it tends to be based on fear.

And you don’t want to live a fear-based life full of doubt.

So read this list again and inspire yourself to find your courage and overcome your doubt.