“Optimism for me isn't a passive expectation that things will get better; it's a conviction that we can make things better – that whatever suffering we see, no matter how bad it is, we can help people if we don't lose hope and we don't look away.”— Melinda Gates, news.stanford.edu
“Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it”— George Bernard Shaw, amazon.com
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”— Blaise Pascal, amazon.com
“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”— Thomas Paine, amazon.com
“The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”— William Butler Yeats, amazon.com
“The painful realization came that he did not feel as guilty even about the murder as he felt about his betrayal of his calling.”— John Gardner, Peter Mickelsson, amazon.com