“In contrast, inner conviction often persuades, even when the method of reasoning is in the greatest disorder. The accent of faith is so irresistible.”

Original: En cambio, la convicción íntima suele persuadir aunque en el método del raciocinio reine el mayor desorden. ¡Tan irresistible es el acento de la fe! — Bécquer contrasts rational coherence with the persuasive force of deeply felt conviction. · Letter IV, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Conviction
• Faith
• Reason

“I remember I nodded, for further acquaintance with war inclines me to his opinion.”

Records his shift from the exalté note of Ardours and Endurances toward Sassoon's refusal to praise war's supposed gains · Introduction to Counter-Attack and Other Poems, 1918

• Conviction
• Experience
• War

“I am writing something which may turn the whole arabic world against me. But I am prepared for it. I am getting used to being nailed to the cross.”

Work accepted even when it costs belonging · Letter to Mary Haskell, 23 October 1912

• Conviction
• Courage
• Writing

“If and when I take the step I want to be intellectually honest and sincere about it.”

Insisting that conversion must satisfy mind as well as need · Letter to Max Eastman, June 1944

• Conviction
• Faith
• Honesty

“I possess the arrogance of conviction.”

Claiming stubborn artistic self-belief · Instead of a Preface, My Rubaiyat

• Artists
• Confidence
• Conviction

“The really useful knowledge of life must come through strong convictions.”

Arguing that lived conviction teaches more deeply than abstract instruction · A Woman of the World

• Conviction
• Experience
• Knowledge

“When I tell any Truth it is not for the sake of Convincing those who do not know it but for the sake of defending those who Do.”

Truth-telling is solidarity with the already seeing, not a conversion campaign · Public Address, notebook, c. 1810

• Conviction
• Speech
• Truth

“I never allowed myself to put opinions upon the shelf as settled for ever.”

Committing to lifelong intellectual honesty and openness in the search for truth · Letter (as commonly recalled)

• Conviction
• Inquiry
• Truth

“It is a very dangerous thing to listen. If one listens one may be convinced.”

Cautioning against the risk of persuasion · Play, An Ideal Husband

• Conviction
• Danger
• Listening

“Strong convictions are usually obtained only on the pathway of personal experience.”

Emphasising experience as the source of deeply held understanding · A Woman of the World

• Conviction
• Experience
• Learning

“I know the world and believe in God.”

A compressed creed of living in a fallen world without withdrawing from it · Letter to Sir John Coke, 1 February 1613

• Conviction
• Faith
• World