REASON QUOTES II

quotations about reason

Reason quote

When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone.

SIR WALTER SCOTT

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Sir Walter Scott


History confirms and reconfirms the limits of reason. It was not reason, for instance, that defeated German and Japanese aggression in two world wars. It was not reason that for decades thereafter kept Soviet wickedness in check. These were tyrannical regimes that steamrolled over reason. They only stopped or retreated when met with superior force.

LES MACPHERSON

"Reason no deterrent to barbaric enemies", Saskatoon Star Phoenix, February 11, 2016


Men's reasonings on practical subjects are not cold, logical processes, standing separate in the mind, but are carried on in intimate connection with their prevalent feelings and modes of thought. Generally speaking, that, and that only, is truth to a man which accords with the common tone of his mind, with the mass of his impressions, with the results of his experience, with his measure of intellectual development, and especially with those deep convictions and biases which constitute what we call character.

WILLIAM E. CHANNING

Thoughts


Never reason from what you do not know; if you do, you will soon believe what is utterly against reason.

J. RAMSAY

attributed, Day's Collacon


Reason and the reasoning faculty need no foreign assistance, but are sufficient for their own purposes. They move within themselves, and make directly for the point in view. Wherefore, acts in accordance with them are called right acts, for they lead along the right road.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Meditations

Tags: Marcus Aurelius


If not reason, then the devil.

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

Crime and Punishment

Tags: Fyodor Dostoevsky


We are not to renounce our senses and experience, nor (that which is the undoubted Word of God) our natural Reason. For they are the talents which he hath put into our hands to negotiate, till the coming again of our blessed savior, and therefore not to be folded up in the napkin of an implicate faith, but employed in the purchase of justice, peace, and true religion. For though there be many things in God's Word above Reason--that is to say, which cannot by natural reason be either demonstrated or confuted--yet there is nothing contrary to it.

THOMAS HOBBES

Leviathan

Tags: Thomas Hobbes


Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other.

MARTIN LUTHER

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Martin Luther


Reason is the miner's lamp used in bringing up ore from the mind.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought

Tags: Austin O'Malley


To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual.

GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL

Lectures on the Philosophy of History

Tags: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel


You can't trust reason. We threw it out of the ad profession long ago and have never missed it.

FREDERIK POHL

The Space Merchants

Tags: Frederik Pohl


Hear Reason, or she'll make you feel her.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Poor Richard's Almanack, 1744

Tags: Benjamin Franklin


There is a set of imperious and arrogant people, with whom it is dangerous to engage, that always arrogate reason and sense to themselves, and allow no one else to be in the right.

WELLINS CALCOTT

Thoughts Moral and Divine

Tags: Wellins Calcott


The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it.

JOHN LOCKE

Second Treatise of Government

Tags: John Locke


If a man be once out of the use of Reason, there are no bounds to Unreasonableness.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms


What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.

ALEXANDER POPE

Essay on Man and Other Poems

Tags: Alexander Pope


Fanaticism turns into a means of salvation, enthusiasm into epileptic ecstasy, politics becomes an opiate for the masses, a proletarian eschatology; and reason veils her face.

THOMAS MANN

"An Appeal to Reason"

Tags: Thomas Mann


I am the eternal optimist. I think that, over time, people respond to civility and -- and rational argument.

BARACK OBAMA

press conference, February 9, 2009

Tags: Barack Obama


Every man carries about him a touchstone, if he will make use of it, to distinguish substantial gold from superficial glitterings, truth from appearances. And indeed the use and benefit of this touchstone, which is natural reason, is spoiled and lost only by assuming prejudices, overweening presumption, and narrowing our minds.

JOHN LOCKE

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Tags: John Locke


Reason has built the modern world. It is a precious but also a fragile thing, which can be corroded by apparently harmless irrationality. We must favor verifiable evidence over private feeling. Otherwise we leave ourselves vulnerable to those who would obscure the truth.

RICHARD DAWKINS

"Slaves to Superstition", The Enemies of Reason

Tags: Richard Dawkins