quotations about reason
If we would guide by the light of reason, we must let our minds be bold.
LOUIS BRANDEIS
dissenting opinion, New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 1932
My reason is the universe's voice.
ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE
"Prayer", Poetical Meditations
Reason is the first victim of strong emotion.
FRANK HERBERT
Dune Messiah
Those that differ upon Reason, may come together by Reason.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name of reason.
JOHN WESLEY
letter to Joseph Benson, October 5, 1770
Human reason is a pin dancing on the head of an angel, so small is it in comparison to the Divine vastness that encircles us.
MARGARET ATWOOD
The Year of the Flood
He that gives Reason for what he saith, has done what is fit to be done; and the most that can be done: He, that gives not Reason, speaks nothing, though he saith never so much.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
When God is contriving misfortunes for man, He first deprives him of his reason.
EURIPIDES
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is to no manner of purpose that we have reason on our side, when the laugh is against us.
ROBERT BOLTON
attributed, Day's Collacon
Water cannot rise higher than its source, neither can human reason. Now, all reasoning respecting transcendent truths must have its source where the truths or ideas themselves originate.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
notes appended to the third edition of Southey's Life of Wesley
Changing from the ghosts of faith to the spectres of reason is just changing cells.
FERNANDO PESSOA
The Book of Disquiet
Reason often overturns experience.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
People are content to live in contradictory worlds, so long as they know the reason for each.
ALAN LIGHTMAN
Einstein's Dreams
He that useth his reason doth acknowledge God.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Mental or spiritual health, which is rationality, makes for progress, and the future demands greater and greater mental or spiritual health, greater and greater rationality. The brain must dominate and direct both the individual and society in the time to come, not the belly and the heart.
JACK LONDON
The Kempton-Wace Letters
False reasoners are often best confuted by giving them the full swing of their own absurdities.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.
EPICTETUS
Discourses
Man cannot survive except by gaining knowledge, and reason is his only means to gain it.
AYN RAND
Atlas Shrugged
Beware gentle knight. There is no greater monster than reason.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
All the Pretty Horses
Reason is the newest and rarest thing in human life, the most delicate child of human history.
EDWARD ABBEY
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)