R Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with R. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Reason, you'll always be half-blind.”
Source: The Mirror of Simple Souls
“Reason: The arithmetic of the emotions.”
Source: Selected writings of Elbert Hubbard: his mintage of wisdom, coined from a life of love, laughter and work
“Reason? That dreary shed, that hutch for grubby schoolboys.”
Source: The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke
“Reasonable and vicious are quite consistent with each other, in fact, only through their union are great and far-reaching crimes possible”
Source: On the Basis of Morality
“Reasonable argument is impossible when authority becomes the arbiter.”
“Reasonable compromise is a founding principle upon which America is based. The large states against the small, the Democrats against the Republicans, the conservatives against the liberals, yet the only way for these groups to coexist are reasonable compromises. We are many people of many backgrounds, and often at cross-purposes. It is easy to use hyperbole and call for violence, shaming, harassment, and shunning. It is simple to justify calling those you dislike evil, but difficult to appreciate that which makes them human and find common ground. We destroy that common ground at our peril, because when there is no common ground left, there is no America.”
“Reasonable compromise is a founding principle upon which America is based. The large states against the small, the Democrats against the Republicans, the conservatives against the liberals, yet the only way for these groups to coexist is reasonable compromise. We are many people of many backgrounds, and often at cross-purposes. It is easy to use hyperbole and call for violence, shaming, harassment, and shunning. It is simple to justify calling those you dislike evil, but difficult to appreciate that which makes them human and find common ground. We destroy that common ground at our peril, because when there is no common ground left, there is no America.”
“Reasonable doubt trumps everything.”
Source: Bittersweet Symphony
“Reasonable men adapt themselves to their environment; unreasonable men try to adapt their environment to themselves. Thus all progress is the result of the efforts of unreasonable men.”
“Reasonable men are not reasonable when you're in the bubbles which have characterized capitalism since the beginning of time.”
“Reasonable men are the best dictionaries of conversation.”
“Reasonable orders are easy enough to obey; it is capricious, bureaucratic or plain idiotic demands that form the habit of discipline.”
“Reasonable paranoia of police officers may save your life!”
“Reasonable people can reasonably disagree on policy.”
“Reasonable regulations regarding the ownership of weapons are appropriate.”
“Reasonable skepticism can be a radical concept to those embracing ideology.”
“Reasonable things would never bring you joy as much as unreasonable ones do.”
Source: A Bucket Full Of Awesome
“Reasonable, even intelligent people can, and frequently do, disagree on how best to achieve peace in the Middle East, but, peace must be the goal of our foreign policy tools, whether they be by the stick or by the carrot.”
“Reasonableness is a matter of degree. Beliefs can be very reasonable (Japan exists), fairly reasonable (quarks exist), not unreasonable (there's intelligent life on other planets) or downright unreasonable (fairies exist).
There's a scale of reasonableness, if you like, with very reasonable beliefs near the top and deeply unreasonable ones towards the bottom. Notice a belief can be very high up the scale, yet still be open to some doubt. And even when a belief is low down, we can still acknowledge the remote possibility it might be true.
How reasonable is the belief that God exists? Atheists typically think it very unreasonable. Very low on the scale. But most religious people say it is at least not unreasonable (have you ever met a Christian who said 'Hey, belief in God is no more reasonable than belief in fairies, but I believe it anyway!'?) They think their belief is at least halfway up the scale of reasonableness.
Now, that their belief is downright unreasonable might, in fact, be established empirically. If it turned out that not only is there no good evidence of an all-powerful, all-good God, there's also overwhelming evidence against (from millions of years of unimaginable and pointless animal suffering, including several mass extinctions - to thousands of children being crushed to death or buried alive in Pakistan earthquake, etc. etc. etc.) then it could be empirically confirmed that there's no God.
Would this constitute a 'proof' that there's no God? Depends what you mean by 'proof'. Personally I think these sorts of consideration do establish beyond any reasonable doubt that there is no all-powerful all-good God. So we can, in this sense, prove there's no God.
Yet all the people quoted in my last blog say you cannot 'scientifically' prove or disprove God's existence. If they mean prove beyond any doubt they are right. But then hardly anything is provable in that sense, not even the non-existence of fairies.”
“Reasonably accurate appraisal of one's own capabilities is, therefore, of considerable value in successful functioning. Large misjudgments of personal efficacy in either direction have consequences. People who grossly overestimate their capabilities undertake activities that are clearly beyond their reach. As a result, they get themselves into considerable difficulties, undermine their credibility, and suffer needless failures. Some of the missteps, of course, can produce serious, irreparable harm”
“Reasonably speaking, we can see the cross as entirely possible. But in considering Easter, we see an empty tomb as entirely impossible. And is it possible that God had to do the impossible to finally get our attention?”
“Reasoned and willing obedience to the laws of the State is the first lesson in non-co-operation.”
Source: Collected Works
“Reasoned arguments and suggestions which make allowance for the full difficulties of the state of war that exists may help, and will always be listened to with respect and sympathy.”
“Reasoning as a limited cognitive function, detached from the personal center, never could create courage. One cannot remove anxiety by arguing it away.”
Source: The Courage To Be
“Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.”
Source: The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper, Esq: Including the Hymns and Translations from Madame Guion, Milton, Etc., and Adam; a Sacred Drama; from the Italian of Gio. Battista Andreini, with a Memoir of the Author
“Reasoning based on cost has been strenuously resisted; it violated the Hippocratic Oath, was associated with rationing, and derided as putting a price on life... Indeed, many physicians were willing to lie to get patients what they needed from insurance companies that were trying to hold down costs.”
“Reasoning built on lies isn’t sound.”
Source: Exposing the REAL Creation-Evolution Debate
“Reasoning built on made-up stuff isn’t rational.”
Source: Exposing the REAL Creation-Evolution Debate
“Reasoning can take you wherever you want to go.”
Source: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
“Reasoning does create a paradox: it leads both to more rule following and more rebelliousness. By explaining moral principles, parents encourage their children to comply voluntarily with rules that align with important values and to question rules that don’t. Good explanations enable children to develop a code of ethics that often coincides with societal expectations; when they don’t square up, children rely on the internal compass of values rather than the external compass of rules.”
Source: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
“Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.”
“Reasoning from the common course of nature, and without supposing any new interposition of the Supreme Cause, which ought always to be excluded from philosophy; what is incorruptible must also be ingenerable. The soul, therefore, if immortal, existed before our birth: And if the former existence noways concerned us, neither will the latter.”
Source: The Philosophical Works of David Hume ... Containing Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Essays on the Immortality of the Soul, Suicide ... &c. A New Edition
“Reasoning is compared to understanding as movement is to rest, or acquisition to possession.... Since movement always proceeds from something immovable, and ends in something at rest, hence it is that human reasoning, in the order of inquiry and discovery, proceeds from certain things absolutely understood--namely, the first principles; and, again, in the order of judgment, returns by analysis to first principles, in the light of which it examines what it has found. Now it is clear that rest and movement are not to be referred to different powers, but to one and the same.”
“Reasoning is hard to practice compared to the capacity of sentiments, but when practiced, it opens up new gateways of perception.”
Source: Build Bridges not Walls: In the name of Americana
“Reasoning is never, like poetry, judged from the outside at all.”
Source: A Preface to Paradise Lost
“Reasoning is that voice of wisdom that speaks to you right before you speak. But it's so low, that you would have to listen inwardly to hear it.”
“Reasoning is the cure for superstitions and bigotry.”
Source: Conscience over Nonsense
“Reasoning is the mental tool that use to think with”
“Reasoning is the pastime of my whole household, and all this reasoning has driven out Reason.”
“Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)
“Reasoning with a child is fine, if you can reach the child's reason without destroying your own.”
“Reasoning with a drunkard is like
Going under water with a torch to seek for a drowning man.”
“Reasoning with senselessness will never build faith. Faith is strengthened when you stop collecting fragmented signs and questionable hunches, in order to build an acceptable reason for your wrong decisions and less than desirable circumstances.”
“Reasonings are not always valid. They only get accepted because of logic. But logic is just a pattern of what one knows and what has happened. It has limited inputs rejecting facts that are not known.”
Source: The Impossible Proof Of Knowing Nothing
“Reasons always came with a purpose, to give the appearance of a struggle between principle and desire. Principle had power only until you found what you had to have.”
“Reasons are for peasants.”
Source: Jericho Moon
“Reasons are the spoils of victory. When you've destroyed the enemy, then your leaders write down the reasons in books, and give moving speeches about them. If you've done your job, then there aren't any of the enemy left to dispute your leader's reasons. At least not until the next war.”
Source: Blood Of The Fold
“Reasons aren't really things that make you do other things. Reasons are things that you make up, much later, to reassure everyone that we are all logical and that the world makes sense. We do unreasonable things, because we want to, at the time. No reason. Much later we sit in the wreckage, building reasons out of little bits of wreckage, so we'll have something to show the crash investigators. Look, this is what caused it. So the whole mess at least appears reasonable. So we can convince ourselves that at least there was a reason for the disaster, something we can prevent or avoid, so it'll never happen again. But a lot of the time there's no reason. We just flew it to the ground. Because we felt like it. And we're still dangerous. And it could happen again anytime.
Its easier to live with each other afterwards if we give each other reasons.”
Source: Juno & Juliet
“Reasons come first. Answers come second”
“Reasons for anxiety will never be lacking, whether born of prosperity or of wretchedness; life pushes on in a succession of engrossments. We shall always pray for leisure.”