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Irrationality Quotes

Browse 146 quotes about Irrationality.

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Irrationality Quotes

“Human beings act in a great variety of irrational ways, but all of them seem to be capable, if given a fair chance, of making a reasonable choice in the light of available evidence. Democratic institutions can be made to work only if all concerned do their best to impart knowledge and to encourage rationality. But today, in the world's most powerful democracy, the politicians and the propagandists prefer to make nonsense of democratic procedures by appealing almost exclusively to the ignorance and irrationality of the electors.”

IfsWorldWayHumansMadeLightSeemsTodayActionPoliticalChoicesGivenChanceHuman BeingsPowerfulKnowledgeDemocracySocietyIgnorancePoliticianCapableEvidenceConcernedFairsElectionInstitutionsDemocraticAvailableVarietyAppealsNovelistsReasonableVotingNonsenseMost PowerfulIrrationalRationalityProceduresImpartCivil SocietyIrrationalityFreedom To ChooseChoose WiselyPolitical IdeologyPropagandist
Book:Complete Essays: 1956-1963, and supplement, 1920-1948
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“Every man builds his world in his own image; he has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice. If he abdicates his power, he abdicates the status of man, and the grinding chaos of the irrational is what he achieves as his sphere of existence—by his own choice.”

IfsMenWorldChoicesExistenceVisionPowerAchieveBuildingAchievementChaosEvery ManDenialSpheresIrrationalWorldviewGrindEscapingIrrationalityPower Of ChoiceImagingAbdication
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“I stand four-square for reason, and object to what seems to me to be irrationality, whatever the source. If you are on my side in this, I must warn you that the army of the night has the advantage of overwhelming numbers, and, by its very nature, is immune to reason, so that it is entirely unlikely that you and I can win out. We will always remain a tiny and probably hopeless minority, but let us never tire of presenting our view, and of fighting the good fight for the right.”

IfsI CanReasonSeemsNightFightingWinningSidesViewsNumbersFourObjectsSourceAdvantageArmyTinyMinoritiesHopelessOverwhelmingSquaresTireUnlikelyImmunePresentingIrrationalityGood Fight
Author:Isaac Asimov
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“Action is the activity of the rational soul, which abhors irrationality and must combat it or be corrupted by it. When it sees the irrationality of others, it must seek to correct it, and can do this either by teaching or engaging in public affairs itself, correcting through its practice. And the purpose of action is to enable philosophy to continue, for if men are reduced to the material alone, they become no more than beasts.”

IfsMenSoulPhilosophyActionPurposeCan DoPracticeTeachingMaterialsActivityAffairRationalBeastCombatEngagingCorrectingIrrationalityPublic Affairs
Book:Dream of Scipio
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“Seas of blood have been shed for the sake of patriotism. One would expect the harm and irrationality of patriotism to be self-evident to everyone. But the surprising fact is that cultured and learned people not only do not notice the harm and stupidity of patriotism, they resist every unveiling of it with the greatest obstinacy and passion (with no rational grounds), and continue to praise it as beneficent and elevating.”

PeopleHas BeensSelfFactsPassionBloodSeaPraiseSakeStupidityHarmRationalPatriotismSurprisingShedEvidentIrrationalityObstinacyElevatingUnveiling
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“We must have research for peace ... It would embrace the outstanding problems of morality. The time has come for man's intellect, his scientific method, to win over the immoral brutality and irrationality of war and militarism ... Now we are forced to eliminate from the world forever this vestige of prehistoric barbarism, this curse to the human race.”

MenWorldHumansWarProblemCultureWinningPeaceRaceForeverMoralityResearchMethodEmbraceIntellectCurseHuman RaceImmoralOutstandingBrutalityBarbarismUbuntuScientific MethodIrrationalityMilitarismPrehistoric
Author:Linus Pauling
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“One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ears. Irrationality often manifests itself in upholding the word against the evidence of the eyes. Children, savages and true believers remember far less what they have seen than what they have heard.”

ChildrenPersonsMightEyeRememberGrowing UpGrowingHeardEvidenceEarsBelieverSensesMaturityHis EyesMatureSavagesMistrustTrue BelieverIrrationalityMature PersonGathering Data
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“I understand, of course, that grain-fed meat is not the cause of the world hunger problem - and eating some of it doesn't directly take food out of the mouths of starving people - but it is, to me, a symbol and a symptom of the basic irrationality of a food system that's divorced from human needs. Therefore, using less meat can be an important way to take responsibility. Making conscious choices about what we eat, based on what the earth can sustain and what our bodies need, can help remind us that our whole society must begin to balance sustainable production with human need.”

PeopleWorldWayNeedsHumansImportantWholeHelpingProblemBodyEarthChoicesCoursesCausesResponsibilityBalanceEatingMouthsConsciousHungerProductionsSymbolsMeatFedsVegetarianGrainSymptomsTaking ResponsibilityDivorcedStarvingVegetarianismHuman NeedsIrrationalityWorld Hunger
Author:Frances Moore Lappé
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“I start off with the obvious, that it makes no sense either to believe or to disbelieve in God until a substantial and intelligent definition or concept should be offered. Belief or disbelief is a secondary consideration, contingent on the intelligibility and cogency of the premise; the primal unintelligence or irrationality of moderns is revealed by their eagerness to leap to a conclusion without ever being curious what the hell the original premise was.”

ShouldBelieveGodBeliefHellConceptsIntelligentOriginalsDefinitionsObviousConclusionCuriousConsiderationLeapBelieve In GodPremisesDisbeliefPrimalEagernessIrrationality
Author:Kenny Smith
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“We know the surrealist solution: concrete irrationality, objective risk. Poetry is the conquest, the only possible conquest, of the 'supreme position', 'a certain position of the mind from where life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future... cease to be perceived in a contradictory sense.'”

KnowsMindRealPastCertainRiskPositionSolutionsChaosSupremeCeaseObjectivesLife And DeathPoetry IsConcreteImaginaryConquestContradictoryIrrationalitySurrealist
Book:The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt
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“The search for truth is a cooperative, unending endeavor. We can, and should, engage in it to the extent we can and encourage others to do so as well, seeking to free ourselves from constraints imposed by coercive institutions, dogma, irrationality, excessive conformity and lack of initiative and imagination, and numerous other obstacles.”

ShouldWellsImaginationTruth IsInstitutionsSeekingObstaclesConformityEndeavorInitiativeDogmaConstraintsUnendingCooperativesIrrationalitySearch For Truth
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Indeed, my wish is quite simple: if we could learn to recognise and evade the biggest errors in our thinking - in our private lives, at work or in government - we might experience a leap in prosperity. We need no extra cunning, no new ideas, no unnecessary gadgets, no frantic hyperactivity - all we need is less irrationality.”

IfsThinkingNeedsIdeasGovernmentMightWishSimpleErrorsProsperityExtrasLeapNew IdeasUnnecessaryCunningPrivate LifeRecogniseGadgetsFranticIrrationalityMy WishHyperactivity
Author:Rolf Dobelli
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“The transfinite numbers are in a certain sense themselves new irrationalities and in fact in my opinion the best method of defining the finite irrational numbers is wholly disimilar to, and I might even say in priciple the same as, my method described above of introducing trasfinite numbers. One can say unconditionally: the transfinite numbers stand or fall with the finite irrational numbers; they are like each other in their innermost being; for the former like the latter are definite delimited forms or modifications of the actual infinite.”

FactsMightFormCertainFallNumbersOpinionDiscoveryInfiniteMethodFormerLatterIntroducingIrrationalDefiniteFiniteDefiningEpiphanyIrrationalityModificationFinite NumberIrrational Numbers
Author:Georg Cantor
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“What frightened me was the logic of the world; in it lay the foretaste of something incalculably powerful. Its mechanism was incomprehensible, and I could not possibly remain closeted in that windowless, bone-chilling room. Though outside lay the sea of irrationality, it was far more agreeable to swim in its waters until presently I drowned.”

WorldWaterRoomsPowerfulSeaLogicLaysBonesSwimFrightenedMechanismChillIrrationality
Book:No Longer Human
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