Best Rational Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 23

“When there are rational grounds for an opinion, people are content to set them forth and wait for them to operate. In such cases, people do not hold their opinions with passion; they hold them calmly, and set forth their reasons quietly. The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction.”

People Reason Passion Fear Waiting Opinion Cases Atheism Conviction Rage Rational

Book:Sceptical Essays

Source: Sceptical Essays

“A first grader should understand that her or his culture isn't a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society...Cultural relativity is defensible, attractive. It's a source of hope. It means we don't have to continue this way if we don't like it.”

Ifs Way Should Firsts Wells Mean Faith Culture Community Source Function Invention Rational Alternatives Attractive Relativity Other Cultures Society And Culture

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“Opinions don't affect facts. But facts should affect opinions, and do, if you're rational”

Ifs Should Facts Opinion Atheism Rational

Author:Ricky Gervais

“This formidable censor of the public functionaries [the press], by arraigning them at the tribunal of public opinion, produces reform peaceably, which must otherwise be done by revolution. It is also the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man and improving him as a rational, moral, and social being.”

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private

“Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum; but drink when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the laughing peasant of Italy. Never drink because you need it, for this is rational drinking, and the way to death and hell. But drink because you do not need it, for this is irrational drinking, and the ancient health of the world.”

World Way Needs Would Be Laughing Hell Drink Drinking Ancient Rational Miserable Irrational Grey Wretched Peasants Drinkers Gin Slums

Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton

Source: The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton

“It may be quite true that some negroes are better than some white men; but no rational man, cognisant of the facts, believes that the average negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the average white man. And, if this be true, it is simply incredible that, when all his disabilities are removed, and our prognathous relative has a fair field and no favour, as well as no oppressor, he will be able to compete successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites.”

Thinking Men Believe Stills Facts Able White Evolution Equal Bigger Incredibles Average Superiors Rational Bites Contests White Man Rivals Cognizant

Author:Thomas Huxley

“Devotion has its own strange ways. It is not something rational, logical, something that can be explained to you. But it is something, if you go on growing from a student into a disciple, from a disciple into a devotee, and you come so close to the master that there is no distinction at all.”

Ifs Way Growing Students Strange Masters Goes On Devotion Rational Distinction Logical Disciple Devotee

Author:Rajneesh

“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. Wikis give us a place where anyone who is kind, thoughtful and intelligent can come and join us in building a better and more rational world. Jimmy Wales Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.”

“The ultimate solutions to problems are rational; the process of finding them is not.”

Problem Process Challenges Findings Solutions Ultimate Rational Solution To A Problem Brainstorming Lateral Thinking

Author:J. P. Guilford

“All changes, even positive ones, are scary. Attempts to reach goals through radical or revolutionary means often fail because they heighten fear. But the small steps of kaizen disarm the brain's fear response, stimulating rational thought and creative play.”

Mean Play Goal Change Brain Steps Creative Failing Response Scary Rational Radical Revolutionary Small Steps Rational Thought Kaizen

Author:Robert D. Maurer

“I am arguing that faith as such, faith as an alleged method of acquiring knowledge, is totally invalid and as a consequence, all propositions of faith, because they lack rational demonstration, must conflict with reason.”

Reason Religion Atheism Conflict Consequence Method Arguing Rational Propositions Demonstration Acquiring Knowledge

Book:Atheism: The Case Against God

Source: Atheism: The Case Against God

“Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.”

Source: Why Men Fight

“A rational man acting in the real world may be defined as one who decides where he will strike a balance between what he desires and what can be done.”

Men World May Real Done Desire Acting Balance Strikes Rational Defined Real World Prudence

Book:Essays in the Public Philosophy

Source: Essays in the Public Philosophy

“Upon the whole, Chymistry is as yet but an opening science, closely connected with the usefull and ornamental arts, and worthy the attention of the liberal mind. And it must always become more and more so: for though it is only of late, that it has been looked upon in that light, the great progress already made in Chymical knowledge, gives us a pleasant prospect of rich additions to it. The Science is now studied on solid and rational grounds. While our knowledge is imperfect, it is apt to run into error: but Experiment is the thread that will lead us out of the labyrinth.”

“I decided that life rationally considered seemed pointless and futile, but it is still interesting in a variety of ways, including the study of science. So why not carry on, following the path of scientific hedonism? Besides, I did not have the courage for the more rational procedure of suicide.”

Way Stills Science Decision Interesting Study Path Decided Accounts Suicide Including Following Rational Variety Why Not Procedures Pointless Hedonism

Book:Life of a Scientist: An Autobiographical Account of the Development of Molecular Orbital Theory

Source: Life of a Scientist: An Autobiographical Account of the Development of Molecular Orbital Theory

“Obsession is so extreme and so hard to imagine with the rational mind that it has a science-fiction-like quality to it-it's almost as if the obsessed one has been taken over by a replica, a pod, a facsimile of the rational person.”

Ifs Mind Persons Has Beens Hard Fiction Quality Taken Imagine Science Fiction Extremes Obsession Rational Obsessed Replica

Book:Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction

Source: Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction

“The ghostly presence of virtual particles defies rational common sense and is nonintuitive for those unacquainted with physics. Religious belief in God, and Christian belief that God became Man around two thousand years ago, may seem strange to common-sense thinking. But when the most elementary physical things behave in this way, we should be prepared to accept that the deepest aspects of our existence go beyond our common-sense intuitions.”

“The most common cause of low prices is pessimism - some times pervasive, some times specific to a company or industry. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces. It's optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer.”

Enemy Optimism Investment Rational Saving Savings Buffets Buyers Optimism And Pessimism

Author:Warren Buffett

“What is rational is actual and what is actual is rational”

Philosophy Philosophical Rational

Author:Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

“While reasons are provided by the facts,...rationality...depends instead on our beliefs. [...] [I]f I believe falsely that my hotel is on fire, it may be rational for me to jump into the canal. But I have no reason to jump. I merely think I do. And, if some dangerous treatment would save your life, but you don't know that fact, it would be irrational for you to take this treatment, but that is what you have most reason to do.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Believe May Reason Facts Would Be Action Belief I Believe Moral Psychology Fire Dangerous Depends Ethics Rational Hotel Treatment No Reason Irrational Rationality Canals

Author:Derek Parfit

“In legal parlance, that is called 'the rational person test,' ... That's where somebody else says, 'Even though we have no idea what this person would want in this circumstance in which they cannot themselves tell us what they want, a 'rational' person - meaning, myself - in that circumstance would want to die.' So you move very quickly from so-called voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia. These legal and medical developments are not simply hypothetical They're in the courts right now.”

Want Persons Ideas Moving Dies Development Circumstances Right Now Tests Court Medical Rational No Idea Wanting To Die Euthanasia Involuntary Hypothetical

Author:Richard John Neuhaus

“You must never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes. But don't stop with the way things are; dream of things as they ought to be. Dream of peace. Peace is rational and reasonable. War is irrational in this age and unwinnable.”

Way Love War Dream Reality Age Faces Ought Rational Reasonable Dreamer Irrational Stop Dreaming Never Stop Dreaming

Author:Jesse Jackson

“What our leaders and pundits never let slip is that the terrorists-whatever else they might be-might also be rational human beings ; which is to say that in their own minds they have a rational justification for their actions. Most terrorists are people deeply concerned by what they see as social, political, or religious injustice and hypocrisy, and the immediate grounds for their terrorism is often retaliation for an action of the United States.”

“Even the most rational approach to ethics is defenseless if there isn't the will to do what is right.”

Ifs Morality Approach Ethics Rational Defenseless Moral Ethics Morality And Ethics Ethics And Morals

Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“So virtue is a purposive disposition, lying in a mean that is relative to us and determined by a rational principle, and by that which a prudent man would use to determine it. It is a mean between two kinds of vice, one of excess and the other of deficiency.”

Men Kind Mean Two Use Lying Principles Virtue Ethics Determine Vices Determined Rational Relative Excess Disposition Deficiency Prudent

Author:Aristotle

“[D]iscipline consists in this, that the men who undergo the instruction and have followed it for a certain time are completely deprived of everything which is precious to a man-of the chief human property, rational freedom-and become submissive, machine-like implements of murder in the hands of their organized hierarchic authorities.”

Men Humans War Hands Certain He Man Authority Machines Murder Property Rational Chiefs Organized Instruction Anti War Deprived Submissive

Book:The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy

Source: The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy

“I believe that decisions about the timing and manner of death belong to the individual as a human right. I believe it is wrong to withhold medical methods of terminating life painlessly and swiftly when an individual has a rational and clear-minded sustained wish to end his or her life.”

Believe Humans Ends Individual I Believe Wish Decision Clear Method Medical Rational Timing Euthanasia Pain In Life

Author:A.C. Grayling

“In comparison to the emotionally-charged axing of a striker, Ruud van Nistelrooy, who averaged 30 goals a season, even the sale of David Beckham for, in Real Madrid's opinion, "peanuts", and the never-explained departure of Jaap Stam appear to be the rational acts of a sage and far-sighted manger. To offload a player because he could not be reconciled with a role within the squad is a failing of management.”

Real Goal Opinion Roles Player Failing Football Seasons Management Rational Soccer Analysis Comparison Sage Vans Departure Peanuts Squad Madrid Beckham Strikers Real Madrid

Author:Pete Gill

“What a man really says when he says that someone else can be persuaded by force, is that he himself is incapable of more rational means of communication.”

Men Mean Government Force Communication Rational Incapable Means Of Communication

Author:Norman Cousins

“Whether the teacher is authoritarian, undisciplined, competent, incompetent, serious, irresponsible, involved, a lover of people and of life, cold, angry with the world, bureaucratic, excessively rational, or whatever else, he/she will not pass through the classroom without leaving his or her mark on the students.”

People World Teacher Teaching Students Serious Cold Lovers Involved Mark Angry Leaving Rational Classroom Competent Irresponsible Incompetent Undisciplined

Book:Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage

Source: Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage

“Fischer Chess play was always razor-sharp, rational and brilliant. One of the best ever”

Play Brilliant Chess Rational Razors Fischer Best Ever

Author:Dave Regis

“What is faith? If you believe something because you have evidence for it, or rational argument, that is not faith. So faith seems to be believing something despite the absence of evidence or rational argument for it.”

Ifs Believe Seems Faith Evidence Argument Absence Rational Despite If You Believe

Author:Peter Singer

“Be a balanced optimist. Nobody is suggesting that you become an oblivious Pollyanna, pretending that nothing bad can or ever will happen. Doing so can lead to poor decisions and invites people to take advantage of you. Instead, be a rational optimist who takes the good with the bad, in hopes of the good ultimately outweighing the bad, and with the understanding that being pessimistic about everything accomplishes nothing. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best - the former makes you sensible, and the latter makes you an optimist.”

“In my opinion, economists and sociologists are the people to whom we ought to turn more than we do for instruction in the grounds and foundations of all rational decisions.”

People Turns Decision Opinion Ought Economics Foundation Rational Instruction Economist Sociologists Rational Decisions

Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“The natural scientists of the previous age knew less than we do and believed they were very close to the goal: we have taken very great steps in its direction and now discover we are still very far away from it. With the most rational philosophers an increase in their knowledge is always attended by an increased conviction of their ignorance.”

Stills Age Science Goal Natural Steps Taken Progress Ignorance Scientist Increase Philosopher Conviction Rational Far Away

Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg

“Surely no rational or realistic person will discount the possibility that [during wartime] the United States might suddenly resort to nuclear weapons. Those who retain the instinct for survival, not to speak of minimal concern for their fellow man, will seek ways to act before rather than after the event.”

“Although reducing human emissions to the atmosphere is undoubtedly of critical importance, as are any and all measures to reduce the human environmental "footprint", the truth is that the contribution of each individual cannot be reduced to zero... If we believe that the size of the human "footprint" is a serious problem (and there is much evidence for this) then a rational view would be that along with a raft of measures to reduce the footprint per person, the issue of population management must be addressed.”

“The rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people.”

People Instruments Rational Reform Voting Suffrage

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“In our day the feeling of patriotism is an unnatural, irrational, and harmful feeling, and a cause of a great part of the ills from which mankind is suffering, and that, consequently, this feeling - should not be cultivated, as is now being done, but should, on the contrary, be suppressed and eradicated by all means available to rational men.”

Men Should Mean Done Feelings Suffering Causes Mankind Available Contrary Rational Patriotism Patriotic Irrational Unnatural Being Done

Book:Essays and Letters /by Leo Tolstoy ; Translated by Aylmer Maude

Source: Essays and Letters /by Leo Tolstoy ; Translated by Aylmer Maude

“Capitalism may even be identical with the restraint, or at least a rational tempering, of this irrational impulse. But capitalism is identical with the restraint, or at least a rational tempering, of this irrational impulse. But capitalism is identical with the pursuit of profit, and forever renewed profit, by means of continuous, rational, capitalistic enterprise.”

May Mean Forever Capitalism Profit Pursuit Rational Impulse Enterprise Irrational Restraint Identical

Book:The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism

Source: The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism

“We were made to be neither cerebral men nor visceral men, but Men. Not beasts nor angels but Men - things at once rational and animal.”

Men Made Animal Angel Rational Beast Visceral Cerebral

Book:The Pilgrim's Regress: The Wade Annotated Edition

Source: The Pilgrim's Regress: The Wade Annotated Edition

“A rational process is a moral process. You may make an error at any step of it, with nothing to protect you but your own severity, or you may try to cheat, to fake the evidence and evade the effort of the quest - but if devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“While the constitution continues to be read, and its principles known, the states, must, by every rational man, be considered as essential component parts of the union; and therefore the idea of sacrificing the former to the latter is totally inadmissible.”

Men Ideas States Known Principles Sacrifice Essentials Constitution Unions Rational Former Latter Components Federalism

Book:The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc

Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc

“The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government.”