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Rationality Quotes

Browse 562 quotes about Rationality.

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Rationality Quotes

“I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.”

DoeScienceReligionUniverseDifficultBehindsExistenceDesignScientistDenySuperiorsAcknowledgeRationalityScience And ReligionTheologianGod ExistsTheismExistence Of GodScience ReligionOrigin Of LifeGod And ScienceScience GodCreation ScienceAdvances In Science
Book:The Voice of Dr. Wernher Von Braun: An Anthology
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“What a deep faith in the rationality of the structure of the world and what a longing to understand even a small glimpse of the reason revealed in the world there must have been in Kepler and Newton to enable them to unravel the mechanism of the heavens in long years of lonely work!”

WorldYearsLongHas BeensReasonScienceUniverseHeavenLonelyStructureLongingMechanismRationalityGlimpseScience And ReligionNewtonKepler
Book:Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb
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“There's something in us that is very much attracted to madness. Everyone who looks off the edge of a tall building has felt at least a faint, morbid urge to jump. And anyone who has ever put a loaded pistol up to his head... All right, my point is this: even the most well-adjusted person is holding onto his or her sanity by a greased rope. I really believe that. The rationality circuits are shoddily built into the human animal.”

BelieveHumansWellsLooksPersonsFeltAnimalBuildingDepressionBuiltMadnessSuicideEdgesMental IllnessUrgesTallSanityRationalityRopeHolding OnLoadedCircuitsMorbidPistolsSelf HarmHuman AnimalTall Buildings
Author:Stephen King
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“If we can combine our knowledge of science with the wisdom of wildness, if we can nurture civilization through roots in the primitive, man's potentialities appear to be unbounded, Through this evolving awareness, and his awareness of that awareness, he can emerge with the miraculous-to which we can attach what better name than 'God'? And in this merging, as long sensed by intuition but still only vaguely perceived by rationality, experience may travel without need for accompanying life.”

IfsMenNeedsMayLongStillsGodWisdomScienceNamesAwarenessCivilizationRootsAccountsMiracleIntuitionEvolvePrimitiveNurtureRationalityMiraculousWildnessMergingPrimitive Man
Author:Charles Lindbergh
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“I don't hold animals superior or even equal to humans. The whole case for behaving decently to animals rests on the fact that we are the superior species. We are the species uniquely capable of imagination, rationality, and moral choice - and that is precisely why we are under an obligation to recognize and respect the rights of animals.”

HumansWholeFactsChoicesImaginationAnimalCompassionMoralCasesRightsEqualCapableSpeciesObligationSuperiorsVegetarianVeganAnimal RightsRationalityVeganismVegetarian HealthHuman AnimalHumans And AnimalsEating AnimalsMoral Choices
Book:Don't Ever Forget: Collected Views and Reviews
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“It is clear, then, that the idea of a fixed method, or of a fixed theory of rationality, rests on too naive a view of man and his social surroundings. To those who look at the rich material provided by history, and who are not intent on impoverishing it in order to please their lower instincts, their craving for intellectual security in the form of clarity, precision, "objectivity," "truth," it will become clear that there is only one principle that can be defended under all circumstances and in all stages of human development. It is the principle: anything goes.”

MenHumansLooksIdeasTruthFormScienceOrderSocialViewsPrinciplesRichClearStageSecurityMaterialsTheoryDevelopmentCircumstancesPleaseIntellectualMethodInstinctClarityFixedRationalityHypothesisNaiveSurroundingsCravingObjectivityPrecisionHuman DevelopmentAnything Goes
Author:Paul Feyerabend
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“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.”

IfsThinkingKnowsBelieveMayReasonFactsWould BeActionBeliefI BelieveMoralPsychologyFireDangerousDependsEthicsRationalHotelTreatmentNo ReasonIrrationalRationalityCanals
Author:Derek Parfit
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“Contemporary man is blind to the fact that, with all his rationality and efficiency, he is possessed by "powers" that are beyond his control. His gods and demons have not disappeared at all; they have merely got new names. They keep him on the run with restlessness, vague apprehensions, psychological complications, an insatiable need for pills, alcohol, tobacco, food - and, above all, a large array of neuroses”

MenNeedsFactsRunningSpiritualNamesBlindAlcoholContemporaryPsychologicalDemonPossessedEfficiencyVagueRationalityPillsTobaccoNeurosisApprehensionRestlessnessComplicationInsatiableInsatiable Need
Author:Carl Jung
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“Mystical experience of nature can be of particular relevance to our troubled age, bringing deeper into our consciousness and emotions the logic that nature sustains humanity as humanity must, in turn, sustain nature. Rationality alone, however, cannot be our guide in the task of restoring our environment. A spiritual connection to nature must inspire the emotional commitment that is the yin, complementing the yang of intellectual understanding.”

AgeSpiritualHumanityTurnsUnderstandingEmotionConsciousnessEnvironmentEmotionalInspireParticularIntellectualCommitmentTasksConnectionsLogicDeeperGuidesContemplationMysticalRationalityOur EnvironmentRelevanceRestoringYangSpiritual ConnectionMystical Experiences
Book:Ecomysticism: The Profound Experience of Nature as Spiritual Guide
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“When in the evening we are alone with our most existential thoughts, it is then that we come face to face with the most precious truths that we discover in our brief existence in this world. Just before fatigue envelopes us, taking us into sleep. We think of what our lives actually mean. And then we know how lucky we are if we still enjoy consciousness, rationality and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWorldLoveMeanStillsFacesEnjoySleepExistenceConsciousnessKnow HowOur LivesThis WorldLuckyAnd LoveEveningExistentialRationalityFatigueFace To FaceEnvelopes
Author:Michael Kirby
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“If a being suffers there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration. No matter what the nature of the being, the principle of equality requires that its suffering be counted equally with the like suffering - insofar as rough comparisons can be made - of any other being. So the limit of sentience is the only defensible boundary of concern for the interests of others. To mark this boundary by some other characteristic like intelligence or rationality would be to mark it in an arbitrary manner. Why not choose some other characteristic, like skin color?”

IfsMadeMatterWould BeSufferingInterestAnimalMoralPrinciplesColorLimitsEthicsConcernSkinsMarkNo Matter WhatBoundariesCharacteristicsConsiderationComparisonRoughWhy NotJustificationRationalityArbitrarySkin ColorAnimal Ethics
Author:Peter Singer
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“Capitalism demands the best of every man - his rationality - and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him.”

MenAbilityLibertyProductsDemandAchievementAmbitionCapitalismTradeRewardsEvery ManLikesRationality
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“We feel a deep pleasure from realizing that we believe something in common with our friends, and different from most people. We feel an even deeper pleasure letting everyone know of this fact. This feeling is EVIL. Learn to see it in yourself, and then learn to be horrified by how thoroughly it can poison your mind. Yes evidence may at times force you to disagree with a majority, and your friends may have correlated exposure to that evidence, but take no pleasure when you and your associates disagree with others; that is the road to rationality ruin.”

PeopleKnowsFeelsMindBelieveMayDifferentFactsFeelingsEvilForceRealizingPleasureCommonEvidenceMajorityDeeperRuinsPoisonDisagreeAssociatesRationalityExposure
Author:Robin Hanson
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“When people say to me, 'You hate America,' I don't hate America. I love America. I am just embarrassed that it has been taken over by people like evangelicals, by people who do not believe in science and rationality. It is the 21st century. And I will tell you, my friend. The future does not belong to the evangelicals. The future does not belong to religion.”

PeopleBelieveDoeHas BeensAmericaHateTakenCenturyMy FriendsEmbarrassed21st CenturyRationalityDon't Hate
Author:Bill Maher
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“Societies would _not_ be better off if everyone were like Mr Spock, all rationality and no emotion. Instead, a balance - a teaming up of the internal rivals - is optimal for brains. ... Some balance of the emotional and rational systems is needed, and that balance may already be optimized by natural selection in human brains.”

IfsHumansMayNaturalEmotionBrainEmotionalNeededBalanceRationalInternalsRationalitySelectionBetter OffRivalsNatural SelectionHuman BrainOptimalMr SpockTeaming Up
Book:Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain
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“The utilitarian behaves sensibly in all that is required for preservation but never takes account of the fact that he must die... His whole life is absorbed in avoiding death, which is inevitable, and therefore he might be thought to be the most irrational of men, if rationality has anything to do with understanding ends or comprehending the human situation as such.”

IfsMenWayGivingHumansEndsWholeFactsMightLife IsDiesPassionWishUnderstandingPowerfulSituationAccountsWhole LifeInevitableBehaveMost PowerfulReservesIrrationalAvoidingPreservationRationalityUtilitarianComprehendingAvoiding Death
Author:Allan Bloom
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“Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.”

GivingMayFacesHumanityFightingWinningIndividualCausesProgressAtheismThousandGiving UpHundredDefeatBreastsHumanistSuperstitionsHugRationalityOccasional
Author:Isaac Asimov
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“The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball.”

PeopleKindStillsLinesClearBehaviorBallsInvestmentInvestingEnjoyedTriumphSensibleRationalitySpeculationDoseParticipantsEffortlessSeparatingBuffetsBest InvestmentInvesting Money
Book:Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha
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“Ideology trumps rationality. Most conservatives cannot abide the solution to global warming - strong government regulations and a government-led effort to accelerate clean-energy technologies in the market.”

GovernmentEnergyStrongEffortTechnologyTrumpSolutionsCleanClimateIdeologyGlobal WarmingRegulationRationalityAccelerateClean EnergyGovernment RegulationStrong Government
Book:Hell and high water: global warming - the solution and the politics - and what we should do
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“Skepticism's bad rap arises from the impression that, however necessary the activity, it can only be regarded as a negative removal of false claims. Not so... Proper debunking is done in the interest of an alternate model of explanation, not as a nihilistic exercise. The alternate model is rationality itself, tied to moral decency--the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known.”

ThinkingDoneInterestPowerfulKnownMoralPlanetsExerciseActivityModelsNegativeClaimsInstrumentsRapImpressionAriseExplanationMost PowerfulTiedSkepticismRationalityDecencyJointsOur PlanetRemoval
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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