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Reason Quotes

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Reason Quotes

“I think the only reason I've had the career life that I've had is that someone told me some secrets early on about living. You can do the very best you can when you're very, very relaxed, no matter what it is or what your job is, the more relaxed you are the better you are. That's sort of why I got into acting. I realized the more fun I had, the better I did it. And I thought, that's a job I could be proud of. It's changed my life learning that, and it's made me better at what I do.”

ThinkingMadeMatterReasonJobsFunCan DoActingSecretCareersChangedProudNo Matter WhatI RealizedBe ProudRelaxedChanged My LifeLife Learning
Author:Bill Murray
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“I also came to see that liberalism's superficial optimism concerning human nature caused it to overlook the fact that reason is darkened by sin. The more I thought about human nature the more I saw how our tragic inclination for sin causes us to use our minds to rationalize our actions. Liberalism failed to see that reason by itself is little more than an instrument to justify man's defensive ways of thinking. Reason, devoid of the purifying power of faith, can never free itself from distortions and rationalizations.”

ThinkingMenWayMindHumansLittlesReasonFactsUseActionCausesSinSawsHuman NatureOptimismInstrumentsLiberalismTragicJustifySuperficialInclinationOur ActionsWay Of ThinkingDistortionRationalizePurifying
Book:The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.:
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“We love being in love, that's the truth on't. If we had not met Joan, we should have met Kate, and adored her. We know our mistresses are no better than many other women, nor no prettier, nor no wiser, nor no wittier. 'Tis not for these reasons we love a woman, or for any special quality or charm I know of; we might as well demand that a lady should be the tallest woman in the world, like the Shropshire giantess, as that she should be a paragon in any other character, before we began to love her.”

IfsKnowsWorldLoveShouldWellsReasonCharacterMightLove IsQualitySpecialMetsDemandShould HaveCharmWiserMistressBeing In LoveKateParagon
Book:The history of Henry Esmond, esq
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“Time, which gnaws and diminisheth all things else, augments and increaseth benefits; because a noble action of liberality, done to a man of reason, doth grow continually by his generous thinking of it and remembering it.”

ThinkingMenReasonDoneActionRememberGrowsBenefitsAll ThingsNobleGenerousLiberality
Book:Gargantua and Pantagruel: Five Books of the Lives, Heroic Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and his Son Pantagruel
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“An American economist of two generations ago, H. J. Davenport, who was the best friend Thorstein Veblen ever had (Veblen actually lived for a time in Davenport's coal cellar) once said: "There is no reason why theoretical economics should be a monopoly of the reactionaries." All my life I have tried to take this warning to heart, and I dare call it to your favorable attention.”

ShouldHeartSaidTwoReasonAttentionGenerationsEconomicsDareReason WhyNo ReasonWarningCoalEconomistMonopolyTheoreticalReactionariesCellars
Book:The Collected Scientific Papers of Paul Samuelson, Volume 3
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“I have observed dreams and visions very carefully, and am now certain that the imagination has some way of lighting on the truth that the reason has not, and that its commandments, delivered when the body is still and the reason silent, are the most binding we can ever know.”

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Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays
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“Citizens who take it upon themselves to do unusual actions which attract the attention of the police should be careful to bring these actions into one of the recognized categories of crimes and offences, for it is intolerable that the police should be put to the pains of inventing reasons for finding them undesirable.”

ShouldReasonActionPainAttentionCrimeCitizensFindingsPoliceCarefulCategoriesUnusualBe CarefulInventingOffenceUndesirable
Author:A. P. Herbert
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“He who seeks truth must be content with a lonely, little-trodden path. If he cannot worship her till she has been canonized by the shouts of the multitude, he must take his place with the members of that wretched crowd who shouted for two long hours, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" till truth, reason, and calmness were all drowned in noise.”

IfsLittlesLongHas BeensTwoReasonTruthHoursPathMembersWorshipLonelyCrowdsNoiseMultitudesWretchedCalmnessDianaLong HoursEphesians
Book:Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton
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“[The masses] ... must turn their hopes toward a miracle. In the depths of their despair reason cannot be believed, truth must be false, and lies must be truth. "Higher bread prices," "lower bread prices," "unchanged bread prices" have all failed. The only hope lies in a kind of bread price which is none of these, which nobody has ever seen before, and which belies the evidence of one's reason.”

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Book:The End of Economic Man: The Origins of Totalitarianism
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“To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot.”

HumansRealReasonLightTruthAbleReligionLosesNaturalDarkClearProgressFeetMankindEffectsEventsBehaviorHarmToleranceDoctrineRepresentativesRefugeInterfereScience And ReligionDomainUnworthyPhilosophy Of ReligionHuman ProgressRegularityScience ReligionScientific KnowledgeGod And Science
Author:Albert Einstein
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“I am still a student. My classmates study really hard, so I feel like I should too. But they always say things like: “You don't have to.”, “Aren't you busy?”, “Just give up, you have another way.”; But I don't think that's right. There's no reason for me to give up, I didn't quit high school.”

ThinkingWayGivingFeelsShouldStillsHardReasonSchoolStudyStudentsLike YouGiving UpHigh SchoolBusyQuittingNo ReasonAnother WayClassmatesJust Give UpSnsd
Author:Seohyun
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“It has long been observed, that an atheist has no just reason for endeavouring conversions; and yet none harass those minds which they can influence, with more importunity of solicitation to adopt their opinions. In proportion as they doubt the truth of their own doctrines, they are desirous to gain the attestation of another understanding: and industriously labour to win a proselyte, and eagerly catch at the slightest pretense to dignify their sect with a distinguished name.”

MindLongReasonWinningNamesUnderstandingOpinionDoubtAtheismInfluenceGainsAtheistConversionDoctrineProportionLabourDistinguishedPretenseSectsSolicitation
Book:The Beauties of Samuel Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous
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“We are accustomed to the artist scoundrel or specialist in vice, and unaccustomed to the creator in whom passion and reason and moral integrity hold in balance. But greatness of intellect and feeling, or soul and conduct - magnanimity, in short - does occur; it is not a myth for boy scouts, and its reality is important, if only to give us the true range of the term "human," which we so regularly define by its lower reaches.”

IfsGivingHumansDoeImportantSoulReasonFeelingsRealityArtistPassionTermMoralBoysGreatnessBalanceIntegrityVicesCreatorIntellectMythRangeAccustomedSpecialistsScoundrelsMagnanimityBoy ScoutMoral Integrity
Author:Jacques Barzun
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“The authorities teach that next to the first emanation, which is the Son coming out of the Father, the angels are most like God. And it may well be true, for the soul at its highest is formed like God, but an angel gives a closer idea of Him. That is all an angel is: an idea of God. For this reason the angel was sent to the soul, so that the soul might be re-formed by it, to be the divine idea by which it was first conceived.”

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Author:Meister Eckhart
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“In general the languages of most unpolished people have a great force and energy of expression; and this is but natural. Uncultivated people are but ordinary observers of things, and not critical in distinguishing them; but, for that reason, they admire more, and are more affected with what they see, and therefore express themselves in a warmer and more passionate manner.”

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Book:A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
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“At some point, every science fiction and fantasy story must challenge the reader's experience and learning. That's much of the reason why the genre is so open to experimentation and innovation that other genres reject--strangeness is our bread and butter. Spread it thick or slice it thin, it's still our staff of life.”

StillsReasonStoriesChallengesFictionFantasyReaderInnovationScience FictionSpreadBreadGenreReason WhyRejectsThickStaffExperimentationStrangenessBread And ButterGenre IsScience Fiction And FantasyFantasy StoriesExperience And Learning
Book:The Writer's Digest Guide to Science Fiction & Fantasy
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“But if anyone were to conduct his life by reason He would find great riches in living a peaceful life And being contented; one is never short of a little But men want always to be powerful and famous So that their fortune rests on a solid foundation And they can spend a placid life in opulence. There isn't a hope of it; to attain great honours You have to struggle along a dangerous way And even when you reach the top there is envy Which can strike you down like lightning into Tartarus. For envy, like lightning, generally strikes at the top Or any point which sticks out from the ordinary level.”

IfsMenWayWantLittlesReasonLevelsPowerfulStruggleDangerousOrdinaryFoundationSticksFortuneEnvyRichesStrikesPeacefulHonourLightningPeaceful LifePlacidSolid FoundationOpulenceTartarusHonour You
Book:De rerum natura
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“There is a further advantage [to hydrogen bombs]: the supply of uranium in the planet is very limited, and it might be feared that it would be used up before the human race was exterminated, but now that the practically unlimited supply of hydrogen can be utilized, there is considerable reason to hope that homo sapiens may put an end to himself, to the great advantage of such less ferocious animals as may survive. But it is time to return to less cheerful topics.”

HumansMayEndsReasonMightWould BeUsedAnimalRacePlanetsReturnAdvantageHuman RaceBombsTopicsUnlimitedCheerfulHomo SapiensHydrogenUraniumHydrogen Bomb
Author:Bertrand Russell
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“Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle. Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for the others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish for ever.”

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Book:In Praise of Idleness
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“Perhaps the chief requirement of [the conductor] is that he be humble before the composer; that he never interpose himself between the music and the audience; that all his efforts, however strenuous or glamorous, be made in the service of the composer's meaning - the music itself, which, after all, is the whole reason for the conductor's existence.”

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Author:Leonard Bernstein
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“In times of war, as everyone knows, who has lived through one, or talked to soldiers when they are allowing themselves to remember the truth, and not the sentimentalities with which we all shield ourselves from the horrors of which we are capable ... in times of war we revert, as a species, to the past, and are permitted to be brutal and cruel. It is for this reason, and of course others, that a great many people enjoy war. But this is one of the facts about war that is not often talked about.”

PeopleKnowsWarReasonFactsPastRememberCoursesEnjoyHorrorCapableSpeciesSoldierGreat MenAllowingBrutalShieldsSentimentality
Author:Doris Lessing
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“This is a time when it is frightening to be alive, when it is hard to think of human beings as rational creatures. Everywhere we look we see brutality, stupidity, until it seems that there is nothing else to be seen but that--a descent into barbarism, everywhere, which we are unable to check. But I think that while it is true there is a general worsening, it is precisely because things are so frightening we become hypnotized, and do not notice--or if we notice, belittle--equally strong forces on the other side, the forces, in short, of reason, sanity and civilization.”

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Book:Prisons We Choose to Live Inside
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