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Reason Quotes

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Reason Quotes

“Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.”

ReasonActionPassionMoralProduceParticularMoralityConclusion
Book:A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
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“Eloquence, when at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection; but addressing itself entirely to the fancy or the affections, captivates the willing hearers, and subdues their understanding. Happily, this pitch it seldom attains. But what a Tully or a Demosthenes could scarcely effect over a Roman or Athenian audience, every Capuchin, every itinerant or stationary teacher can perform over the generality of mankind, and in a higher degree, by touching such gross and vulgar passions.”

LittlesReasonPassionUnderstandingRoomsAudienceTeacherMankindEffectsWillingHigherDegreesHighestReflectionAffectionFancyTouchingVulgarGrossEloquenceGeneralitiesStationaryAthenians
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
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“In all ages of the world, priests have been enemies to liberty; and it is certain, that this steady conduct of theirs must have been founded on fixed reasons of interest and ambition. Liberty of thinking, and of expressing our thoughts, is always fatal to priestly power, and to those pious frauds, on which it is commonly founded; and, by an infallible connexion, which prevails among all kinds of liberty, this privilege can never be enjoyed, at least has never yet been enjoyed, but in a free government.”

ThinkingWorldKindHas BeensReasonGovernmentAgeCertainInterestLibertyEnemyAmbitionPrivilegeAll KindsEnjoyedFixedPriestsFraudSteadyOur ThoughtsPiousInfallibleFree GovernmentConnexion
Book:Essays Moral, Political, Literary: Revision of Great Book
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“No conclusions can be more agreeable to scepticism than such as make discoveries concerning the weakness and narrow limits of human reason and capacity.”

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Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh ; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature
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“It must appear impossible, that theism could, from reasoning, have been the primary religion of human race, and have afterwards, by its corruption, given birth to polytheism and to all the various superstitions of the heathen world. Reason, when obvious, prevents these corruptions: When abstruse, it keeps the principles entirely from the knowledge of the vulgar, who are alone liable to corrupt any principle or opinion.”

WorldHumansHas BeensReasonGivenRaceOpinionPrinciplesImpossibleBirthObviousVariousCorruptionPrimariesHuman RaceReasoningSuperstitionsVulgarLiableTheismHeathenPolytheism
Book:The Natural History of Religion: Revision of Great Book
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“Do you dare to accuse wine of clouding the reason? Quote me more marvelous effects than those of wine. Look! when a man drinks, he is rich, everything he touches succeeds, he gains lawsuits, is happy and helps his friends. Come, bring hither quick a flagon of wine, that I may soak my brain and get an ingenious idea.”

MenLooksMayIdeasReasonHelpingBrainRichEffectsDrinkSucceedGainsWineDareMarvelousIngeniousLawsuit
Book:The Eleven Comedies
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“I do not believe indeed, I deem it a comic blunder to believe that the exercise of reason is sufficient to explain our condition and where necessary to remedy it, but I do believe that the exercise of reason is at all times necessary.”

BelieveReasonConditionsExerciseAll TimeComicSufficientRemedyBlunders
Book:The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science
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“Born and nurtured when the human being first asked questions about the reason for things and their purpose, philosophy shows in different modes and forms that the desire for truth is part of human nature itself.”

FirstsHumansDifferentReasonPhilosophyShowsFormDesirePurposeBornHuman BeingsHuman NatureTruth Is
Book:Faith and Reason: Encyclical Letter Fides Et Ratio of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Relationship Between Faith and Reason
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“There is a reason for the affected profession of " anarchist sympathies" among Tories and grandees, and of " libertarian principles" by Hobbesian yahoos of the right. Among the former, one sees the upholding of the view that a gentleman's business and property are his own, and none of the government's. Among the latter, a distaste for democracy, for taxation, and for the need to consult others about the planet.”

NeedsReasonGovernmentViewsPrinciplesDemocracyPlanetsPropertyLibertarianProfessionFormerGentlemanLatterAffectedTaxationAnarchistDistaste
Book:For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports
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“The American farmer, whose holdings were not so extensive as those of the grandee nor so tiny as those of the peasant, whose psychology was Protestant and bourgeois, and whose politics were petty-capitalist rather than traditionalist, had no reason to share the social outlook of the rural classes of Europe. In Europe land was limited and dear, while labor was abundant and relatively cheap; in America the ratio between land and labor was inverted.”

ReasonAmericaSocialClassPsychologyShareLandEuropeLaborDearTinyNo ReasonFarmersCapitalistOutlookPettyPeasantsBourgeoisProtestantsRatiosInverted
Author:Richard Hofstadter
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“As somebody who, in my second marriage, insisted on a prenuptial agreement, I can also testify that sometimes it is an act of love to chart the exit strategy before you enter the union, in order to make sure that not only you, but your partner as well, knows that there will be no World War III should hearts and minds, for any sad reason, change.”

KnowsWorldShouldMindWellsHeartI CanWarSometimesReasonOrderStrategyUnionsPartnersWar Of The WorldsAgreementHeart And MindExitActs Of LoveSecond Marriage
Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
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“A Minister can always give a reason; and, if he be clever, he can generally when doing so punish the man who asks for it. The punishing of an influential enemy is an indiscretion; but an obscure questioner may often be crushed with good effect.”

IfsMenGivingMayReasonAsksEnemyEffectsHe ManCleverMinistersObscureCrushedInfluentialOften Is
Book:The Palliser Novels: Complete Parliamentary Chronicles (All Six Novels in One Volume): Can You Forgive Her? + Phineas Finn + The Eustace Diamonds + Phineas Redux + The Prime Minister + The Duke’s Children
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“No one can depute authority. It comes too much from personal accidents, and too little from reason or law to be handed over to others.”

LittlesReasonLawToo MuchAuthorityAccidents
Book:The Palliser Novels: Complete Parliamentary Chronicles (All Six Novels in One Volume): Can You Forgive Her? + Phineas Finn + The Eustace Diamonds + Phineas Redux + The Prime Minister + The Duke’s Children
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“I am ready to obey as a child; :;but, not being a child, I think I ought to have a reason.”

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Book:The Palliser Novels: Complete Parliamentary Chronicles (All Six Novels in One Volume): Can You Forgive Her? + Phineas Finn + The Eustace Diamonds + Phineas Redux + The Prime Minister + The Duke’s Children
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“Pagan philosophers set up reason as the sole guide of life, of wisdom and conduct; but Christian philosophy demands of us that we surrender our reason to the Holy Spirit; and this means that we no longer live for ourselves, but that Christ lives and reigns within us (Rom 12:1; Eph 4:23; Gal 2:20).”

MeanReasonPhilosophyChristianSpiritChristHolyDemandPhilosopherGuidesSurrenderHoly SpiritSoleReignPaganGalsChristian Philosophy
Book:Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life
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“For we are not all equally afflicted with the same disease or all in need of the same severe cure. This is the reason why we see different persons disciplined with different crosses. The heavenly Physician takes care of the well-being of all his patients; he gives some a milder medicine and purifies others by more shocking treatments, but he omits no one; for the whole world, without exception, is ill (Deut 32:15).”

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Book:Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life
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“I've always felt, and I don't like to say this because I sound like an ex-patriot, I always feel quite a bit more comfortable sometimes in Canada. For a variety of reasons. I just think it's a politer place. Kind of. You don't have quite the population to deal with but you don't immediately get into skirmishes with everybody. If you had any passport, any terrorist would let the Canadians off the plane.”

IfsThinkingFeelsKindSometimesReasonFeltBitsSoundDealsComfortablePopulationTerroristVarietyPlanesCanadaPatriotExesPassports
Author:Tim Allen
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“I thinke it not amisse to forewarne you that you thrust as few wordes of many sillables into your verse as may be: and hereunto I might alledge many reasons: first the most auncient English wordes are of one sillable, so that the more monasyllables that you use, the truer Englishman you shall seeme, and the lesse you shall smell of the Inkehorne.”

FirstsMayReasonUseMightSmellVersesEnglishmenThrust
Book:The Complete Works of George Gascoigne: Volume 1, The Posies
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“Röntgen has familiarized us with an order of vibrations of extreme minuteness compared with the smallest waves with which we have hitherto been acquainted, and of dimensions comparable with the distances between the centers of the atoms of which the material universe is built up; and there is no reason to suppose that we have here reached the limit of frequency.”

ReasonOrderUniverseMaterialsLimitsBuiltDistanceWaveExtremesDimensionsNo ReasonAtomsSmallestVibrationsFrequency
Author:Wilhelm Rontgen
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“When the Democrats are attacked for [inciting class warfare] they shrink back. They don't say what obviously should be said, "Yes, there is class warfare. There has always been class warfare in this country." The reason the Democrats shrink back is because the Democrats and the Republicans are on the same side of the class war. They have slightly different takes. The Democrats are part of the upper class that is more willing to make concessions to the lower class in order to maintain their power.”

ShouldSaidDifferentWarCountryReasonOrderSidesClassWillingRepublicanDemocratWarfareShrinksConcessionsUpper ClassClass WarfareLower Class
Author:Howard Zinn
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“What happened in World War II was what happened in war generally, and that was whatever the initiating cause, and however clear the moral reason is for the war in which one side looks better than the other, by the time the war ends both sides have been engaged in evil.”

WorldLooksHas BeensWarEndsReasonEvilCausesSidesMoralClearHappenedWar Of The WorldsEngagedWorld War IiWorld War IBoth Sides
Book:Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches, 1963-2009
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“Every man feels that perception gives him an invincible belief of the existence of that which he perceives; and that this belief is not the effect of reasoning, but the immediate consequence of perception. When philosophers have wearied themselves and their readers with their speculations upon this subject, they can neither strengthen this belief, nor weaken it; nor can they shew how it is produced. It puts the philosopher and the peasant upon a level; and neither of them can give any other reason for believing his senses, than that he finds it impossible for him to do otherwise.”

MenGivingFeelsBelieveReasonBeliefLevelsExistenceImpossibleSubjectsEffectsReaderPerceptionConsequencePhilosopherEvery ManSensesPerceiveReasoningSpeculationPeasantsInvincible
Book:The Works of Thomas Reid, D. D.: Now Fully Collected, with Selections from His Unpublished Letters
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“It is natural to men to judge of things less known, by some similitude they observe, or think they observe, between them and things more familiar or better known. In many cases, we have no better way of judging. And, where the things compared have really a great similitude in their nature, when there is reason to think that they are subject to the same laws, there may be a considerable degree of probability in conclusions drawn from analogy.”

ThinkingMenWayMayReasonLawNaturalKnownCasesSubjectsJudgingDegreesFamiliarConclusionProbabilityBetter WaysAnalogies
Book:Philosophical works
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