Quotes About Rationality

Le raison avant la passion - Reason over passion.

When emotions dominate, maturity and wisdom deteriorate

We no longer have the pact from 1997; it was radically amended in 2005 and the Commission is applying this Stability Pact with wisdom and rationality.

Applied properly, it [logic] can overcome any lack of wisdom, which one only gains through age and experience.

I don't profess to be profound; but I do lay claim to common sense.

To the extent to which a man is rational, life is the premise directing his actions. To the extent to which he is irrational, the premise directing his actions is death.

RAND scientists tried to tell their wives that the decision whether to buy or not to buy a washing machine was an 'optimization problem'.

The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind.

Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

go of these old familiar ways of being. Before we can turn to a more rational view, we need to empathize with our emotional needs—before we can change, we need to accept and be loving to ourselves.

A few reasonable policies won't do much good if the surrounding society is insane.

His denomination, he says, is Empiricism. If you can't count it, measure it, or gauge wit with science, it didn't happen.

The advance of science spares us from irrational dread.

I always approach logic without emotion. The math always equals the math. Regardless of whether I discovered the math before anyone else, or I just decided to accept it, I know what logically makes sense, and I'm going to speak on it every time.

Roughly speaking, when you are dealing with business firms operating in a competitive system, you can assume that they're going to act rationally. Why? Because someone in a firm who buys things at $10 and sells them for $8.00 isn't going to last very long in that firm.

A number of politicians have failed to recognise the consistent truth of history: that we're both an emotional and a rational species, and that we make decisions very emotionally.

By the way, the point between rationality and what we would call the irrational is a very difficult point to establish. There's no specific line, as you know.

One idea I explore in my stand-up show is whether, if you try looking at the universe rationally and avoid coping mechanisms like mysticism or religion, you can still be happy knowing you are going to die after a brief time on this spinning ball.

Human beings can remain spiritual and religious while enjoying the benefits of rational administration of their affairs.

Real people have trouble balancing their checkbooks, much less calculating how much they need to save for retirement; they sometimes binge on food, drink, or high-definition televisions. They are more like Homer Simpson than Mr. Spock.

In the sciences, the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man.

Numbers have a way of taking a man by the hand and leading him down the path of reason.

Happiness is man's greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.

Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic.