Quotes About Rationality

I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.

[It] is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness.

The superstition of science scoffs at the superstition of faith.

so it is with human reason, which strives not against faith, when enlightened, but rather furthers and advances it.

Reason is one thing and faith is another and reason can as little be made a substitute for faith, as faith can be made a substitute for reason.

I was now prepared to accept any faith so long as it did not demand a direct denial of reason, which would have been a deceit.

The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith, and Faith is an Act of Reason.

Faith is the continuation of reason.

Dare to contradict the scientist, not because of your scripture, but because of your own rational thinking.

Don't let your emotions outweigh your intelligence.

Faith... must be enforced by reason.... When faith becomes blind it dies.

We may agree that genocidal violence cannot be understood as rational; yet, we need to understand it as thinkable.

According to Maimonides, the moral faculty would, in fact, not have been required, if man had remained a purely rational being. It is only through the senses that "the knowledge of good and evil" has become indispensable. The narrative of Adam's fall is, according to Maimonides, an allegory representing the relation which exists between sensation, moral faculty, and intellect.

that you have three of the most important virtues a policeman can have," he thought. "You are stubborn and logical, and completely calm.

But you have to reason it out then and convince yourself. - Yes, but there are reasons of the heart that reason doesn't encompass.

Thenceforth they thought that, rationally concluded, doubt could become an instrument of knowledge.

Das ist die Schwäche der Vernunft: wir bedienen uns ihrer meist nur zur Rechtfertigung unseres Glaubens.

O shame to men! Devil with devil damned Firm concord holds, men only disagree Of creatures rational, though under hope Of heavenly grace: and God proclaiming peace, Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wasting the earth, each other to destroy: As if (which might induce us to accord) Man had not hellish foes enough besides, That day and night for his destruction wait.

Frei ist, wer der Vernunft gehorcht.

Madness is a distrust of reason.

God gave you a brain and a heart. The heart is warm, but your wits must be cold.

Logic is often cast aside, when fear and superstition run unchecked,' my friend said.

I really have nothing against rationality, or even doing what you think is best, or doing what is more likely to satisfy your desires. I have tried these strategies at various times, occasionally with good results. But I think the ideal of the rational agent is the source of lots of needless unhappiness. It's not the way many of us operate; it's certainly not the way I operate. And operating the way we do usually works just fine, and really isn't a reason to hang our heads in shame and despair.

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason. —OSCAR WILDE