Quotes About Rationality

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.

I do not care to be admired causelessly, emotionally, intuitively, instinctively—or blindly. I do not care for blindness in any form, I have too much to show—or for deafness, I have too much to say. I do not care to be admired by anyone's heart—only by someone's head.

All that which is proper to the life of a rational being is the good; all that which destroys it is the evil.

The source of work? Man's mind...man's reasoning mind.

I do not care to be admired by anyone's heart—only by someone's head.

All work is an act of creating and comes from the same source: from an inviolate capacity to see through one's own eyes—which means: the capacity to perform a rational identification -which means: the capacity to see, to connect and to make what had not been seen, connected and made before.

No political system can establish universal rationality by law (or by force). But capitalism is the only system that functions in a way which rewards rationality and penalizes all forms of irrationality, including racism.

Value is that which one acts to gain and/or keep—virtue is the act by which one gains and/or keeps it. The three cardinal values of the Objectivist ethics—the three values which, together, are the means to and the realization of one's ultimate value, one's own life—are: Reason, Purpose, Self-Esteem, with their three corresponding virtues: Rationality, Productiveness, Pride.

Trato con los hombres como lo requiere mi naturaleza y la de ellos: por medio de la razón. No busco ni deseo nada de ellos, excepto aquellas relaciones que ellos quieren iniciar por su propia y voluntaria elección.

Puesto que el conocimiento, el pensamiento y la acción racional son propiedades del individuo, y puesto que la elección de ejercer o no su facultad racional depende de él, la supervivencia del hombre requiere que quienes piensan no sufran las injerencias de quienes no piensan.

Puesto que los hombres no son ni omniscientes ni infalibles, deben ser libres para estar de acuerdo o en desacuerdo, para cooperar o para seguir su propio camino independiente, cada uno según su propio juicio racional. La libertad es el requisito fundamental de la mente del hombre.

Una mente racional no trabaja bajo coerción; no subordina su comprensión de la realidad a las órdenes, las directivas o los controles de nadie; no sacrifica su conocimiento, su visión de la verdad, a las opiniones, las amenazas, los deseos, los planes o el «bienestar» de nadie.

En la medida en que un hombre se guía por su juicio racional, actúa en concordancia con los requisitos de su naturaleza y, en esa medida, consigue una forma humana de supervivencia y bienestar; en la medida en que actúa de forma irracional, actúa como su propio destructor.

This is still faith in their rationality, in the omnipotence of reason. The mistake? Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.)

Si las acciones propias son honradas, uno no necesita la confianza de los demás, basta con la percepción racional de los otros. La persona que anhela un cheque moral en blanco de semejante género, lleva intenciones deshonestas, aunque no las exprese.

This country was the only country in history born, not of chance and blind tribal warfare, but as a rational product of man's mind. This country was built on the supremacy of reason—and, for one magnificent century, it redeemed the world.

El trabajo productivo es el propósito fundamental de la vida de un hombre racional, el valor central que integra y determina la jerarquía de todos sus valores. La razón es la fuente, la precondición de su trabajo productivo. El orgullo es el resultado.

wondering how one went about forcing one's mind into blankness, particularly after a lifetime lived on the axiom that the constant, clearest, most ruthless function of his rational faculty was his foremost duty.

Bill Brent knew nothing about epistemology; but he knew that man must live by his own rational perception of reality, that he cannot act against it or escape it or find a substitute for it—and that there is no other way for him to live. He

he had acquired the conviction that one had to concern oneself with the rational, not the insane—that one had to seek that which was right, because the right answer always won—that the senseless, the wrong, the monstrously unjust could not work, could not succeed, could do nothing but defeat itself.

La felicidad sólo es posible al hombre racional, al hombre que sólo desea objetivos racionales, busca valores racionales y halla su goce en la ejecución de actos racionales.

He does not regard "because I want it" or "because I feel like it" as a sufficient cause and validation of his actions. He chooses and/or identifies his desires by a process of reason, and he does not act to achieve a desire until and unless he is able rationally to validate it in the full context of his knowledge and of his other values and goals. He does not act until he is able to say: "I want it because it is right.

to start here, in the United States. This country was the only country in history born, not of chance and blind tribal warfare, but as a rational product of man's mind. This country was built on the supremacy of reason—and, for one magnificent century, it redeemed the world. It will have to do so again.

Ni la vida ni la felicidad pueden lograrse persiguiendo caprichos irracionales.