Quotes About Rational

One did not argue with people who denied reality. Which was why the pundit Stewart Alsop wrote that conservatism was "not really a coherent, rational alternative at all—it is hardly more than an angry cry of protest against things as they are";

Beliefs do not change facts. Facts, if one is rational, should change beliefs.

I'm a militant fundamentalist atheist. I'm going to get on a crowded train, unbutton my coat and say rational things. People will be hurt.

Why do psychiatrists consistently lead the pack of specialties when it comes to taking money from drug companies?" His answer: "Our diagnoses are subjective and expandable, and we have few rational reasons for choosing one treatment over another.

Every sane person has to find every day some manner of accommodating the impossible, some way of covering up for the failures of the rational world. This might actually be a reasonable definition of sanity.

Societies progress by the free assertion of differing proposals, followed by criticism, followed by the genuine possibility of change in the light of criticism....The whole approach of an authoritarian society is anti-rational. A rational and scientific approach requires societies to be open and pluralistic."—Karl Popper

To hold an idea and convince ourselves we arrived at it rationally, we go in search of evidence to support our view. What could be more objective or scientific? But because of the pleasure principle and its unconscious influence, we manage to find the evidence that confirms what we want to believe. This is known as confirmation bias.

Yet the most terrifying thing about serial killers is that they are not shambling, jabbering ogres, but rational and calculating, impossible to tell from the general populace until it's too late. 

It's been necessary since before the time of Socrates to reject the passions, the emotions, in order to free the rational mind for an understanding of nature's order which was as yet unknown. Now it's time to further an understanding of nature's order by reassimilating those passions which were originally fled from.

The major producer of the social chaos, the indeterminacy of thought and values that rational knowledge is supposed to eliminate, is none other than science itself. And what Phaedrus saw in the isolation of his own laboratory work years ago is now seen everywhere in the technological world today. Scientifically produced antiscience—chaos.

too often, when it comes to the subject of money, common sense is uncommon.

There are some characters in this world who are marked down for self-destruction, and to these no amount of rational argument can appeal. For my part Justine always reminded me of a somnambulist discovered treading the perilous leads of a high tower; any attempt to wake her with a shout might lead to disaster. One could only follow her silently in the hope of guiding her gradually away from the great shadowy drops which loomed up on every side. But by some curious paradox it was these

Some characters in the world are marked down for self-destruction, and to these no amount of rational argument can appeal.

Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner.

Science is different to all other systems of thought because you dont need faith in it, you can check that it works.

Indeed, in view of its function, religion stands in greater need of a rational foundation of its ultimate principles than even the dogmas of science.

Making money is a common sense. It's not rocket science. But unfortunately, when it comes to money, common sense is uncommon.

Mathematics in general is fundamentally the science of self-evident things.

For me, I think the greatest achievements of science is to allow humanity to realize that our world is comprehensible. Through science, rational thinking, we can understand how the universe works.

..the self-knowledge that I am talking about is concrete, verifiable and is tangible like science itself and completely understandable in rational terms.

Only Numbers. Pure math. You have to accustom yourself to thinking that way.

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional.

...a little kindness-love-smile-understanding-willingness to help each other may yet go a mighty long way in contemporary-rational-materialistic-world....

the essence of criticism is conversation - a passionate, rational argument about a shared experience