Quotes About Reason

Yet these roaring waters, said Neville, upon which we build our crazy platforms are more stable than the wild, the weak and inconsequent cries that we utter when, trying to speak, we rise; when we reason and jerk out these false sayings, 'I am this; I am that!' Speech is false.

Oh, yes, dear reader: the essay is alive. There is no reason to despair.

The only advise, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions. If this is agreed between us, then I fell at liberty to put forward a few ideas and suggestions because you will not allow them to fatter that independence which is the most important quality that a reader can posses.

They neither work nor weep; in their shape is their reason.

the winds and waves disported themselves like the amorphous bulks of leviathans whose brows are pierced by no light of reason...

She could not imagine Peter or Richard taking the trouble to give a party for no reason whatever.

Perhaps, though, these words from her essay "How Should One Read a Book?" are our best guide: "The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions.

Leaning over this parapet I see far out a waste of water. A fin turns. This bare visual impression is unattached to any line of reason, it springs up as one might see the fin of a porpoise on the horizon. Visual impressions often communicate thus briefly statements that we shall in time come to uncover and coax into words.

It is seldom that any one says anything about it, and to see the hordes crossing Waterloo Bridge to catch the non-stop to Surbiton one might think that reason impelled them. No, no. It is the drums and trumpets.

Sleep is the most moronic fraternity in the world, with the heaviest dues and the crudest rituals. It is a mental torture I find debasing... I simply cannot get used to the nightly betrayal of reason, humanity, genius.

Time is rhythm: the insect rhythm of a warm humid night, brain ripple, breathing, the drum in my temple—these are our faithful timekeepers; and reason corrects the feverish beat.

I simply cannot get used to the nightly betrayal of reason, humanity, genius.

I believe the primary reason for our long run of spiritual and cultural setbacks is something else. It's sin in the camp.

I can't prove to you that there is a God, I just know. All this suffering has to have a reason.

The thing that amazes me about getting fired is that nobody ever has anything insightful to say about it. They always say the same thing. They always say, 'Everything happens for a reason.' As lame as that sounds, I guess it's better to hear it out loud. Because when you hear it in your own head, it sounds like, 'Anything can happen with a razor.

bajaremos al abismo, y seré feliz porque por fin podré comprender que todo lo verdadero tiene un comienzo,y que termina y se extingue cuando ya no tiene razón de ser "El Angel de Galilea

the words are only part of the poetic formula: the rest is ritual, and the reason in THEM must contend with the mechanics of magic-making in IT -- and must not win.

No one in Portugal dared to admit the actual reason for Magellan's behavior

To survive, you must develop secondary emotions that function in a strategic balance with reason.

Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and Nature meant to mere Mankind, Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense, Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence. (Ibid., 11. 77–80)

First, whenever a man talks loudly against religion, always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions, which have got the better of his creed. A bad life and a good belief are disagreeable and troublesome neighbors, and where they separate, depend upon it, 'Tis for no other cause but quietness sake.

Our passion and principals are constantly in a frenzy, but begin to shift and waver, as we return to reason.

Rules existed for a reason: if you followed them, you would succeed; if you didn't, you might burn the world to the ground.

Good sense travels on the well-worn paths genius, never. And that is why the crowd, not altogether without reason, is so ready to treat great men as lunatics.