Quotes About Reason

Understanding government can be a complex business. The stated reason for a policy and the real reason for it are rarely the same.

Customers are the reason we open our doors every day, and keep the machines humming all night long. Customers determine what we eat, where we live, whether we stay in business.

While I'm sure some millennials are concerned with the ethical issues involved in mining for diamonds, the main reason they steer clear of the gems is because, well, they're a dumb investment.

I really believe in fate and that everything happens for a reason. There's always a plan. Even things that happen to you that feel like an obstacle or a disaster in the moment will pave the way for your next step.

What was most important and really new about the Age of Reason was the sublime confidence of the intellectuals and societal leaders in the power of man's reason

The exaltation of human reason and its capabilities, a commitment to rigorous and rational debate, a promotion of intellectual inquiry and scholarly exchange--all sponsored by the Church--provided the framework for the Scientific Revolution.

nearby Crawford County the town of Girard was home to the Appeal to Reason, a socialist newspaper whose circulation was in the hundreds of thousands.

SDS's wildly optimistic first principle: that all humans were "infinitely precious and possessed of unfulfilled capacities for reason, freedom, and love.

The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification.

The scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

Mathematics and Poetry are... the utterance of the same power of imagination, only that in the one case it is addressed to the head, in the other, to the heart.

Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to believe.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, then that of blindfolded fear.

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus. [Letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp, 30 July 1816, denouncing the doctrine of the Trinity]

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Every species of government has its specific principles. Ours perhaps are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, with others derived from natural right and natural reason.

Question with boldness even the existance of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

This institution will be based upon the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away all this artificial scaffolding... { Letter to John Adams , April 11, 1823 }

I am never better than when I am mad: then methinks I am a brave fellow; then I do wonders: but reason abuseth me, and there's the torment, there's the hell.

When you deploy forces, you must have a good reason. The country must be behind those forces. And they must be trained, prepared and supported.