Quotes About Reason

Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice...for we have no other criterion of reason than the example and idea of the opinions and customs of the country we live in.

The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbors, causeth a war to follow between Princes.

nunca, en ningún momento de la historia humana, había existido una religión que ganara influencia sobre las masas dirigiéndose únicamente a la razón.

God will endure for as long as the reasons that brought him into being; And so will those who deny him.

Se non la capisci tu che fai la filosofa, stiamo messi bene. E di che colore è la filosofia?» «È nera, come la notte di Schelling, una notte senza fine in cui tutte le vacche sono nere. Perché ci sono delle cose che la ragione non può nemmeno sfiorare. Perché nella vita ci sono dei dolori che non possono essere spiegati. .»

She glanced at Naiginn's profile. Torak was right, he did smile too much. Torak only smiled when he had a reason, and then it was worth waiting for.

Surely, if nature had intended us to be governed by our gonads, she wouldn't have endowed us with an intellect.

As Heinz Pagels has said, The challenge to our civilization which has come from our knowledge of the cosmic energies that fuels the stars, the movement of light and electrons through matter, the intricate molecular order which is the biological basis of life, must be met by the creation of a moral and political order which will accommodate these forces or we shall be destroyed. It will try our deepest resources of reason and compassion.

This is the kind of world I was born in, one in which I had only one reason for existence: pleasing others.

The reason for the unreason with which you treat my reason , so weakens my reason that with reason I complain of your beauty.

Take away the cause, and the effect ceases.

I would say that teleology is theology, and that God is not a "because," but rather an "in order to."

El hombre, dicen, es un animal racional. No sé por qué no se haya dicho que es un animal afectivo o sentimental. Y acaso lo que de los demás animales le diferencia sea más el sentimiento que no la razón. Más veces he visto razonar a un gato que no reír o llorar. Acaso llore o ría por dentro, pero por dentro acaso también el cangrejo resuelva ecuaciones de segundo grado

Por qué nací, padre? - ?Pregunte más bien para qué nació. La pregunta - ¿por qué? - es la del racionalista que busca ciéntificamente las causas, pero la pregunta importante no es esa, sino la otra - ¿para qué? -, pues en ella anida el sentido que debemos dar a nuestra vida.

Ni el sentimiento logra hacer del consuelo verdad, ni la razón logra hacer de la verdad consuelo; pero esta segunda, la razón, procediendo sobre la verdad misma, sobre el concepto mismo de realidad, logra hundirse en un profundo escepticismo.

Parece difícil probar con la mera luz de la razón la inmortalidad del alma. Los argumentos en favor de ella se derivan comúnmente de tópicos metafísicos, morales o físicos. Pero es en realidad el Evangelio, y sólo el Evangelio, el que ha traído a luz la vida y la inmortalidad».

Si ha habido quien se ha burlado de Dios, ¿por qué no hemos de burlarnos de la Razón, de la Ciencia y hasta de la Verdad? Y si nos han arrebatado nuestra más cara y más íntima esperanza vital, ¿por qué no hemos de confundirlo todo para matar el tiempo y la eternidad y para vengarnos?

Snow, delicate snow, that falls with such lightness on the head, on the feelings, come and cover over the sadness that lies always in my reason. from "The Snowfall Is So Silent

At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right

The truth is that reason is the enemy of life.

Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason.

Instead of accepting the unity of purpose provided by genetic instructions or by the rules of society, the challenge for us is to create harmony based on reason and choice.

the robbers could have been drunk, or alienated beyond the reach of reason, and then he might have been seriously hurt. But the point is still valid: human relations are malleable, and if a person has the appropriate skills their rules can be transformed.

After an insight occurs, one must check it out to see if the connections genuinely make sense. The painter steps back from the canvas to see whether the composition works, the poet rereads the verse with a more critical eye, the scientist sits down to do the calculations or run the experiments. Most lovely insights never go any farther, because under the cold light of reason fatal flaws appear. But if everything checks out, the slow and often routine work of elaboration begins