Quotes About Reason

The most interesting aspect of this culture of repudiation has been the attack on the central place accorded to reason in human affairs by the writers, philosophers and political theorists of the Enlightenment. The old

This law is implanted in us by reason, and God himself obeys it. If human beings do not obey the natural law it is because reason does not entirely govern their behavior. The purpose of a legal is to provide an effective substitute for reason in the motives of unreasonable men. He added, however, that rights are nothing without the power which would enforce them, and therefore that power, not right, is the basic fact of politics." -Spinoza

He describes a particular faculty, reason, in its illegitimate employment; he also demolishes all the claims to knowledge that this faculty tempts us to make.

Philosophy arises, therefore, in two contrasted ways: first, in attempting to complete the 'Why?' of explanation; secondly in attempting to justify the other kinds of 'Why?' — the 'Why?' which looks for a reason, and the 'Why?' which looks for a meaning. Most of the traditional branches of the subject stem from these two attempts, the first of which is hopeless, the second of which is our best source of hope.

Kant enjoyed the company of women (provided that they did not pretend to understand the Critique of Pure Reason)

It is part of our rational nature to strive for a community of judgement, a shared conception of value, since that is what reason and the moral life require.

The moral motive comes from setting all my interests aside, and addressing the question before me by appealing to reason alone—and that means appealing to considerations that any rational being would be equally able to accept. From that posture of disinterested enquiry we are led inexorably, Kant thought, to the categorical imperative, which tells us to act only on that maxim which we can will as a law for all rational beings.

When inspiration is silent reason tires quickly.

My Trumps do not work here, not even the Trumps of Doom. My magic is useless to me, limited as it is by walls the color of Luke's ring. I begin to feel that I might enjoy even the escape of temporary insanity, but my reason refuses to surrender to it, there being too many puzzles to trouble me: Dan Martinez, Meg Devlin, my Lady of the Lake…Why?

I'll bare the basics, bridle the beast Unreason, and wrest from murky mystery the pearl of sweetest sense.

In order to satisfy this great oneiric function, which makes it not a kind of total monument, the [Eiffel] Tower must escape reason. The first condition of this victorious flight is that the Tower be an utterly useless monument.

I-love-you is active. It affirms itself as force--against other forces. Which ones? The thousand forces of the world, which are, all of them, disparaging forces (science, doxa, reality, reason, etc) Or again: against language.

Wars oftener proceed from angry and perverse passions than from cool calculations of interest.

We have abundant reason to rejoice that, in this land, the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition," President Washington wrote to one Baltimore church.26 "Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.

But the main reason for Rockefeller's silence was that he couldn't dispute just a few of Tarbell's assertions without admitting the truth of many others

As an ardent temperance advocate, he was extremely uncomfortable around drinkers—perhaps one reason why he seldom visited the oil fields.

Yet Rockefeller didn't apply this pressure lightly and preferred patience and reason—if possible—to terror.

THIS MEANS THE LAST REASON TO HAVE PSYCHIATRY AROUND IS GONE

in the record. People would quickly forget our reason

You can't be real-world smart and real-world dumb, all at the same time. You can't be rational and irrational. You can't deal with reality and simultaneously not deal with it.

Christian faith is not an irrational leap.Examined objectively, the claims of the Bible are rational propositions well supported by reason and evidence.

My mistakes didn't destroy the image of God that was inscribed in me, so my errors can't eliminate the reason why I have value in his eyes.

I see faith as being a reasonable step in the same direction that the evidence is pointing. In other words, faith goes beyond merely acknowledging that the facts of science and history point toward God. It's responding to those facts by investing trust in God—a step that's fully warranted due to the supporting evidence.

Serce ma swoje racje, o których nic nie wie rozum - Pascal