Quotes About Reasoning

The English philosopher and geometer, Keith Critchlow, brings his own light to the same point: "The human mind takes apart with its analytic habits of reasoning but the human heart puts things together because it loves them . . ."18

When a woman wants me to do anything (my daughter, or not, it doesn't matter), I always insist on knowing why. The oftener you make them rummage their own minds for a reason, the more manageable you will find them in all the relations of life. It isn't their fault (poor wretches!) that they act first and think afterwards; it's the fault of the fools who humour them.

But it is a maxim of mine that men (being superior creatures) are bound to improve women—if they can. When a woman wants me to do anything (my daughter, or not, it doesn't matter), I always insist on knowing why. The oftener you make them rummage their own minds for a reason, the more manageable you will find them in all the relations of life. It isn't their fault (poor wretches!) that they act first and think afterwards; it's the fault of the fools who humour them.

Human behavior, says Plato, flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

Herbert Spencer] was ready in those days to give everything a trial; he even thought of migrating to New Zealand, forgetting that a young country has no use for philosophers. It was characteristic of him that he made parallel lists of reasons for and against the move, giving each reason a numerical value. The sums being 110 points for remaining in England and 301 for going, he remained.

À posteriori: reasoning from observed facts to general conclusions. À priori: reasoning from general propositions to particular conclusions.

Now began the great game of epistemology

Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic.

It was more reflex than thought. That was my most heedless, least reasonable self down there. It did not weigh risks and probabilities. It didn't deserve to be called decision making. I wasn't proud of it. Still, I felt hot shame and regret as I drove away.

I am astonished at the ease with which uninformed persons come to a settled, a passionate opinion when they have no grounds for judgment.

Now that his physical voice was silent, the inner voice of reason, and other voices too, made themselves heard.

I don't guess. I think. I ponder. I deduce. Then I decide. But I never guess.

Guess?" Vizzini cried. "I don't guess. I think. I ponder. I deduce. Then I decide. But I never guess.

The difference between faith and insanity is that faith is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence, whereas insanity is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence.

But it is the bane of psychology to suppose that where results are similar, processes must be the same. Psychologists are too apt to reason as geometers would, if the latter were to say that the diameter of a circle is the same thing as its semi-circumference, because, forsooth, they terminate in the same two points.

Use statistics as input not output. Use them to make up your mind on an issue.Don't make up your mind and then go looking for the number to support yourself.

I don't know — yet. But Lorel wouldn't say it without good reason. Don't look now, but there's a squirrel on the fence." David turned his head. A pepper-gray squirrel was balancing neatly on the flat bar between two railing hoops. "Oh, wow. It's Snigger — I think." Chuk! went the squirrel, flagging its tail. It lifted one paw and appeared to smile.

They never asked any reasons for their parents' fights, thinking all adults unreasonable, violent beings, the toys of their own monstrous tempers and egotisms

Therefore," he reasoned with himself, "it is love coming to claim me: I have been so long without love, hated at home, living in terror of my children's lives: it is pure, tender, normal love.

Borderlines have negative thoughts because they have negative feelings about themselves and others. Memory difficulties, difficulty focusing attention, confused and disorganized thinking, the inability to reason logically, morbid introspection, and intrusively negative thoughts are common

That's the beauty of argument, if you argue correctly, you're never wrong.

My behavior makes perfect sense to me.

You could reason out that adults did not have to explain to each other, but instinct was so often more accurate than reasoning.

If the senses and the consciousness had an unlimited scope, if in the double direction of matter and mind the faculty of perceiving was indefinite, one would not need to conceive any more than to reason. Conceiving is a make-shift when perception is not granted us, and reasoning is done in order to fill up the gaps of perception or to extend its scope.