Quotes About Reasoning

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner.

when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? (The Sign of the Four, page 111)

I have already explained to you that what is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance.There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can read analytically.

In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backwards. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practice it much.

If you eliminate all other possibilities, whatever remains must be the truth. Sherlock Holmes

It is of the first importance,' he said, 'not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities. A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem. The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning. I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money, and the most repellant man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Alas! How sad when reasoners reason wrong.

they] reason'd high Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate, Fixt Fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost. (Paradise Lost 2.658

How sad when those who reason, reason wrong.

Life's two most important questions are Why? and Why not? The trick is knowing which one to ask.

Smart thinking is to know what you think and why you think it.

You may be to call up the entire encyclopedia, but a brain with no heart and no reasoning .. well, nothing is more meaningless.

Loss of sleep hurts attention, executive function, working memory, mood, quantitative skills, logical reasoning, and even motor dexterity.

A lifetime of exercise results in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared with those who are sedentary. Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in tests that measure long-term memory, reasoning, attention, and problem-solving skill.

reasoning is a uniquely human talent. It may have arisen from our need to understand one another's intentions and motivations. This allowed us to coordinate within a group, which is how we took over the Earth.

Thus Belial with words cloth'd in reason's garbCounsel'd ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth,Not peace.

Others apart sat on a hill retir'd,In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd highOf Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.

On July 30, 1723, when he was nineteen years old, Edwards wrote in his diary, "I have concluded to endeavor to work myself into duties by searching and tracing back all the real reasons why I do them not, and narrowly searching out all the subtle subterfuges of my thoughts." A week later he wrote, "Very much convinced of the extraordinary deceitfulness of the heart, and how exceedingly… appetite blinds the mind, and brings it into entire subjection.

As a consequence, scientists who are carefully reflective about their activity do not instinctively ask the question 'Is it reasonable?' as if they were confident beforehand what shape rationality had to take. We have noted how 'unreasonable', in classical Newtonian terms, the nature of light turned out to be. Instead, for the scientist the proper phrasing of the truth- seeking question takes the form, 'What makes you think that might be the case?

I told him that I thought it was law logic -- an artificial system of reasoning, exclusively used in Courts of justice, but good for nothing anywhere else.

Law logic -- an artificial system of reasoning, exclusively used in courts of justice, but good for nothing anywhere else.

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion.