quotations about reason
Those who invalidate reason, ought seriously to consider, whether they argue against reason, with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle, that they are laboring to dethrone; but if they argue without reason, (which, in order to be consistent with themselves, they must do,) they are out of the reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.
ETHAN ALLEN
Reason: The Only Oracle of Man
To say that man is a reasoning animal is a very different thing than to say that most of man's decisions are based on his rational process. That I don't believe at all.
REX STOUT
Royal Decree Revisited
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.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787
Those who are guided by reason are generally successful in their plans.
HERODOTUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
There are so many kinds of madness, so many ways in which the human brain may go wrong; and so often it happens that what we call madness is both reasonable and just. It is so. Yes. A little reason is good for us, a little more makes wise men of some of us--but when our reason over-grows us and we reach too far, something breaks and we go insane.
JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD
"The Case of Beauvais", Back to God's Country and Other Stories
Prejudice is not bigotry or superstition, although prejudice sometimes may degenerate into these. Prejudice is pre-judgment, the answer with which intuition and ancestral consensus of opinion supply a man when he lacks either time or knowledge to arrive at a decision predicated upon pure reason.
RUSSELL KIRK
The Conservative Mind
An idle reason lessens the weight of the good ones you gave before.
JONATHAN SWIFT
The Works of the Reverend Dr. Jonathan Swift: Miscellanies in prose
The total loss of reason is less deplorable than the total deprivation of it.
ABRAHAM COWLEY
Essays and Selected Verse
If we would guide by the light of reason, we must let our minds be bold.
LOUIS BRANDEIS
dissenting opinion, New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 1932
Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name of reason.
JOHN WESLEY
letter to Joseph Benson, October 5, 1770
Whenever he was required to use his reason he felt like someone who had always used his right hand but was now required to do something with his left.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook B", The Waste Books
Who builds on Reason builds upon the sand
A fabric mortal as the human brain.
FRANCIS HOWARD WILLIAMS
"Sic Itur Ad Astra"
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Nothing does Reason more right, than the coolness of those that offer it. For truth often suffers more by the Heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
Reason always cuts a poor figure beside sentiment; the one being essentially restricted, like everything that is positive, while the other is infinite.
HONORE DE BALZAC
A Woman of Thirty
Man cannot survive except by gaining knowledge, and reason is his only means to gain it.
AYN RAND
Atlas Shrugged
For there is but one essential justice which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. This law is right reason, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions. Whoever neglects this law, whether written or unwritten, is necessarily unjust and wicked.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
On the Laws
There is nothing without reason.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ
Studies in Physics and the Nature of the Body
Reasons are not like garments, the worse for wearing.
ROBERT DEVEREUX
to Lord Willoughby, January 4, 1598
Water cannot rise higher than its source, neither can human reason. Now, all reasoning respecting transcendent truths must have its source where the truths or ideas themselves originate.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
notes appended to the third edition of Southey's Life of Wesley