REASON QUOTES IV

quotations about reason

Reason quote

To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable.

EPICTETUS

Discourses

Tags: Epictetus


In the work of government, reason is the architect; it is the part of reason to command, and the duty of weakness and of passion to obey.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: Aristotle


Nothing can give peace to him who is at enmity with his own reason.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms


O reason, reason, abstract phantom of the waking state, I had already expelled you from my dreams, now I have reached a point where those dreams are about to become fused with apparent realities: now there is only room here for myself.

LOUIS ARAGON

Paris Peasant

Tags: Louis Aragon


To arm ourselves with thinking, and to keep reason upon the guard, will render the mind too hard for a blow.

JEREMY COLLIER

Pearls of Great Price


Disputes are not to be decided by the weight of authority, but by the force of reason.

GEORGE BERKELEY

The Works of George Berkeley

Tags: George Berkeley


Faith sees from God to God. Reason eyes Divine Truth as an infant an egg.

JOHN PULSFORD

Quiet Hours


The world of reason is to be regarded as a great and immortal being, who ceaselessly works out what is necessary, and so makes himself lord also over what is accidental.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe

Tags: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.

ALDOUS HUXLEY

Island

Tags: Aldous Huxley


In order to forgive reason for the evil it has wrought on the majority of men, we must imagine for ourselves what man would be without his reason. 'Tis a necessary evil.

CHAMFORT

The Cynic's Breviary

Tags: Sebastien Roch Nicolas Chamfort


Reason is the Divine Governor of Man's life; it is the very Voice of God.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms

Tags: Benjamin Whichcote


Reason, it is true, is DICTATOR in the Society of Mankind; from her there ought to lie no Appeal; But here we want a Pope in our Philosophy, to be the infallible Judge of what is or is not Reason.

DANIEL DEFOE

An Essay upon Publick Credit

Tags: Daniel Defoe


To give reason for fancy were to weigh the fire, and measure the wind.

JOHN LYLY

Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit

Tags: John Lyly


In all demonstrative sciences the rules are certain and infallible; but when we apply them, our fallible said uncertain faculties are very apt to depart from them, and fall into error. We must, therefore, in every reasoning form a new judgment, as a check or controul on our first judgment or belief; and must enlarge our view to comprehend a kind of history of all the instances, wherein our understanding has deceived us, compared with those, wherein its testimony was just and true. Our reason must be considered as a kind of cause, of which truth is the natural effect; but such-a-one as by the irruption of other causes, and by the inconstancy of our mental powers, may frequently be prevented. By this means all knowledge degenerates into probability; and this probability is greater or less, according to our experience of the veracity or deceitfulness of our understanding, and according to the simplicity or intricacy of the question.

DAVID HUME

"Of Scepticism with Regard to Reason", A Treatise of Human Nature

Tags: David Hume


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

Tags: Jonathan Swift


There are few things reason can discover with so much certainty and ease as its own insufficiency.

JEREMY COLLIER

Pearls of Great Price


Whosoever persuadeth by reasoning from principles written, maketh him to whom he speaketh judge, both of the meaning of those principles and also of the force of his inferences upon them.

THOMAS HOBBES

Leviathan


Wicked men shake off the government of Reason, as if it were tyranny and usurpation.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms


Those who are guided by reason are generally successful in their plans.

HERODOTUS

attributed, Day's Collacon


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

Tags: Thomas Jefferson