Reason Quotes

Most popular reason quotes

The distinctive Western character begins with the Greeks, who invented the habit of deductive reasoning and the science of geometry. - Bertrand Russell quote.
The distinctive Western character begins with the Greeks, who invented the habit of deductive reasoning and the science of geometry.

logic

He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak. - Michel de Montaigne quote.
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.

arguments

Reasonable men are open to persuasion. - Plutarch quote.
Reasonable men are open to persuasion.

persuasion

So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do. - Benjamin Franklin quote.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.
Reason, devoid of the purifying power of faith, can never free itself from distortions and rationalizations. - Martin Luther King Jr. quote.
Reason, devoid of the purifying power of faith, can never free itself from distortions and rationalizations.

faith

Philosophers have done wisely when they have told us to cultivate our reason rather than our feelings, for reason reconciles us to daily things of existence; our feelings teach us to yearn after the far, the difficult, the unseen. - Edward Bulwer-Lytton quote.
Philosophers have done wisely when they have told us to cultivate our reason rather than our feelings, for reason reconciles us to daily things of existence; our feelings teach us to yearn after the far, the difficult, the unseen.

feelings

Reason can wrestle and overthrow terror. - Euripides quote.
Reason can wrestle and overthrow terror.

fear

The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from whom it comes. - Mahatma Gandhi quote.
The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from whom it comes.

critical thinking

Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other. - Martin Luther quote.
Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other.
Being rational is a moral imperative. You should never be stupider than you need to be. - Charlie Munger quote.
Being rational is a moral imperative. You should never be stupider than you need to be.
Reason deceives us; conscience, never. - Jean-Jacques Rousseau quote.
Reason deceives us; conscience, never.

conscience

Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.

human nature

I have one request: may I never use my reason against truth. - Elie Wiesel quote.
I have one request: may I never use my reason against truth.
Elie Wiesel quoting from a Hasidic rabbi’s prayer

truth

Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies. - Mahatma Gandhi quote.
Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.

faith

Reason is a weak antagonist against love.

love cynical

The essence of philosophy is the abandonment of all authority in favor of individual human reason.

philosophy authority

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. - Thomas Jefferson quote.
Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

asking questions God

The sign of an intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason. - Marya Mannes quote.
The sign of an intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason.

emotion intelligence

The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason. - Thomas Paine quote.
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason.

error

Imagination took the reins, and reason, slow-paced, though sure-footed, was unequal to a race with so eccentric and flighty a companion. - Fanny Burney quote.
Imagination took the reins, and reason, slow-paced, though sure-footed, was unequal to a race with so eccentric and flighty a companion.
Fanny Burney Evelina, or a Young Lady’s Entrance Into the World

imagination

To reason with a poor language is like using a pair of scales with inaccurate weights. - Andre Maurois quote.
To reason with a poor language is like using a pair of scales with inaccurate weights.

language

Wit is the lightning of the mind, reason the sunshine, and reflection the moonlight. - Lady Blessington quote.
Wit is the lightning of the mind, reason the sunshine, and reflection the moonlight.

mind

Passion crashes into obstacles; reason peers around them.

passion obstacles

If passion drives, let reason hold the reins. - Benjamin Franklin quote.
If passion drives, let reason hold the reins.

passion

Passion, that thing of beauty, that flowering without roots, has to be born, live and die without reason.

passion

Reason is the historian, but passions are the actors. - Antoine de Rivarol quote.
Reason is the historian, but passions are the actors.

passion

Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven. - Thomas Jefferson quote.
Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven.
You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it. - G. K. Chesterton quote.
You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.

truth

We humans like to think we are creatures of reason. We aren't. The reality is that we make our decisions first and rationalize them later....Your illusion of being a rational person is supported by the fact that sometimes you do act rationally. - Scott Adams quote.
We humans like to think we are creatures of reason. We aren't. The reality is that we make our decisions first and rationalize them later....Your illusion of being a rational person is supported by the fact that sometimes you do act rationally.
Scott Adams Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter

rationalization

My reason nourishes my faith and my faith my reason. - Norman Cousins quote.
My reason nourishes my faith and my faith my reason.

faith

Reason is our soul's left hand, faith her right. - John Donne quote.
Reason is our soul's left hand, faith her right.

faith

I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect. - Oscar Wilde quote.
I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason. - Oscar Wilde quote.
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

man the animal