Proverbs and quotes about reason.
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All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(unknown author)Universal Declaration of Human Rights - the United Nations
Believe nothing,
No matter where you read it,
Or who has said it,
Not even if I have said it,
Unless it agrees with your own reason
And your own common sense.
Gautama BuddhaNo matter where you read it,
Or who has said it,
Not even if I have said it,
Unless it agrees with your own reason
And your own common sense.
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
VoltaireGive me reason, but don't give me choice
Cause I'll just make the same mistake again.
James BluntCause I'll just make the same mistake again.
Source: Song lyrics: Same mistake
I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.
Jane AustenSource: Persuasion
I think most people are more susceptible to prejudice than to reason.
Roger EbertIn solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward.
Sir Arthur Conan DoyleSource: A Study in Scarlet
In the beginning, there were no reasons; there were only causes. Nothing had a purpose, nothing had so much as a function; there was no teleology in the world at all.
Daniel DennettIt is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.
Jonathan SwiftKnowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis.
American Humanist AssociationSource: Humanism and Its Aspirations
Mathematics is the music of reason.
James Joseph SylvesterNon-intellectual people overestimate the power of reason among intellectuals.
Jill Paton WalshSource: The Late Scholar: Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane Investigate
Opposing reason is, by definition, unreasonable.
Steven PinkerSource: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
People are generally irrational, unreasonable and selfish. They deserve to be loved, anyway.
Mother TeresaThe beauty of reason is that it can always be applied to understand failures of reason.
Steven PinkerSource: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
The only angels we need invoke are those of our better nature: reason, honesty, and love. The only demons we must fear are those that lurk inside every human mind: ignorance, hatred, greed, and faith, which is surely the devil’s masterpiece.
Sam HarrisThe optimist says, "the glass is half full".
The pessimist says, "the glass is half empty".
The rationalist says, "the glass is twice as big as it needs to be".
(unknown author)The pessimist says, "the glass is half empty".
The rationalist says, "the glass is twice as big as it needs to be".
The thinkers of the Enlightenment sought a new understanding of the human condition. The era was a cornucopia of ideas, some of them contradictory, but four themes tie them together: reason, science, humanism, and progress.
Steven PinkerSource: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.
Stephen HawkingThere is no reason to look back
when you have so much to look forward to.
(unknown author)when you have so much to look forward to.
There's the common veneration (not just by the religious) of faith, namely believing something without a good reason.
Steven PinkerSource: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
Those who are governed by reason desire nothing for themselves which they do not also desire for the rest of humankind.
Baruch SpinozaWithout logic, reason is useless. With it, you can win arguments and alienate multitudes.
(unknown author)Source: Plato and a Platypus walk into a bar...