“Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired…”

—  Jonathan Swift

Letter to a Young Clergyman (January 9, 1720), on proving Christianity to unbelievers

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired…" by Jonathan Swift?
Jonathan Swift photo
Jonathan Swift 141
Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet 1667–1745

Related quotes

Tryon Edwards photo

“He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes, and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.”

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) American theologian
Erwin Schrödinger photo

“If a man never contradicts himself, the reason must be that he virtually never says anything at all.”

Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist

Source: What Is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches

Mario Puzo photo

“Never get angry. Never make a threat. Reason with people.”

Mario Puzo (1920–1999) American Novelist
Bhagat Singh photo

“His reasoning can be mistaken, wrong, misled and sometimes fallacious. But he is liable to correction because reason is the guiding star of his life. But mere faith and blind faith is dangerous: it dulls the brain, and makes a man reactionary.”

Bhagat Singh book Why I am an Atheist

Why I am an atheist? (1930)
Context: Any man who stands for progress has to criticize, disbelieve and challenge every item of the old faith. Item by item he has to reason out every nook and corner of the prevailing faith. If after considerable reasoning one is led to believe in any theory or philosophy, his faith is welcomed. His reasoning can be mistaken, wrong, misled and sometimes fallacious. But he is liable to correction because reason is the guiding star of his life. But mere faith and blind faith is dangerous: it dulls the brain, and makes a man reactionary.

E.E. Cummings photo

“There are certain things in which one is unable to believe for the simple reason that he never ceases to feel them.”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Foreword
is 5 (1926)
Context: There are certain things in which one is unable to believe for the simple reason that he never ceases to feel them. Things of this sort— things which are always inside of us and in fact are us and which consequently will not be pushed off or away where we can begin thinking about them— are no longer things; they, and the us which they are, equals A Verb; an IS.

Theodore Dalrymple photo

“Reason can never be the absolute dictator of man’s mental or moral economy.”

Theodore Dalrymple (1949) English doctor and writer

What the New Atheists Don't See http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_4_oh_to_be.html (Autumn 2007).
City Journal (1998 - 2008)

James Madison photo

“As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Federalist No. 10
1780s, Federalist Papers (1787–1788)

Murray Leinster photo

“There is never a rational reason for a man to rejoice that a certain pretty girl exists and that he has found her. The experience, however, is universal.”

Murray Leinster (1896–1975) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Time Tunnel (1964), Chapter 2 (p. 19).

Thomas Paine photo

“[T]he remedy of force can never supply the remedy of reason.”

Thomas Paine book Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield photo

“Tut, man, decide promptly, but never give any reasons for your decisions. Your decisions may be right, but your reasons are sure to be wrong.”

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705–1793) British judge

When asked by an army officer, appointed governor of a west Indies island and who had no experience in law, how to apply the law. Quoted by John Cordy Jeaffreson in A Book About Lawyers http://books.google.com/books?id=lUpqPJSlBS8C&q="tut+man+decide+promptly+but+never+give+any+reasons+for+your+decisions+your+decisions+may+be+right+but+your+reasons+are+sure+to+be+wrong"&pg=PA85#v=onepage, Volume 1 (1867).

Related topics