Quotes about reason
page 64

Natalie Goldberg photo

“Locals have the right to live in peace. Let these young outlaws who abandoned God come to their senses.”

Hanna Rahmé (1960) Roman Catholic bishop

Maronite bishop stopped at gunpoint in a country where anarchy reigns http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Maronite-bishop-stopped-at-gunpoint-in-a-country-where-anarchy-reigns-35027.html (August 12, 2015)

Emma Goldman photo
Eric Hobsbawm photo
Opal Tometi photo
William Thurston photo
Benjamin Creme photo
Menotti Lerro photo

“Men were born to die! Life has only one purpose: to understand the sense of your own misery.”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Donna Giovanna, Act IV, scene iii.

Menotti Lerro photo
Herbert Read photo
Example (musician) photo

“Time might fly
girls may cry
lights may die
but the skies don't lie
It'll all make perfect sense
if you follow me
Come follow me now”

Example (musician) (1982) English rapper and singer

"Skies Don't Lie" (song)
("Skies Don't Lie" on YouTube (with lyrics)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJToHBj8Eb4
Studio albums, Playing in the Shadows (2011)

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo

“My favorite part of my job is never having to doubt that I’m doing something of value. And I don’t mean this in the global sense; there are more practical ways to help people. But I do think that--and this may be selfish--I am working at something that’s making me a better human.”

Kirstin Chen Singaporean writer

As quoted in "Kirstin Chen Ventures Out Of Singapore With Novel Set In 1950s Maoist China" in Forbes (27 April 2018) https://www.forbes.com/sites/priscaang/2018/04/27/kirstin-chen/?sh=235a75302016

James Branch Cabell photo

“Nothing ... nothing in the universe, is of any importance, or is authentic to any serious sense, except the illusions of romance. For man alone of animals plays the ape to his dreams. These axioms — poor, deaf and blinded spendthrift!”

James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) American author

are none the less valuable for being quoted.
The Gander, in Book Seven : What Saraïde Wanted, Ch. XLV : The Gander Also Generalizes
The Silver Stallion (1926)

Frithjof Schuon photo

“To have a sense of the sacred is to be aware that all qualities or values not only proceed from the Infinite but also attract towards It.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2003, The Play of Masks, World Wisdom, 4, 978-0-94153214-3]
Spiritual life, Sense of the sacred

Frithjof Schuon photo

“The sense of the sacred is the capacity to perceive, or feel, the presence of the Celestial in earthly symbols, whether sacramental or natural; and this implies the sense of dignity as well as of devotion.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2016, La conscience de l’Absolu, Hozhoni, 57, 978-2-37241-020-5]
Spiritual life, Sense of the sacred

Frithjof Schuon photo
Shaj Mohan photo
Constance Wu photo

“I don't fear being outspoken. The only thing I fear is losing my sense of integrity or losing sight of the values on which I guide my life. So I don't think it's particularly brave or unusual for me to speak out.”

Constance Wu (1982) American actress

As quoted in "Constance Wu Opens Up About Activism and Speaking Up For What’s Right" in Teen Vogue (27 February 2017) https://www.teenvogue.com/story/constance-wu-activism-speaking-up-whats-right-big-hundred-mirys-list

“It was only a hypothesis, but it made an uncomfortable amount of sense.”

Genevieve Cogman (1972) novelist and game designer

Source: The Masked City (2015), Chapter 12 (p. 156)

Gregory of Nyssa photo
John Stuart Mill photo
David Fleming photo

“Without a sense of history, our expectations are the product of how we live now.”

David Fleming (1940–2010) British activist

Lean Logic, (2016), p. 152, entry on Expectations https://leanlogic.online/expectations/

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar photo

“The poor are like foxes: they need intelligence in order to survive. The rich, however, have power; they don’t need good sense.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: Singer from the Sea (1999), Chapter 2, “The Library” (p. 48)

Penn Badgley photo

“It doesn't matter who you are as an actor; that's really always in the script. It wouldn't make sense a lot of times to drastically change things. It would threaten to change the story arc and all that kind of stuff. I think really what an actor does is an instrument, not a player.”

Penn Badgley (1986) American actor and musician

Source: "Penn Badgley Explores Joe Goldberg's 'Primal' Parenting In You Season 3" in ELLE https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a37886117/penn-badgley-you-season-3-interview/ (18 October 2021)

Ingrid Bergman photo

“Power rests on the kind of knowledge that one holds. What is the sense of knowing things that are useless? They will not prepare us for our unavoidable encounter with the unknown.”

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from The Teachings of Don Juan (Chapter 4)

Kuruvilla Pandikattu photo

“The passing of time brings healing, sets our priorities right and provide us with new sense of meaning and urgency.”

Kuruvilla Pandikattu (1957) Indian philosopher

Source: The Wisest of All Times is Now! p. 8. (2021)

Robert A. Heinlein photo
Jiang Qing photo

“Because of the nature of my work and because I was suffering from a grave ailment, my doctors advised me to take part in cultural activities to improve the balance of my sense of hearing and sense of sight. Thus, I came into contact with some literature and art.”

Jiang Qing (1914–1991) Chinese political figure and wife of Mao Zedong

Source: Speech at the Reception for the Representatives of the Beijing Workers Propaganda Team and the People's Liberation Army Propaganda Team (14 September 1968)

Maureen Corrigan photo

“Books just don’t register with this crowd. They think I lack common sense; I think they lack a part of their souls.”

Maureen Corrigan (1955) American journalist and writer

Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading (2005)
Source: Interlude, “Books, What a Jolly Company They Are” (p. 57)

Imran Khan photo

“If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact on the man unless they are robots. It’s common sense.”

Imran Khan (1952) Prime Minister of Pakistan

Source: June 2021, Outrage after Pakistan PM Imran Khan blames rape crisis on women https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/25/outrage-after-pakistan-pm-imran-khan-blames-crisis-on-women

Thomas Aquinas photo

“Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

q. 2, art. 3, arg. 19
This is known as the Peripatetic axiom.
De veritate (c. 1256–1259)

Lawrence M. Krauss photo
Liu Yandong photo

“In a certain sense, rural education is the foundation of rejuvenating the country and the key to benefiting the people.”

Liu Yandong (1945) Chinese politician

Source: "刘延东:让农村孩子接受更好的义务教育" http://www.gov.cn/guowuyuan/2013-06/18/content_2589584.htm (18 June 2013)

Volodymyr Viytyshyn photo

“One of the missions of the underground priests was to encourage these people and to tell them that yes, we're suffering, but we're doing this for Christ. That's why the Church survived; people were humans, in all the best sense of the word.”

Volodymyr Viytyshyn (1959) Polish archbishop

Source: In becoming a priest, you were agreeing to be a martyr https://osvnews.com/2018/08/15/underground-period-marks-ukrainian-church/ (15 August 2018)

Geling Yan photo

“Of course, the vision of many works, such as the sense of picture and imagery, is actually unconscious by the writer. If the writer is conscious, he will write very artificial things.”

Geling Yan (1958) Chinese writer and screenwriter

Source: "Yan Geling: I Am Also A Person In The Cave" https://www.bannedbook.org/en/bnews/lifebaike/20211010/1635954.html (10 October 2021)

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Henry Miller photo

“He saw the humorous aspect of everything, which is the real test of the tragic sense.”

"He" is Miller's friend George Katsimbalis, the "Colossus" of the book's title.
The Colossus of Maroussi (1941)

Mel Brooks photo
Scott Adams photo
Christopher Reeve photo

“Perhaps it is my job to offend some scientists. I'm not asking them to be reckless or unprofessional, but I do want to reinforce a sense of urgency.”

Christopher Reeve (1952–2004) actor, director, producer, screenwriter

Source: As quoted I Nigel Williams, “Reeve's stem-cell legacy” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982204007973, “Current Biology” , Volume 14, Issue 21, 9 November 2004, Pages R907-R908

Mikheil Saakashvili photo

“Well, killing me makes no sense because Georgia already has a Western-educated political class.”

Mikheil Saakashvili (1967) Georgian-Ukrainian politician, President of Georgia and Governor of Odessa

Interview with the New York Times (2008)
Source: As quoted in "An American Friend" https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/magazine/19WWln-q4-t.html (19 October 2008), The New York Times

Bill Gates photo

“We always have to be serious about public health in a global sense and surveillance for "the next one", because we don't know where it will emerge.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

Source: As quoted in "Coronavirus: Bill Gates describes what we did wrong, and how to do better" by Lisa M. Krieger, The Mercury News (21 October 2020)

Robert Frost photo
Laurence Tribe photo
Jay Samit photo
Alfred Austin photo

“My virgin sense of sound was steeped
In the music of young streams;
And roses through the casement peeped,
And scented all my dreams.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

"Prelude", stanza XI; p. ix., At the Gate of the Convent (1885)

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky photo
Larry Sanger photo

“Banning Fox News as a source is just good sense, says Wikipedia.”

Larry Sanger (1968) American former professor, co-founder of Wikipedia, founder of Citizendium and other projects

Source: ” Wikipedia Is More One-Sided Than Ever”, blog post, 2021 https://larrysanger.org/2021/06/wikipedia-is-more-one-sided-than-ever/

Jack Williamson photo
Anatoly Bibilov photo

“(It is) the Russian world we are fighting for, and in this sense, each of us is Russian.”

Anatoly Bibilov (1970) Russian politician

Source: Anatoly Bibilov (2021) cited in " Tskhinvali Leader in Donbas: “We Fight for Russian World” https://civil.ge/archives/439581" on Civil, 9 September 2021.

John Wesley photo
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton photo
Prevale photo

“The friend of the heart is the one who with his love senses where it is necessary and rushes to support you strongly without you saying anything.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: ​​​​​(it) L'amico del cuore è colui che con il suo amore intuisce dove è necessario ed accorre a sostenerti prepotentemente senza che tu dica niente.

“He who meditates into the mysteries of the Holy Quran is sagacious in true sense.”

Sari al-Saqati (772–867) Iraqi sufi

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam, p. 43

Charles Dickens photo

“A sense of humor—bitter or otherwise—is the hallmark of a survivor.”

Charles E. Gannon (1960) American novelist

Source: Fire with Fire (2013), Chapter 14 (p. 185)

Benedict Cumberbatch photo

“I would say in compound sense of what little I know is it’s definitely darker in tone, and in terms of advice for taking kids of a certain age, it’s going to be prohibitive for certain people of a certain age because it is scary.”

Benedict Cumberbatch (1976) English actor and film producer

"Benedict Cumberbatch: ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is genuinely scary’" in Esquire Middle East https://www.esquireme.com/culture/interviews/benedict-cumberbatch-doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-is-genuinely-scary

“We press the enemy backward with memories, with the power of history, with scenes of sense and order.”

Jack Cady (1932–2004) American writer

Source: Kilroy Was Here (1996), p. 158

Swami Sivananda photo
A. C. Grayling photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo
Dmitry Yazov photo

“My real friend was my first wife. I could share everything with her without exception. That's how it came together that she became both a wife and a friend. A friend in the full sense of the word happens once in a lifetime or does not happen at all.”

Dmitry Yazov (1924–2020) Soviet minister of defence

"Дмитрий Язов рассказал "РГ" о жизни маршала на пенсии" https://rg.ru/2013/12/05/marshal.html (4 December 2013)

Joe Biden photo

“I just can’t imagine how the families are feeling — the victims whose futures were stolen from them, from their families, from their loved ones who now have to struggle to go on and try to make sense of what’s happened.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, April 2021, Remarks by President Biden on the Shooting in Boulder, Colorado

Walt Disney photo

“Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humour is just common sense, dancing. Those who lack humour are without judgement and should be trusted with nothing.”

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

Essays and reviews, Clive James On Television (1991)

David Allen photo

“Nothing is more ingenious, more obstinate, nastier—indeed, in a sense, more clear sighted, than mediocrity harrying every form of superiority that offends it.”

Henri de Lubac (1896–1991) Jesuit theologian and cardinal

Source: Paradoxes of Faith (1987), Ch. X. "Man", p. 136

Hilary Putnam photo

“To require that all of these must be reducible to a single version is to make the mistake of supposing that 'Which are the real objects?' is a question that makes sense independently of our choice of concepts.”

Hilary Putnam (1926–2016) American philosopher

Lecture I: Is There Still Anything to Say about Reality and Truth?
The Many Faces of Realism (1987)

David Attenborough photo
Ayaan Hirsi Ali photo
Kamala Harris photo

“You motivate us. You inspire us.
And you are the voice of so many people who are in this room because of the voice that you express around these issues.
And so I thank you for that and your strength and your sense of purpose.”

Kamala Harris (1964) United States Senator from California

2022, June 2022, Remarks by Vice President Harris Announcing the Launch of the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse

“Age-related sensory changes can be traced to degeneration in some of the cells and cell products that compose the sense organ itself.”

Leonard Hayflick (1928) American anatomist

[How and why we age, 1994, Ballantine Books, 177, https://books.google.com/books?id=E2pHAAAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=loss]

Cherríe Moraga photo

“My deepest sense of myself has not quite "caught up" with my "woman-identified" politics.”

Cherríe Moraga (1952) American writer

This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Fourth Edition (2015)

Kim Stanley Robinson photo
Kim Stanley Robinson photo
Abigail Adams photo

“Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs, which treat us only as the vessels of your sex.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

Cited in: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657.

Joe Biden photo
Francois Rabelais photo
Emily Brontë photo
Anne Lamott photo