“Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.”
Source: Tunnel in the Sky (1955), Chapter 2, “The Fifth Way” (p. 42)
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Robert A. Heinlein 557
American science fiction author 1907–1988Related quotes
“Man is not a rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from passion.”
Book 6, chapter 12.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)
19 December 1749
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Context: We must not suppose that, because a man is a rational animal, he will, therefore, always act rationally; or, because he has such or such a predominant passion, that he will act invariably and consequentially in pursuit of it. No, we are complicated machines; and though we have one main spring that gives motion to the whole, we have an infinity of little wheels, which, in their turns, retard, precipitate, and sometime stop that motion.
“Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told.”
Often paraphrased as "It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this."
1950s, Unpopular Essays (1950)
Context: Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.
“Only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily”
X, 28
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X
Context: Only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily what happens; but simply to follow is a necessity imposed on all.
“Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.”
De toutes les définitions de l'homme, la plus mauvaise me paraît celle qui en fait un animal raisonnable.
Le Petit Pierre (1918), ch. XXXIII
Source: The Economic Problem (1925), Chapter I, "The Problem Profounded", p. 1
3, 18, 1
On Abstinence from Killing Animals
“Ecofeminism and the Eating of Animals”, in Ecological Feminist Philosophies, edited by Karen J. Warren (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), p. 124.