Sallustius Roman philosopher and writer
XX. On Transmigration of Souls, and how Souls are said to migrate into brute beasts.
On the Gods and the Cosmos
“Man is a rationalizing beast, if not a rational one.”
Source: The War Hound and the World's Pain (1981), Chapter 14 (p. 142)
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Michael Moorcock224
English writer, editor, critic 1939Related quotes
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The Wheel of Fortune (1984), Part 1: Robert
“Man is many things, but he is not rational.”
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Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst
Source: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973), p. 483
Context: Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair. If one truly responds to man and his future, ie, concernedly and "responsibly." one can respond only by faith or by despair. Rational faith as well as rational despair are based on the most thorough, critical knowledge of all the factors that are relevant for the survival of man.
“Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.”
Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer
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
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)
Context: There are ages in which the rational man and the intuitive man stand side by side, the one in fear of intuition, the other with scorn for abstraction. The latter is just as irrational as the former is inartistic. They both desire to rule over life: the former, by knowing how to meet his principle needs by means of foresight, prudence, and regularity; the latter, by disregarding these needs and, as an "overjoyed hero," counting as real only that life which has been disguised as illusion and beauty.