
Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading (2005)
Source: Interlude, “Books, What a Jolly Company They Are” (p. 57)
Variant: No, thank you, I don't mind the rain,' I said. I always lacked common sense when taken by surprise.
Source: Agnes Grey
Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading (2005)
Source: Interlude, “Books, What a Jolly Company They Are” (p. 57)
“Many sophisticated, intelligent people lack wisdom and common sense.”
Essays and reviews, Clive James On Television (1991)
“I love arguing with you, Claire. You always surprise me. And occasionally, you even make sense.”
Source: Ghost Town
“When men lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster.”
Source: Tao Te Ching, Chapter 72, translated by Gia Fu Feng
Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 7.
Sahih Muslim, Book 001, Number 0142
Sunni Hadith
Context: It is narrated on the authority of 'Abdullah b. Umar that the Messenger of Allah observed: O womenfolk, you should give charity and ask much forgiveness for I saw you in bulk amongst the dwellers of Hell. A wise lady among them said: Why is it, Messenger of Allah, that our folk is in bulk in Hell? Upon this the Holy Prophet observed: You curse too much and are ungrateful to your spouses. I have seen none lacking in common sense and failing in religion but (at the same time) robbing the wisdom of the wise, besides you. Upon this the woman remarked: What is wrong with our common sense and with religion? He (the Holy Prophet) observed: Your lack of common sense (can be well judged from the fact) that the evidence of two women is equal to one man, that is a proof of the lack of common sense, and you spend some nights (and days) in which you do not offer prayer and in the month of Ramadan (during the days) you do not observe fast, that is a failing in religion. This hadith has been narrated on the authority of Abu Tahir with this chain of transmitters.
Good Sense without God, or, Freethoughts Opposed to Supernatural Ideas (London: W. Stewart & Co., ca. 1900) ( Project Gutenberg e-text http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/gsens10.txt), preface
Translator unknown. Original publication in French at Amsterdam, 1772, as Le bon sens ("Common Sense"), and often attributed to John Meslier.
"Christianity and Common Sense" http://www.ftarchives.net/foote/flowers/114commonsense.htm, p. 114
Flowers of Freethought (1893)