Quotes about reason
page 11

“Rights are, then, the fruits of the law, and of the law alone. There are no rights without law—no rights contrary to the law—no rights anterior to the law. Before the existence of laws there may be reasons for wishing that there were laws—and doubtless such reasons cannot be wanting, and those of the strongest kind;—but a reason for wishing that we possessed a right, does not constitute a right. To confound the existence of a reason for wishing that we possessed a right, with the existence of the right itself, is to confound the existence of a want with the means of relieving it. It is the same as if one should say, everybody is subject to hunger, therefore everybody has something to eat.”

Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer

Pannomial Fragments (c. 1831), quoted in The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Vol. III (1838), p. 221

Hunger, Law

“The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

Error

“We know the truth, not only by the reason, but by the heart.”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher

Truth, Heart

“The only reason why God created man is because he was disappointed with the monkey.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Autobiographical Dictation (1906)

God, Disappointment

“Feelings and emotions are the eternal superiority of a reasonable human being over his creation – artificial intelligence.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Intelligence, Feeling

“We can naturally say with reasonable certainty that the greater events we are told are fact... However, the histories, causes, propaganda and acts related to these and other events are exactly what self-serving rulers of religious and political power systems creatively recorded.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Revolution by Number

History, Nature

“Some people can't focus on the present moment for a great reason that they can't explain to anyone else.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People

“I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion has anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds. One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.”

Bertrand Russell book Why I Am Not a Christian

"The Emotional Factor"
1920s, Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)

People, Religion, Thinking, Men

“I was amazed when I learned that in the West so many young people are on drugs. I tried to understand the reason for this. Why? The answer is, “because in the family there is nobody who cares about them.””

Matka Tereza (1910–1997) Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin

When receiving the Nobel peace price in 1979. As quoted from Hitchens, C. (2012). The missionary position: Mother Theresa in theory and practice.
Source: Fathers and mothers are so busy they have no time. Young parents work, and the child lives in the street and goes his own way. We speak of peace. These are the things that threaten peace. I think that today peace is threatened by abortion, too, which is a true war, the direct killing of a child by its own mother. In the Bible we read that God clearly said: “Even though a mother did forget her infant, I will not forget him.”Today, abortion is the worst evil, and the greatest enemy of peace. We who are here today were wanted by our parents. We would not be here if our parents had not wanted us.We want children, and we love them. But what about the other millions? Many are concerned about the children, like those in Africa, who die in great numbers either from hunger or for other reasons. But millions of children die intentionally, by the will of their mothers. Because if a mother can kill her own child, what will prevent us from killing ourselves, or one another? Nothing.

Family, Understanding, People, Learning

“For some reason, I'm the guy people love to hate, which I think is weird. People who know me find that very strange, but for some reason, I am. I don't mind being that guy - I have fun with it.”

Dave Bautista (1969) American actor and professional wrestler

unsourced

Hate, People, Thinking, Love

“The modern state, in its essence and objectives, is necessarily a military state, and a military state necessarily becomes an aggressive state. If it does not conquer others it will itself be conquered, for the simple reason that wherever force exists, it absolutely must be displayed or put into action. From this again it follows that the modern state must without fail be huge and powerful; that is the indispensable condition for its preservation.”

Mikhail Bakunin book Statism and Anarchy

Source: Statism and Anarchy (1873)

“The greatest and noblest conceptions have no image wrought plainly for human vision, which he who wishes to satisfy the mind of the inquirer can apply to some one of his senses and by mere exhibition satisfy the mind. We must therefore endeavor by practice to acquire the power of giving and understanding a rational definition of each one of them; for immaterial things, which are the noblest and greatest, can be exhibited by reason only, and it is for their sake that all we are saying is said. But it is always easier to practice in small matters than in greater ones.”

Plato book Statesman

285e-286b
Statesman

Understanding, Sense

“True friends know how to listen with the heart, evaluate with reason and relate through their experiences. They treasure everything that lights up their eyes and warms their soul.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) I veri amici sanno ascoltare con il cuore, valutare con la ragione e relazionarsi attraverso le proprie esperienze. Fanno tesoro di tutto ciò che illumina i loro occhi e riscalda la loro anima.
Source: prevale.net

Soul, Light, Heart

“So many people are most miserable these days.
The reason they find it so difficult to be happy is that they always view the past to be better than it was, the present dramatically worse than it is, and the future less resolute than it will be.
The idea of happiness is foreign to them.
Is this not something that is innate because babies are born with
"tabula rasa" which refers to the epistemological idea that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. However I don't disagree with the doctrine of Innatism which holds that the mind is born already in possession of certain knowledge.
A smile, for instance is natural and innate!
So it is a combination of the two schools of thought.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Baby, Idea, Nature, Knowledge

“It's a waste of time to try to reason with a doltish fool.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Time, Fools

“They say people in your life are seasons
And anything that happens is for a reason The devil is alive, I feel him breathin'
Claiming money is the key, so keep on dreamin'
And put them lottery tickets just to tease us”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Heard 'Em Say
Lyrics, Late Registration (2005)

Money, People, Season, Life

“Now that you're gone, it hit us
Super hard on Thankgiving and Christmas, this can't be right.
Yo, you heard the track I did man, 'This Can't Be Life'.
Somebody please say grace so I can save face
And have a reason to cover my face.”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Family Business
Lyrics, The College Dropout (2004)

Christmas, Life

“If a man knows what it is right to do, he does not require a formal reason. And a person that has been thus trained, either possesses these first principles already, or can easily acquire them.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

Bk I, Ch II
The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)

Personality, Training

“What keeps you busy the most is either the reason for your progress or stagnation.”

Yusuf Cornelius Otijenu

Business

“Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Sad, Hurtful, Life, Feeling

“One of the main reasons that we lose our enthusiasm in life is because we become ungrateful.. we let what was once a miracle become common to us. We get so accustomed to his goodness it becomes a routine..”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

Life

“The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Variant: The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.

Christmas, Girl

“These things sneak up on him for no reason, these flashes of irrational happiness. It's probably a vitamin deficiency.”

Margaret Atwood book Oryx and Crake

Source: Oryx and Crake

Happiness

“You deserved to get run over. And besides, I barely tapped you. The only reason you broke your leg was because you panicked and tripped over your own feet.”

Janet Evanovich book One for the Money

Source: One for the Money

“There are too many ideas and things and people. Too many directions to go. I was starting to believe the reason it matters to care passionately about something, is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size.”

Charlie Kaufman (1958) American screenwriter

Source: Adaptation.: The Shooting Script

People, World, Idea, Passion

“Reasons get forgotten.”

Alessandro Baricco book Silk

Source: Silk

“If you have ever said, "I didn't get anything out of worship today," you worshiped for the wrong reason. Worship isn't for you. It's for God.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

God

“As I said, I wish I could say it was easy. It wasn't, but it wasn't hard either. But without a strong reason or purpose, anything in life is hard.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Source: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Life, Strong

“The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

World

“Dmitri was at a total loss. It was a common reaction for people when I agreed to do something reasonable.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

People, Loss

“All human beings search for either reasons to be good, or excuses to be bad.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Tell-All

Source: Tell-All

“It's true: lives do drift apart for no obvious reason. We're all busy people, we can't spend our time simply trying to stay in touch. The test of a friendship is if it can weather these inevitable gaps.”

William Boyd book Any Human Heart

Source: Any Human Heart

Friendship, People, Business, Time

“Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism--and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency.”

Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American evolutionary biologist

“I am still on my zigzag way, pursuing the diagonal between reason and heart.”

Ruskin Bond (1934) British Indian writer

Source: Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas

Way, Heart

“But love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Sign of the Four

Source: The Sign of Four

Love

“What is leadership, after all, but the blind choice of one route over another and the confident pretense that the decision was based on reason”

Robert Harris Pompeii

Source: Pompeii

Confidence, Decision

“Reason I know, is only a drug, and, as such, its effects are never permanent. But, like the juice of the poppy, it often gives a temporary relief.”

Hope Mirrlees book Lud-in-the-Mist

Source: Lud-in-the-Mist

“She had reason to doubt him; he was real good at planning but real bad at doing.”

Junot Díaz book Drown

Source: Drown

“So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Variant: So I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them.
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Fransisco, you're some kind of very high nobility, aren't you?" He answered, "Not yet. The reason my family has lasted for such a long time is that none of us has ever been permitted to think he is born a d'Anconia. We are expected to become one.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Family, Thinking, Time

“I had no reason to get all goofy, just because the man was too good-looking for his own good.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

“The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.”

Rohinton Mistry book Family Matters

Source: Family Matters

love, Cute, Romantic, Valentine's Day

“Life, in her experience, had a kind of velvet luster. You looked at yourself from one perspective and all you saw was weirdness. Move your head a little bit, though, and everything looked reasonably normal. She believed she couldn't hurt anybody as long as she was only working.”

Jonathan Franzen book The Corrections

Source: The Corrections (2001)

Life, Hurt

“Trust instinct to the end, even though you can give no reason.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“Then forget Gabriel. Is there a particular reason you keep biting vampires?"

Will touched the dried blood on his wrists, and smiled. "They don't expect it.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Smile, Forgetting

“No culture in human history ever suffered because its people became too reasonable or too desirous of having evidence in defense of their core beliefs.”

Sam Harris Letter to a Christian Nation

Sam Harris in * 2006
September
The Temple Of Reason
Bethany
Saltman
The Sun
0744-9666
http://thesunmagazine.org/issues/369/the_temple_of_reason?page=3
2014-05-04
2000s
Source: Letter to a Christian Nation

People, History, Suffering

“Scientific inquiry shouldn't stop just because a reasonable explanation has apparently been found.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

Source: Death by Black Hole - And Other Cosmic Quandaries

“You are the pinch in my heart. The catch in my breath. The reason my stomach tumbles…”

Rachel Gibson (1961) American writer

Source: Any Man of Mine

Heart

“I been watchin' you, workin day and night, slavin so hard you barely have time to catch your breath. People do that for three reasons. Either they crazy, or stupid, or tryin' to forget.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

People, Stupidity, Time, Night

“Forgiveness is a mystical act, not a reasonable one.”

Caroline Myss (1952) author from the United States

Source: Defy Gravity: Healing Beyond the Bounds of Reason

Forgiveness

“Disagreement is not necessarily a reason to head for Splitsville. In fact, a relationship without disagreement is probably too brittle to last. Some of the best human bonds are forged in the fire of disagreement.”

Jerry Spinelli (1941) American children's writer

Source: Today I Will: A Year of Quotes, Notes, and Promises to Myself

“For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

“The language of psychiatry is a monologue of reason about madness”

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher

Preface to 1961 edition
History of Madness (1961)
Context: The constitution of madness as mental illness, at the end of the eighteenth century, bears witness to a rupture in a dialogue, gives the separation as already enacted, and expels from the memory all those imperfect words, of no fixed syntax, spoken falteringly, in which the exchange between madness and reason was carried out. The language of psychiatry, which is a monologue by reason about madness, could only have come into existence in such a silence.

Madness

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn't chop him into worthless-bastard-themed confetti.
--Isabelle Lightwood”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“I shook so that it was some time before I realized that he was shaking too, and for the same reason. I don't know how long we sat there on the dusty floor, crying in each others arms with the longing of twenty years spilling down our faces.”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

Time, Cry

“The struggle is always worthwhile, if the end be worthwhile and the means honorable; foreknowledge of defeat is not sufficient reason to withdraw from the contest.”

Steven Brust (1955) American fantasy and science fiction author

“It moves at its own measured pace, for it has no reason to hurry. Tomorrow will come in its own good time.”

Sidney Sheldon (1917–2007) American writer

Source: The Sky is Falling

Time

“You try as a parent. You love beyond reason. You fight beyond endurance. You hope beyond despair.
You never think, until the very last moment, that it still might not be enough.”

Lisa Gardner (1956) American author

Source: Live to Tell

Love, Hope, Thinking, Parent

“You must never feel badly about making mistakes… as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

Feeling, Learning

“Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Life, Understanding, Time

“Look, I asked you here for a reason. Much as I hate to admit it, vampire, we have something in common."
"Totally awesome hair?" Simon suggested.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Hate

“It's a good thing I'm a reasonably patient woman. Otherwise, I might have to kill you.”

Lora Leigh (1965) American writer

Source: Wicked Pleasure

“Entertain me, heroes of Olympus. Give me a reason to do more."

Bacchus to Percy and Jason”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

“The best reason for having dreams is that in dreams no reasons are necessary.”

Ashleigh Brilliant (1933) American author and cartoonist

Dreams

“The rules are the rules for a reason. Being a Shadowhunter, a good one, is about more than just training fourteen hours a day and knowing sixty-five ways of killing a man with salad tongs.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Way, Training

“Ah, this is fine," he cried triumphantly, holding up a small medallion on a chain. He dusted it off, and engraved on one side were the words "WHY NOT?" "That's a good reason for almost anything - a bit used perhaps, but still quite serviceable.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

“History is rarely made by reasonable men.”

Terry Goodkind (1948) American novelist

Men, History

“I might as well enquire,” replied she, “why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“Why? Because pride is a strange thing, and because generosity deserves generosity in return. But mostly because it felt like the right thing to do, and that is reason enough.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

“The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.”

Leo Rosten (1908–1997) American writer

Help

“Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into
are awake through years with transferred touch, and go on glowing
for long years.
And for this reason, some old things are lovely
warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Love, Life, Men

“[Koudelka] looked back, "You?! I know you! You trust beyond reason!"
[Cordelia] met his eyes steadily, "Yes, it's how I get results beyond hope, as you may recall.”

Lois McMaster Bujold A Civil Campaign

Source: A Civil Campaign

Hope

“There is no moral difference between a Stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. They both kill innocent people for political reasons.”

Tony Benn (1925–2014) British Labour Party politician

Question Time (22 March 2007).
2000s
Context: I was born about a quarter of a mile from where we are sitting now and I was here in London during the Blitz. And every night I went down into the shelter. 500 people killed, my brother was killed, my friends were killed. And when the Charter of the UN was read to me, I was a pilot coming home in a troop ship: 'We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.' That was the pledge my generation gave to the younger generation and you tore it up. And it's a war crime that's been committed in Iraq, because there is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.

People, Suicide

“What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Religion