Quotes about reason
page 72

African Spir photo
Ron English photo

“I’ll stay awake while reason sleeps.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)

Henry Rollins photo
Michel De Montaigne photo

“It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.”

Book I, Ch. 9. Of Liars
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Tim O'Brien photo
Douglas Murray photo
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston photo

“Sir, a wise Government in its home policy considers the reasonable wants of the people; in its foreign policy, it is prepared to resist the unjust demands and the unreasonable views of foreign powers.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1843/jul/28/state-of-the-nation#column_1462 in the House of Commons (28 July 1843)
1840s

Nicolai Dubinin photo

“There are always differences that can be brought to the fore and provide reasons for disagreement. But it seems to me there's nothing insurmountable now – no sharp conflicts and confrontations, thank God.”

Nicolai Dubinin (1973) Russian Roman Catholic bishop

Russian bishop sees positive signs for Church https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/13469/russian-bishop-sees-positive-signs-for-church (15 October 2020)

David Cay Johnston photo

“I was always determined to find just the right book for that one child who maybe was a reluctant reader. I knew there was a book to turn him on to reading. I just had to find it. I do have a special place in my heart for kids who maybe have trouble reading or who just don't want to for various reasons. It's always my goal to write books that will somehow entice them to want to read.”

Debbie Dadey (1959) American children's writer

Children's author Debbie Dadey visiting downtown library to sign books, brainstorm. https://lancasteronline.com/features/entertainment/children-s-author-debbie-dadey-visiting-downtown-library-to-sign/article_bf6e4607-f0ba-5e73-a88f-64c9cb876bb2.html (July 29, 2013)

Newt Gingrich photo
Prevale photo

“A woman's smile deactivates reason.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Il sorriso di una donna disattiva la ragione.
Source: prevale.net

Theodore Kaczynski photo
Elizabeth Blackwell photo

“If an idea, I reasoned, were really a valuable one, there must be some way of realising it. The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed great attraction for me.”

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910) England-born American physician, abolitionist, women's rights activist

p. 29 https://books.google.com/books?id=GHkIAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA29
Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women (1895)

Trevor Noah photo
Brent Weeks photo
Alain Daniélou photo
Ernest Becker photo
Peter Singer photo

“I have no doubt that the only reason I’m alive today at 92 is because God has work for me to do. I have a message to deliver; God has kept me alive to deliver it.”

René Henry Gracida (1923) American Roman Catholic bishop

Airman, Monk, Priest, Bishop: An interview with Bp. Rene Henry Gracida https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2016/01/11/airman-monk-priest-bishop-an-interview-with-bp-rene-henry-gracida/ (January 11, 2016)

Aristotle photo
Buckminster Fuller photo

“Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist
Frithjof Schuon photo
Frithjof Schuon photo

“It ought to be possible to restore to the word "philosophy" its original meaning: philosophy − the "love of wisdom" − is the science of all the fundamental principles; this science operates with intuition, which "perceives," and not with reason alone, which "concludes."”

Subjectively speaking, the essence of philosophy is certitude; for the moderns, on the contrary, the essence of philosophy is doubt: the philosopher is supposed to reason without any premise (voraussetzungsloses Denken), as if this condition were not itself a preconceived idea; this is the classical contradiction of all relativism. Everything is doubted except for doubt. The solution to the problem of knowledge − if there is a problem − could not possibly be this intellectual suicide that is the promotion of doubt; on the contrary, it lies in having recourse to a source of certitude that transcends the mental mechanism, and this source − the only one there is − is the pure Intellect, or Intelligence as such.
[2005, The Transfiguration of Man, World Wisdom, 3, 978-0-94153219-8]
Miscellaneous, Philosophy

Michael J. Sandel photo
Neal Stephenson photo
Frithjof Schuon photo
Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“I saw no reason to stop my life for other people’s theories.”

Source: World of the Five Gods series, The Hallowed Hunt (2005), Chapter 4 (p. 65)

Prevale photo

“You are the most exciting reason in my life.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

From the Quotes http://www.prevale.net/quotes.html page of the official website of Prevale
Original: (it) ​Sei la ragione più emozionante della mia vita.
Source: prevale.net

Jerry Seinfeld photo

“God has no rhyme or reason to who he gives a sense of humor to.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012 — Present), Season 2 (2013)

Paulo Coelho photo
Isaac Asimov photo

“An observer studying the Solar system dispassionately, and finding himself capable of bringing the four giant planets to his notice, could reasonably say that the Solar system consisted of one star, four planets, and some traces of debris.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

"Worlds In Order" in The Secret of the Universe (1992), p. 63
General sources

Robert Wilkie photo

“We are what our ancestors have been, and to destroy that destroys the very reason that people fight and die and sacrifice to preserve this country.”

Robert Wilkie (1962) 10th United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Exclusive — Robert Wilkie: Democrats Want to Rewrite VA Motto to Remove Language from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2021/05/31/va-robert-wilkie-abraham-lincoln-second-inaugural-veterans-affairs/ (31 May 2021)

Terence McKenna photo
Prevale photo

“The person who constantly catches your attention dominates: instinct, heart, mood and reason.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La persona che cattura costantemente la tua attenzione domina: istinto, cuore, umore e ragione.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“In life, for one reason or another, we are all slaves of power.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Nella vita, per un motivo o per un altro, siamo tutti schiavi del potere.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“Every morning I get up for two reasons: one is the alarm that rings, the other is you.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Ogni mattina mi alzo per due motivi: uno è la sveglia che suona, l'altro sei tu.
Source: prevale.net

Robert Lewandowski photo

“It speaks to our feelings and imaginations, as it were by suggestion; reaching for this very reason depths of our being quite beyond the power of mere words.”

Walter Raymond Spalding (1865–1962) American music pedagogue and author

On instrumental music, page 2 https://books.google.com/books?id=pQARAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA2.
Music: An Art and a Language (1920), Preliminary Considerations (Ch. I)

Luís Gama photo

“A law is a social monument, a page of history, a lesson in ethnography, a reason for state.”

Luís Gama (1830–1882) Brazilian lawyer, poet, abolitionist and journalist

Gazeta da Tarde, [Carta a Ferreira de Menezes], January 07, 1881. Source: Defendeu escravizados: O inestimável legado do jornalista Luiz Gama https://aventurasnahistoria.uol.com.br/noticias/reportagem/defendeu-escravizados-o-inestimavel-legado-do-jornalista-luiz-gama-.phtml.

Robert Charles Wilson photo

“The only reason you can’t see how crazy this is is because we’ve been neck-deep in crazy for years.”

Robert Charles Wilson (1953) author

Source: Burning Paradise (2013), Chapter 22 (p. 222)

“There is no reason right now — no clinical reason to go get vaccinated.”

Peter A. McCullough (1962) American cardiologist and medical professor

July 13, 2021 on the Fox News program The Ingraham Angle (['Ingraham Angle' on Biden's speech, CRT, The Ingraham Angle, Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/ingraham-angle-on-bidens-speech-critical-race-theory, July 14, 2021]; [Holmes, Jack, July 8, 2021, Fox News Is Moving From 'Just Asking Questions' to Full-On Anti-Vax Crapola, Esquire, https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a36967699/fox-news-anti-vax-tucker-carlson-just-asking-questions/]; [Vaccine doubters' strange fixation with Israel, The Washington Post, Aaron, Blake, July 19, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/19/vaccine-skeptics-zero-israel-again-some-reason/]; [Fox News hosts railed against 'vaccine passports' – the company requires one to return to work without a mask, Alex, Woodward, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fox-clear-pass-vaccine-passports-b1887260.html, The Independent, July 20, 2021]; [Vaccines Remain Largely Effective Against Delta Variant, Counter to Claims From Fox News Guest, Jessica, McDonald, July 30, 2021, FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, https://www.factcheck.org/2021/07/vaccines-remain-largely-effective-against-delta-variant-counter-to-claims-from-fox-news-guest/]; [Justin, Baragona, Meghan McCain Claims Nobody at Fox News Is Saying ‘Don’t Get the Vaccine’, The Daily Beast, https://www.thedailybeast.com/meghan-mccain-claims-nobody-at-fox-news-is-saying-dont-get-the-vaccine, July 19, 2021]; [How Vaccine Companies Have Bankrolled Fox News’ Anti-Vaxx Insanity, Justin, Baragona, July 22, 2021, https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-vaccine-companies-have-bankrolled-fox-news-anti-vaxx-insanity, The Daily Beast]; [Transcript: The ReidOut, 7/19/21, https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/transcript-reidout-7-19-21-n1274460, July 19, 2021, The ReidOut, MSNBC])

Phil Collins photo
John Byrom photo
Chloé Zhao photo
Carlo Rovelli photo
Joe Armstrong photo

“The inability to isolate software components from each other is the main reason why many popular programming languages cannot be used for making robust system software.”

Joe Armstrong (1950–2019) British computer scientist

page 32
Making Reliable Distributed Systems in the Presence of Software Errors

Joe Armstrong photo

“I think we seem to have forgotten that things can be small. This way of decomposing systems into small things that I can reason about.”

Joe Armstrong (1950–2019) British computer scientist

The forgotten advantage of concurrent programming

Valentin Varennikov photo

“The reason for the collapse of the USSR was only the betrayal of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who were led by the United States. The American administration has always, all the years, strived to destroy the USSR, and now Russia, and take advantage of our wealth.”

Valentin Varennikov (1923–2009) Soviet general and russian politician

"Горбачев сказал нам: "Действуйте, как хотите" " https://ytro.news/articles/2007/08/20/672987.shtml

Aldous Huxley photo
Emma Goldman photo
Emma Goldman photo
Israel Epstein photo

“My basic ideas have not changed. I see no reason to change them.”

Israel Epstein (1915–2005) Chinese politician

Israel Epstein, Prominent Chinese Communist, Dies at 90 in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/world/asia/israel-epstein-prominent-chinese-communist-dies-at-90.html (2 June 2005)

“The reason why some shows do not last is that their main focus is on making money bu that is not the case with me.What i seek is to add value first in people`s lives with what I do.”

Mai Chisamba (1952)

https://www.chronicle.co.zw/mai-chisamba-show-will-go-on-as-long-as-i-live-says-dr-chisamba/ The Chronicle ( May 25, 2019)

William Thurston photo
Soong Mei-ling photo

“We shall have faith, that, at the writing of peace, America and our other gallant Allies will not be obtunded by the mirage of contingent reasons of expediency.”

Soong Mei-ling (1897–2003) Chiang Kai-shek's wife, First Lady of the Republic of China

Address to the U.S. House of Representatives (February 18, 1943)

Anna Sewell photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Samuel Butler photo
Tom Van Grieken photo

“There is a reason why there is no more Inca culture: there are no more Incas. You need the bearer of a culture. If there are no Flemish, there will be no more Flemish culture.”

Tom Van Grieken (1986) Belgian politician

Source: Tom Van Grieken: The white person must be a dominant factor in our society." https://www.nieuws365.be/news/27302/tom-van-grieken-het-blanke-moet-een-dominante-factor-zijn-in-onze-samenleving.

Glacier Kwong photo

“We have one million reasons to give up. But we only need one to continue the fight; that is, we know that what we’re doing is right.”

Glacier Kwong (1996) Hong Kong human rights activist

What Could Possibly Go Right?: Episode 38 Glacier Kwong https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-05-04/what-could-possibly-go-right-episode-38/ (4 May 2021)

“God doesn’t give up on anyone. He has not given up on you. Neither should we lose heart in our efforts to convince people, by reason and by practical love, that choosing life is always the right option.”

Kevin Doran (1953) Irish bishop

Homily of Bishop Kevin Doran for Day for Life Sunday 2017 – ‘Promotion of a culture which protects life and respects women’ https://www.catholicbishops.ie/2017/10/02/homily-of-bishop-kevin-doran-for-day-for-life-sunday-2017-promotion-of-a-culture-which-protects-life-and-respects-women/ (2 October 2017)

Frithjof Schuon photo
Frithjof Schuon photo
Frithjof Schuon photo
Frithjof Schuon photo

“Reason perceives the general and proceeds by logical operations, whereas Intellect perceives the principial − the metaphysical − and proceeds by intuition.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2006, Gnosis: Divine Wisdom, World Wisdom, 36, 978-1-933316-18-5]
Human being, Intellect

Theobald Wolfe Tone photo

“Be assured I will die as I have lived, and that you will have no reason to blush for me.”

Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–1798) Irish politician

Letter to his wife, Matilda Tone (10 November 1798), quoted in T. W. Moody, R. B. McDowell and C. J. Woods (eds.), The Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, 1763–98, Volume III: France, the Rhine, Lough Swilly and Death of Tone, January 1797 to November 1798 (2007), p. 403

“The reason why there are hardly ever completely knock-down arguments, except between very like minded philosophers, is that philosophers, unlike chemists or geologists, are licensed to question everything, including methodology.”

J. J. C. Smart (1920–2012) Australian philosopher and academic

Ockhamist Comments on Strawson, in Anthony Freeman (ed.), Consciousness and its Place in Nature: Does Physicalism Entail Panpsychism?, Exteter, 2006, pp. 158-159
Other quotes

Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo

“Society lives by faith, develops by reason.”

Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) Swiss philosopher and poet

7 May 1870
Journal Intime (1882), Journal entries

Song Kang-ho photo

“The main reason for choosing a project is not really the renown of the director that's making the project. I feel like it's the fact of an actor to constantly want to do different things.”

Song Kang-ho (1967) South Korean actor

As quoted in "Song Kang Ho and Ko Asung Talk SNOWPIERCER, Working with Director Bong Joon Ho, Reuniting to Play Father and Daughter & Working with Hollywood Stars" in Collider (28 June 2014) https://collider.com/song-kang-ho-ko-asung-snowpiercer-interview/

Gregory of Nyssa photo
Lana Condor photo

“I truly believe the reason why there is a demand for rom-coms is because humans, whether its conscious or subconscious, have a need to feel happy and to see love.”

Lana Condor (1997) Vietnamese-American actress

As quoted in "Lana Condor is just a girl, starring in a Netflix hit, asking you to love the rom-com revival" in Think Progress (18 September 2018) https://archive.thinkprogress.org/lana-condor-to-all-the-boys-netflix-1be6a8d818aa/

John Stuart Mill photo
Thomas Hobbes photo
Miroslav Krleža photo
Fadzayi Mahere photo

“I am a slave to reason. I think about everything - big or small.”

Fadzayi Mahere (1985) Zimbabwean lawyer and politician

https://www.pindula.co.zw/Fadzayi_Mahere.

Napoleon Hill photo

“A joke can only get laughs for one reason because it resonates.”

Yang Li (1992) Chinese stand-up comedian

Source: "She Mocked Men’s Bluster. Then Came the Complaints." in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/world/asia/male-confidence-comedian-china.html (30 December 2020)

Vincent Martella photo

“Ten years is a long time to be a part of anything and to have a group of people in your life for any reason, let alone one that really was a part of my most formative years.”

Vincent Martella (1992) American actor

Source: Batman: Death in the Family's Vincent Martella Talks Reprising Jason Todd Role https://www.cbr.com/batman-death-in-the-family-jason-todd-interview/ (October 9, 2020)

Maureen Corrigan photo
Will Rogers photo

“I am a peace man. I haven't got any use for wars and there is no more humor in 'em than there is reason for 'em.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Daily Telegram (4 December 1931), as quoted in Will Rogers' Daily Telegrams (1979), p. 104; also in Will Rogers Speaks: Over 1,000 Timeless Quotations for Public Speakers (1995) edited by Bryan B. Sterling and ‎Frances N. Sterling, p. 304
Daily telegrams

“The limitation of the story to a single sequence and the essentially ad hoc nature of causal attributions call into question the whole procedure of using stories as evidence, and of thinking that they establish causality or patterns of reasons.”

Robyn Dawes (1936–2010) American psychologist

Source: Everyday Irrationality: How Pseudo-Scientists, Lunatics, and the Rest of Us Systematically Fail to Think Rationally (2001), Chapter 7, “Good Stories” (p. 113)

Thomas Aquinas photo
Liu Yandong photo

“Overcapacity in steel production is a worldwide problem. The main reasons for this are the slow recovery of the global economy and shrinking demand.”

Liu Yandong (1945) Chinese politician

Source: "Chinese Vice Premier: Germany Can Trust Us" in Handelsblatt https://www.handelsblatt.com/english/politics/handelsblatt-interview-chinese-vice-premier-germany-can-trust-us/23542860.html?ticket=ST-3429686-pwkpyaicAuKXkd15MSqn-cas01.example.org (25 November 2016)

Thomas Aquinas photo

“The reason, however, why the philosopher may be likened to the poet is this: both are concerned with the marvellous.”

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

Source: Commentary on the Metaphysics (c. 1270–1272), 1, 3; quoted in Josef Pieper, Leisure, the Basis of Culture (New York, 1952), p. 88

Satoru Iwata photo

“I don't think it's reasonable to make someone pay for a game and then make them prepare a network connection and charge a monthly fee”

Satoru Iwata (1959–2015) Japanese video game programmer and businessman

Source: Reuters interview https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/8683/iwata-discusses-online-plans

Ivica Dačić photo

“There is no doubt that we have a different vision of the past. What’s important is that I see no reasons for any kind of conflicts in the future. We have no interests that could be contradictory in the future.”

Ivica Dačić (1966) Serbian politician

Source: "Ivica Dacic: Forced solutions don’t lead to stability of the region" in The Srpska Times https://thesrpskatimes.com/ivica-dacic-forced-solutions-dont-lead-to-stability-of-the-region/ (18 September 2018)

Bill Maher photo

“I travel in every state now, back on the road, and the Red states are a joy and the Blue states are a pain in the ass. For no reason.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Source: Sen. Chris Coons and Caitlin Flanagan, Natural Immunity, (2021)

Mary Harris Jones photo
Bill Maher photo
Matt Ridley photo