Quotes about reason
page 73

John Schnatter photo
Jesmyn Ward photo

“The reason that I like to use classical myths as models is because African American writers and African American stories are usually understood as occurring in some kind of vacuum — because of slavery.”

Jesmyn Ward (1977) American writer

Source: On using mythology in her works in “INTERVIEWS: Powell's Interview: Jesmyn Ward, Author of 'Sing, Unburied, Sing'” https://www.powells.com/post/interviews/powells-interview-jesmyn-ward-author-of-sing-unburied-sing in Powell City of Books (2017 Aug 29)

China Miéville photo

“There wasn’t even any reasoning. Secrecy was just a bureaucrats’ reflex.”

Source: Embassytown (2011), Chapter 22 (p. 276)

Lev Shestov photo

“The horror genre—which I define as perfectly horrible things happen to perfectly nice people for no reason at all.”

Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930–1999) Novelist, editor

Source: Introduction to The Cloud of Evil in Marion Zimmer Bradley (ed.), Sword and Sorceress 7 (1990), p. 27

Marcus Aurelius photo
Rush Limbaugh photo

“I am on the radio for one reason: to attract the largest audience I can and hold it. I am not in a think tank.”

Rush Limbaugh (1951) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, author, and television personality

1990s

D.J. MacHale photo

“The thing is, kids love scary stories. They love dramatic stories. They love that kind of stuff. It’s one of the reasons why I write books now. I’m able to write the kind of stuff I like, whereas in TV I can’t do that anymore.”

D.J. MacHale (1955) American television director and producer

Source: Rejection, Scares, and Ryan Gosling: Looking Back at Nickelodeon’s “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/10/interview-are-you-afraid-of-the-dark-dj-machale (October 30, 2014)

“Let us stop this system of putting people in positions just because of the contacts they have. That is a major reason why we remain a poorly governed and undeveloped country.”

Grace Alele-Williams (1932–2022) mathematician

Source: https://guardian.ng/features/how-to-have-more-female-vice-chancellors-in-nigerian-varsities/Prof Grace Alele on allowing qualified people in position regardless of the gender.

Clifford D. Simak photo
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky photo
Ben Aaronovitch photo

“Low sample size—one of the reasons why magic and science are hard to reconcile.”

Source: Whispers Under Ground (2012), Chapter 10, “Russell Square” (p. 106)

Lindsey Graham photo

“What are you doing? Take back the Senate!
You’ve got guns. Use them. We give you guns for a reason, use them.
Lethal force should have been used.
How come you didn’t protect us? It’s doing your job.”

Lindsey Graham (1955) United States Senator from South Carolina

Source: 6 January 2021, reported 1 November 2021 by Joseph Choi of "The Hill" here https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/579453-graham-told-officers-on-jan-6-to-use-their-guns-on-rioters-report
Context: despite what Graham said, lethal force WAS used, as Ashli Babbitt was shot to death

Catherine Rowett photo

“Philosophy asks for a reason, not just a scientific fact.”

Catherine Rowett (1956) Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (born 1956)

Source: Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 1 : Lost words, forgotten worlds

James Inhofe photo

“I believe very strongly that we ought to support Israel; that it has a right to the land. This is the most important reason: Because God said so.”

James Inhofe (1934) American politician

Source: " Peace in the Middle East http://inhofe.senate.gov/pressreleases/peace.htm", Senate Floor speech regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict ()

Ivan Kozhedub photo

“Aviation is said to be the cradle of cosmonautics, and with good reason.”

Ivan Kozhedub (1920–1991) Soviet aviator, thrice hero of the Soviet Union

"Aviation History: Interview with World War II Soviet Ace Ivan Kozhedub" in History Net https://www.historynet.com/aviation-history-interview-with-world-war-ii-soviet-ace-ivan-kozhedub.htm

Laurence Tribe photo
Laurence Tribe photo

“[W]e should beware of "hearing" silences where nearly all readers, setting aside how they would like a particular controversy to end, identify determinative text... "The heart has its reasons," as Pascal famously said, "that reason does not know."”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Good enough. And those heartfelt reasons deserve a hearing. But when they defy reason, the meaning of living by the rule of law is that reason should prevail.
Soundings and Silences (2016)

Laurence Tribe photo

“There are as many reasons to be silent as there are to speak, and as many ways to hear meaning in the sounds of silence.”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Soundings and Silences (2016)

Mark Warner photo

“There's a reason why you only do tax policy in a major way every few years — it's really complicated.”

Mark Warner (1954) United States Senator from Virginia

Source: " Senate Democrats target billionaires https://www.axios.com/senate-democrats-billionares-tax-biden-7078079f-7235-4ae6-ab7d-d3bd0476517e.html" (October 23, 2021)

Katie Hill (politician) photo

“What makes people stay on your side is that believability, that authenticity. . . . . You don't need to talk about the policy details as much as you should give people a reason to trust you.”

Katie Hill (politician) (1987) former U.S. Representative from California

Source: interview https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/katie-hill-california-democrat-738027/ with Rolling Stone (2018)

Jay Samit photo
Zaman Ali photo
Alastair Reynolds photo
Alastair Reynolds photo
Rod Dreher photo

“Don’t get me wrong: I believe that people who circumcise for religious reasons should have the right to do so.”

Rod Dreher (1967) American journalist

2020s, Gary Shteyngart’s ‘Gentile Region’ (2021)

Gilbert O'Sullivan photo

“You seem to be wanting
everything yesterday.
Always the impossible.
That's what you seem to portray.
Give me one good reason
why even if I stay,
you won't walk away from me
tomorrow. Today.”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"Tomorrow, Today" (song)
Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Tomorrow, Today" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai9Bp-w04vU (song on YouTube)
Song lyrics

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo
Alfred Austin photo

“Let Will but set its appetite on war,
And Reason will promptly invent offence,
And furnish blood with arguments.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: Prince Lucifer (1887), Abdiel in Act III, sc. iii; p. 80.

Ralph Torres photo

“We just don't have the facility to give proper care for all of our patients (in the Northern Mariana Islands), and that's the reason why we have this medical referral program, to send our patients out.”

Ralph Torres (1979) an American Republican politician from Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands

Source: Ralph Torres (2021) cited in: " Torres: At least $10M needed for medical referral program https://www.postguam.com/news/cnmi/torres-at-least-10m-needed-for-medical-referral-program/article_8005ba4e-c681-11eb-bd3d-3f3499b70b2e.html" in The Guam Daily Post, 7 June 2021.

Gilbert O'Sullivan photo
Gilbert O'Sullivan photo
Michael J. Behe photo
John Wesley photo
John Wesley photo
John Wesley photo
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton photo

“A time came when the Catholics, having long relied on force, were compelled to appeal to opinion. That which had been defiantly acknowledged and defended required to be ingeniously explained away. The same motive which had justified the murder now prompted the lie. Men shrank from the conviction that the rulers and restorers of their Church had been murderers and abetters of murder, and that so much infamy had been coupled with so much zeal. They feared to say that the most monstrous of crimes had been solemnly approved at Rome, lest they should devote the Papacy to the execration of mankind. A swarm of facts were invented to meet the difficulty: The victims were insignificant in number; they were slain for no reason connected with religion; the Pope believed in the existence of the plot; the plot was a reality; the medal is fictitious; the massacre was a feint concerted with the Protestants themselves; the Pope rejoiced only when he heard that it was over. These things were repeated so often that they have been sometimes believed; and men have fallen into this way of speaking whose sincerity was unimpeachable, and who were not shaken in their religion by the errors or the vices of Popes. Möhler was pre-eminently such a man. In his lectures on the history of the Church, which were published only last year, he said that the Catholics, as such, took no part in the massacre; that no cardinal, bishop, or priest shared in the councils that prepared it; that Charles informed the Pope that a conspiracy had been discovered; and that Gregory made his thanksgiving only because the King's life was saved. Such things will cease to be written when men perceive that truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

Source: 1860s, The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew (1869)

“We have our gurus, we admire them – and with good reason. But they become in the end a source of laziness because we just accept them and we know the little we know of them without feeling the need either to pursue their work very thoroughly, or the need to question it.”

Ranulph Glanville (1946–2014) British cyberneticist (1946-2014)

Source: Ranulph Glanville, cited in Mick Ashby. " Time for Ethical Systems and Third Order Cyernetics https://vimeo.com/511633171," at ISSS, 6th februari 2021.

Eminem photo
Alfred Austin photo

“Doth logic in the lily hide,
And where's the reason in the rose?”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

The Door of Humility (1906)
Source: "Rome", XLI, line 11; p. 116.

Lewis Morris (poet) photo

“What power was this—chance, will you say? But chance, what else can it mean
Than the hidden Cause of things by human reason unseen?”

Lewis Morris (poet) (1833–1907) Welsh poet in the English language

"Evensong", line 25, in Songs of Two Worlds: Third series (London: Henry S. King & Co., 1875), p. 23.

Isaac Asimov photo

“Earth governments in moments of stress are not famous for being reasonable.”

Source: Short fiction, The Early Asimov Book One (1972), History (p. 297)

Roger Scruton photo
Marcus Tullius Cicero photo

“Let your desires be governed by reason.”
Appetitus rationi pareat.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
Baltasar Gracián photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo

“I sometimes think that my own weakness lies in not realizing the full depths of the weakness and stupidity of men. As a reasonable creature myself I seem to have an unfortunate tendency to expect others unlike myself to be reasonable.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag (p. 267)
Short fiction, The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein (1999)

Wang Wenbin photo

“Freedom of speech cannot be a reason to incite racial or cultural discrimination and tear society apart. We hope Sweden can earnestly respect the religious beliefs of minority groups, including Muslims.”

Wang Wenbin (1971) Chinese diplomat

Wang Wenbin (2022) cited in " Respect religious beliefs of Muslims, China tells Sweden https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220420-respect-religious-beliefs-of-muslims-china-tells-sweden/" on Middle East Monitor, 20 April 2022.

Joe Biden photo

“There’s no reason someone needs a weapon of war with 100 rounds, 100 bullets, that can be fired from that weapon. Nobody needs that, nobody needs that.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

8 April 2021 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/547162-biden-calls-for-ban-on-assault-weapons-and-high-capacity-magazines
2021, April 2021

“The Church carries out its mission through the help provided by the offerings of the faithful. And we don't know how much people will be able to give. Precisely for this reason we must be sober, rigorous. We must manage the finances with the passion and diligence of a good family man”

Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves (1959) Roman Catholic clergyman

Guerrero: Holy See’s bottom line is in view of mission https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-05/guerrero-holy-see-economy-mission-deficit-default-income-expense.html (13 May 2020)

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That's why Jesus says, "Love your enemies." Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they're mistreating you. Here's the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don't do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can't stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they're mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they'll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That's love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There's something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)

“It sounds reasonable to me. Reasonable, but not true. Big difference.”

Source: Behrooz Wolf (aka The Proteus Trilogy), Proteus In The Underworld (1995), Chapter 19 (p. 251)

Vitali Klitschko photo

“The problem we've encountered is the inept policies of the whole ruling class of the country, and we shouldn't be looking to the people for the reason”

Vitali Klitschko (1971) Ukrainian boxer and politician

behind them
2013
Source: [Кличко: Я не вижу себя в правительстве Януковича. Нет смысла подымать этот вопрос, https://gordonua.com/news/maidan/kichko-ya-ne-vizhu-sebya-v-pravitelstve-yanukovicha-7366.html, 2022-06-13, gordonua.com]

Oliver Burkeman photo
Aristotle photo

“Every art, and every system, and in like manner every action and purpose aims, it is thought, at some good; for which reason a common and by no means a bad description of the good is, ‘that at which all things aim.’”

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

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

Prevale photo

“Each of us has his own reason.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Ognuno di noi ha il suo perché.

Jordan Peterson photo
Antonio Dorado Soto photo

“We cannot renounce our faith and not give a reason for it to those who wish to hear us. We need not hide our faith in Jesus Christ out of fear, nor should we keep quiet when there is an opportunity to bear witness to it.”

Antonio Dorado Soto (1931–2015) Spanish bishop

Bishop tells Spanish Catholics not to fear “psychological torture” (15 June 2005), Catholic News Agency https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/4164/bishop-tells-spanish-catholics-not-to-fear-psychological-torture

Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow photo

“No one can possess what we call good judgement, which is about the same thing as an instinct for recognizing Reasonable Probabilities, whose mind is not trained to follow truth. And in many of the most important things of life. Reasonable Probabilities are our only guides.”

Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow (1887–1952) British politician, agriculturalist and colonial administrator (1887-1952)

12 September 1936, Advice to the pupils of the Bishop Cotton School, Simla, also quoted in Speeches and Statements of the Marquess of Linlithgow, p. 19-20

Benito Mussolini photo

“The Socialists, and I am still one, although an exasperated one, never brought forward the question of irredentism, but left it to the Republicans. We are in favour of a national war. But there are also reasons, purely socialist in character, which spur us on towards intervention.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

“Mussolini the ‘Man of the War’” speech delivered at the Mazza, Parma (13 December 1914) p. 15
1920s, Mussolini as Revealed in his Political Speeches (November 1914—August 1923) (1923)

“It is absolutely clear to everyone that the reasons for such a disastrous war as we have endured for seven years now have nothing to do with the demand for democracy or freedom. They have much more to do with a dirty game of world economics.”

Joseph Tobji (1971) archeparch of Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Aleppo

“If it weren‘t for the Church, we‘d be dead by now” https://acninternational.org/werent-church-wed-dead-now/ (6 February 2018)

Dolores Huerta photo

“Now, some of you might wonder how come I have ten children, right? One of the main reasons is because I want to have my own picket line.”

Dolores Huerta (1930) American labor leader

1974 speech, in Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered by African, Asian, Hispanic and Native Americans, 1790-1995 by Deborah Gillan Straub

“A line of reasoning does not lead but follows us to truth.”

Raheel Farooq Pakistani writer

Why I Am a Muslim: And a Christian and a Jew (2020)

Frank Lloyd Wright photo
Kim Sharma photo

“I decided to give up meat and fish for ethical reasons. And a vegetarian diet is very healthy for all ages.”

Kim Sharma (1980) Indian actress

"Kim Sharma: New vegan on the block" https://web.archive.org/web/20140113154535/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-08-12/news-interviews/28205180_1_vegetarian-diet-kim-sharma-bollywood-stars, The Times of India (12 August 2009).

Francois Rabelais photo
Julian of Norwich photo
Howard Dean photo
Teal Swan photo
Zafar Mirzo photo
Prevale photo

“Choose and choose again every day, who considers you his reason of life.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Scegli e scegli ancora ogni giorno, chi ti considera la sua ragione di vita.
Source: prevale.net

Melanie Perkins photo

“The rejection is often not because of the reasons you think they are rejecting you.”

Melanie Perkins (1987) Australian technology entrepreneur

Source: https://twitter.com/arjunmahadevan/status/1677775875369058304

Prevale photo

“The human mind is a world apart. Complex, mysterious and never fully known. For this reason, it will always intrigue the soul, body and another mind.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La mente umana è un mondo a parte. Complesso, misterioso e mai conosciuto completamente. Per questo motivo, intrigherà sempre l'anima, il corpo ed un'altra mente.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“True beauty is the essence of your person: the set of inclinations of temperament, character, personality, nature, instinct, mood, sweetness, reason and soul.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La vera bellezza è l'essenza della tua persona: l'insieme delle inclinazioni di temperamento, carattere, personalità, natura, istinto, umore, dolcezza, ragione ed animo.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“The main reason that kills the most beautiful love stories is pride.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Il motivo principale che uccide le più belle storie d'amore è l'orgoglio.
Source: prevale.net

Teal Swan photo
Teal Swan photo
Teal Swan photo
Prevale photo

“A strong disappointment is always one of the main reasons for the interruption of an important relationship.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Una forte delusione è sempre uno dei principali motivi dell'interruzione di un'importante relazione.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“There is nothing more important in the world than being a person's reason for living.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Non c'è niente di più importante al mondo che essere la ragione di vita di una persona.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“When eyes meet a woman of superlative beauty, reason and competition fade away.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Quando gli occhi incontrano una donna di superlativa bellezza, ragione e competizione sfumano.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“One of the best pleasures in life is being the main reason one of a smile.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Uno dei migliori piaceri della vita è essere il motivo principale di un sorriso.
Source: prevale.net

This quote waiting for review.
José Baroja photo

“A society can grow accustomed to a shortage of teachers; what it can hardly afford is to lose the reasons why it once considered them indispensable.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: La sociedad que olvidó a sus profesores. Por José Baroja. (2026, 13 junio). Le Monde Diplomatique. https://www.lemondediplomatique.cl/la-sociedad-que-olvido-a-sus-profesores-por-jose-baroja.html