Irrational Quotes - Page 12

• A rational reaction against irrational excesses and vagaries of skepticism may * * * readily degenerate into the rival folly of credulity.

  William E. Gladstone

  Excess, Rivals, May

  "Homeric Synchronism: An Enquiry Into the Time and Place of Homer". Book by William Ewart Gladstone, 1876.

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• Just as the introduction of the irrational numbers ... is a convenient myth [which] simplifies the laws of arithmetic ... so physical objects are postulated entities which round out and simplify our account of the flux of existence... The conceptional scheme of physical objects is [likewise] a convenient myth, simpler than the literal truth and yet containing that literal truth as a scattered part.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Math, Numbers, Law

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• It is one thing for the human mind to extract from the phenomena of nature the laws which it has itself put into them; it may be a far harder thing to extract laws over which it has no control. It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them.

  Arthur Eddington

  Law, Mind, May

  Arthur Eddington (2012). “The Philosophy of Physical Science: Tarner Lectures (1938)”, p.179, Cambridge University Press

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• To struggle when hope is banished! To live when life's salt is gone! To dwell in a dream that's vanished! To endure, and go calmly on! The brave man is not he who feels no fear, For that were stupid and irrational; But he, whose noble soul its fear subdues, And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.

  Joanna Baillie

  Dream, Stupid, Struggle

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• Advances are made by those with at least a touch of irrational confidence in what they can do.

  Lillian Hellman

  Confidence, Made, Can Do

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• These 3 topics will always generate 100+ comments of irrational/ridiculous people: Taxes, tipping, and spending on weddings.

  Ramit Sethi

  People, Entrepreneur, Topics

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• Irrational lenders come and go - mostly they go!

  John G. Stumpf

  Banking, Comes And Goes, Lenders

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• It is a strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Time, Ill Will, People

  "The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings".

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• It is slightly chilling to realize there are rational, functional people up there employed to spot, nurture, and exploit those down here among us who are irrational and can barely cope. If you want to know how stupid you’re perceived to be by the people up there, count the unsolicited junk mail you receive. If you get a lot, you’re perceived to be alluringly stupid.

  Jon Ronson

  Stupid, People, Junk

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• Any fear associated with giving to God's kingdom is irrational. It's on par with a farmer who, out of fear of losing his seed, refuses to plant his fields.

  Andy Stanley

  Fear, Giving, Kingdoms

  Andy Stanley (2015). “Fields of Gold”, p.9, NavPress

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• Programmers are as emotional and irrational as normal people

  Douglas Crockford

  Emotional, People, Normal

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• By the way, the point between rationality and what we would call the irrational is a very difficult point to establish. There’s no specific line, as you know.

  Leo Ornstein

  Lines, Way, Difficult

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• Congress remains in total denial as our liberties are rapidly fading before our eyes. The process is propelled by unwarranted fear and ignorance as to the true meaning of liberty. It is driven by economic myths, fallacies and irrational good intentions.

  Ron Paul

  Ignorance, Eye, Liberty

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• In the search for character and commitment, we must rid ourselves of our inherited, even cherished biases and prejudices. Character, ability and intelligence are not concentrated in one sex over the other, nor in persons with certain accents or in certain races or in persons holding degrees from some universities over others. When we indulge ourselves in such irrational prejudices, we damage ourselves most of all and ultimately assure ourselves of failure in competition with those more open and less biased.

  J. Irwin Miller

  Sex, Character, Commitment

  "Cummins Mourns the Loss of Visionary Leader". investor.cummins.com. August 16, 2004.

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• Rational thinking is an important aspect of human nature, but we have imagination, we have ambition, we have irrational fear, we are swayed by other people, we get indoctrinated and we get influenced by advertising.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Ambition, Thinking, People

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• Gender, race, ethnicity - these are all morally neutral. But homosexuality is - involves voluntary sexual conduct with serious public health, social, sociological implications. It's not irrational to discriminate on that basis.

  Scott Lively

  Race, Ethnicity, Serious

  "Uganda Punishing Gays: 'Sodomy Is Not A Human Right' Says Evangelical Leader". "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. February 27, 2014.

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• PRONOIA: The irrational belief that people like you

  Jon Winokur

  People, Belief, Like You

  Jon Winokur (2013). “Encyclopedia Neurotica”, p.276, St. Martin's Press

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• On scientific grounds this big bang assumption is much less the palatable of the two. For it is an irrational process that cannot be described in scientific terms. . . . On philosophical grounds too I cannot see any good reason for preferring the big bang idea. Indeed it seems to me in the philosophical sense to be a distinctly unsatisfactory notion, since it puts the basic assumption out of sight where it can never be challenged by a direct appeal to observation.

  Fred Hoyle

  Philosophical, Sight, Ideas

  Fred Hoyle (1960). “The nature of the universe”

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• I can't with any conscience argue for New York with anyone. It's like Calcutta. But I love the city in an emotional, irrational way, like loving your mother or your father even though they're a drunk or a thief. I've loved the city my whole life - to me, it's like a great woman.

  Woody Allen

  Mother, New York, Father

  Woody Allen, Robert E. Kapsis, Kathie Coblentz (2006). “Woody Allen: Interviews”, p.128, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• I believe our concept of romantic love is irrational, impossible to fulfill and the cause of many broken homes. No human being can maintain that rarefied atmosphere of 'true love'.

  Rita Mae Brown

  Love, Believe, Home

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• To the extent to which a man is rational, life is the premise directing his actions. To the extent to which he is irrational, the premise directing his actions is death.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Action, Life Is

  Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.961, Penguin

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• Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power, and to withhold from them information without which power is abused.

  James Madison

  People, Giving, Information

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• Unfortunately, money is more often misused and abused than used intelligently. Most people haven't figured out how to use money wisely to truly enhance their lives. Most, it seems, act rationally with their money only when they can't dream up any more irrational ways to spend it. To be sure, financial insanity has developed its own big following including you and me.

  Ernie J Zelinski

  Inspirational, Dream, People

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• To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable.

  Epictetus

  Unendurable, Rational

  Epictetus (1926). “Discourses”

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• If anyone gets in my way when I'm making a picture, I become irrational. I'm never sure what I am going to do, or sometimes even aware of what I do-only that I want that picture.

  Margaret Bourke-White

  Photography, Want, Way

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