Irrationality Quotes

• The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Philosophical, Criminal Mind, Spirituality

  Friedrich Nietzsche, R. J. Hollingdale (1996). “Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits”, p.182, Cambridge University Press

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• We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is to learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.

  Aldous Huxley

  Art, Way, Reason

  "Island".

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• A rational man never distorts or corrupts his own standards and judgment in order to appeal to the irrationality, stupidity, or dishonesty of others.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Order, Stupidity

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.49, Penguin

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• Even the most analytical thinkers are predictably irrational; the really smart ones acknowledge and address their irrationalities.

  Dan Ariely

  Smart, Addresses, Irrational

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• Irrationality is the square root of all evil.

  Douglas Hofstadter

  Squares, Roots, Evil

  "Irrationality is the Square Root of All Evil". Scientific American, 249 (3), September 1983.

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• I no longer idolize reason. I have come to accept that ninety percent of what we do is irrational and that we spend what little rational thought we have in justifying our irrationality.

  Rita Mae Brown

  Littles, Reason, Accepting

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• The advanced societies of the future will not be governed by reason. They will be driven by irrationality, by competing systems of psychopathology.

  J. G. Ballard

  Reason, Driven, Competing

  "J.G. Ballard Quotes: Does the Future Have a Future?". Book edited by V. Vale and Mike Ryan, 2004.

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• In a free society, one does not have to deal with those who are irrational. One is free to avoid them.

  Ayn Rand

  Freedom, Stupid People, Society

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.53, Penguin

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• I don't think you can rely on Iran. I don't think you can rely on other radicals like the Taliban. They dispatched Al Qaida to bomb New York and Washington. What were they thinking? Were they that stupid? They weren't stupid. There is an irrationality there, and there is madness in this method.

  Benjamin Netanyahu

  New York, Stupid, Thinking

  "Benjamin Netanyahu on Alleged Rift With President Obama, Mideast Peace Process". Interview with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. July 11, 2010.

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• A miracle entails a degree of irrationality-not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.

  Emmanuel Levinas

  Miracle, Degrees, Reason

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• Human beings act in a great variety of irrational ways, but all of them seem to be capable, if given a fair chance, of making a reasonable choice in the light of available evidence. Democratic institutions can be made to work only if all concerned do their best to impart knowledge and to encourage rationality. But today, in the world's most powerful democracy, the politicians and the propagandists prefer to make nonsense of democratic procedures by appealing almost exclusively to the ignorance and irrationality of the electors.

  Aldous Huxley

  Powerful, Ignorance, Knowledge

  Aldous Huxley, Robert S. Baker, James Sexton (2002). “Complete Essays: 1956-1963, and supplement, 1920-1948”, Ivan R. Dee Publisher

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• I stand four-square for reason, and object to what seems to me to be irrationality, whatever the source. If you are on my side in this, I must warn you that the army of the night has the advantage of overwhelming numbers, and, by its very nature, is immune to reason, so that it is entirely unlikely that you and I can win out. We will always remain a tiny and probably hopeless minority, but let us never tire of presenting our view, and of fighting the good fight for the right.

  Isaac Asimov

  Army, Fighting, Night

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• If the world is irrational, we can never know it -- either it or its irrationality.

  Edward Abbey

  World, Irrational, Knows

  Edward Abbey (1996). “The Serpents of Paradise: A Reader”, p.53, Macmillan

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• Difference of opinion has never been sufficiently appreciated. It is the unexpected, the unknowable, the divine irrationality of life that saves us.

  Florida Scott-Maxwell

  Differences, Serious, Opinion

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• The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

  Francis Bacon

  Men, Roots, Missing

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• The experience of the irrationality of the world has been the driving force of all religious revolution.

  Max Weber

  Religious, World, Revolution

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• Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Writing, World, Paint

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• Power doesn't corrupt. It's neutral. Someone always wants to corrupt power. It's the way a shotgun is not a deadly weapon until someone chooses to use it irrationally.

  Steve Ditko

  Gun, Power, Choices

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• Because history is only an aggregate of personal hostilities, personal prejudices, personal blindness and irrationality, there are times when we have to live against it.

  Anais Nin

  History, Prejudice, Blindness

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• Reason is the shepherd trying to corral life's vast flock of wild irrationalities.

  Paul Eldridge

  Trying, Shepherds, Logic

  Maxims for a Modern Man 2194

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• The search for truth is a cooperative, unending endeavor. We can, and should, engage in it to the extent we can and encourage others to do so as well, seeking to free ourselves from constraints imposed by coercive institutions, dogma, irrationality, excessive conformity and lack of initiative and imagination, and numerous other obstacles.

  Noam Chomsky

  Imagination, Obstacles, Conformity

  "On Responsibility, War Guilt and Intellectuals". Interview with Gabriel Matthew Schivone, chomsky.info. August 3, 2007.

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• I have thought sometimes that the sanest people, the people who are just very balanced, very happy, are probably lower achieving than other people. My kind of irrationality happens to be fear or anxiety.

  Jon Ronson

  People, Anxiety, Kind

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• Every man builds his world in his own image; he has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice. If he abdicates his power, he abdicates the status of man, and the grinding chaos of the irrational is what he achieves as his sphere of existence—by his own choice.

  Ayn Rand

  Power, Men, Escaping

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.604, Hamilton Books

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• Seas of blood have been shed for the sake of patriotism. One would expect the harm and irrationality of patriotism to be self-evident to everyone. But the surprising fact is that cultured and learned people not only do not notice the harm and stupidity of patriotism, they resist every unveiling of it with the greatest obstinacy and passion (with no rational grounds), and continue to praise it as beneficent and elevating.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Passion, Self, Blood

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• The whole art of politics consists in directing rationally the irrationalities of men.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Art, Men, Politics

  "Reinhold Niebuhr Is Dead; Protestant Theologian, 78" by Alden Whitman, The New York Times, June 2, 1971.

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