Rational Quotes

• The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Wisdom

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• If everything on earth were rational, nothing would happen.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Earth, Happens, Ifs

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• To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of eternal things; to knowledge, the rational knowledge of temporal things.

  Saint Augustine

  Wisdom, Knowledge, Intellectual

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• It is only myth that attempts to say how the universe came to be, either four thousand or twenty billion years ago.

  Hannes Alfven

  Years, Infinite Time, Twenties

  "The World & I", Volume 3, Issues 5-6, May 1988.

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• Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

  Oscar Wilde

  Humorous, Animal, Men

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.819, GENERAL PRESS

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• In short, I didn't become a Christian because God promised I would have an even happier life than I had as an atheist. He never promised any such thing. Indeed, following him would inevitably bring divine demotions in the eyes of the world. Rather, I became a Christian because the evidence was so compelling that Jesus really is the one-and-only Son of God who proved his divinity by rising from the dead. That meant following him was the most rational and logical step I could possibly take.

  Lee Strobel

  Christian, Atheist, Jesus

  80 Copy quote

• You have to have a lot of passion for what you do... because if you don't, any rational person would give up.

  Steve Jobs

  Giving Up, Passion, Persons

  27 Copy quote

• It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophical, Men, Animal

  "Unpopular Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell, 1950.

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• If he failed the first time he took his driver's licence test, it was mainly because he started an argument with the examiner in an ill-timed effort to prove that nothing could be more humiliating to a rational creature than being required to encourage the development of a base conditional reflex by stopping at a red light when there was not an earthly soul around, heeled or wheeled. He was more circumspect the next time, and passed.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Light, Effort, Soul

  Vladimir Nabokov (2012). “Pnin”, p.85, Penguin UK

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• There's no evidence whatsoever that men are more rational than women. Both sexes seem to be equally irrational.

  Albert Ellis

  Sex, Men, Irrational

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• When the waters of a lake are absolutely still, the lake reflects the trees, the sky, and everything around it perfectly. At the slightest breeze, with the smallest ripple in the waters, the lake reflects nothing but itself. To see another with clarity and objectivity, one first must master stillness. The slightest breeze of judgment or interpretation from the rational mind will create a ripple that shatters Awareness and returns us to ordinary perception.

  Alberto Villoldo

  Lakes, Objectivity, Sky

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• People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.

  William Butler Yeats

  Wisdom, Philosophy, People

  "Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing". Book by Larry Chang, p. 417, 2006.

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• The intuitive mind is a sacred gift.

  Albert Einstein

  Psychics, Gifts Of The Spirit, Faithful Servants

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• I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Wise, Spiritual

  90 Copy quote

• Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.

  R. D. Laing

  Depression, Crazy, Insane World

  98 Copy quote

• The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.

  Richard Dawkins

  Simple, Blind Belief, Curiosity

  Richard Dawkins (2016). “The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition”, p.219, Oxford University Press

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• I think 'vegan' is a beautiful word. It is more than just a description for our diet. I see it as a visible template for an ethical, healthy, responsible, and rational life. Because it describes our character, it says we do not take the life of another living being to satisfy our wants.

  Philip Wollen

  Inspirational, Life, Beautiful

  87 Copy quote

• What is rational is actual and what is actual is rational

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Philosophy, Philosophical

  Philosophy of Right (1821)

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• The most common cause of low prices is pessimism - some times pervasive, some times specific to a company or industry. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces. It's optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer.

  Warren Buffett

  Optimism, Enemy, Saving

  Chairman's Letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., www.berkshirehathaway.com. 1990.

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• History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Strong, Atheist, People

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.224, Penguin

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• With men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works.

  Jane Austen

  Work, Women, Please

  'Emma' (1816) ch. 13 (Mr John Knightley, of Mr Elton)

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• The being we call god is merely a pawn working for a powerful and rational force in some far-off galaxy. This force is trying to weed out people who are irrational by seeing who would be stupid enough to believe in his god illusion so easily. Those that believe in this illusion, he will send to eternal damnation and he will deliver the rational beings, those who stoically refused to believe in a god, to heaven.

  Nick Yee

  God, Weed, Atheist

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• A god or revelation capable of proof or rational verification by an autonomous man would be worthless.

  Greg L. Bahnsen

  Men, Would Be, Revelations

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• A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Powerful, Thoughtful, Love Is

  Saint Thomas Aquinas (1951). “Philosophical Texts”, London : Oxford University Press

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• No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.

  Karl Popper

  Attitude, Men, Doe

  Karl Popper (2012). “The Open Society and its Enemies”, p.503, Routledge

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