Rationality Quotes - Page 6

• When we talk about values, I think of rationality in solving problems. That's something I value. Fairness, kindness, generosity, tolerance. That's different. When they [Conservative right wing Republicans] talk about values, they're talking about things like going to church, voting for Bush, being loyal to Jesus, praying. These are not values.

  Bill Maher

  Jesus, Kindness, Thinking

  "Real Time with Bill Maher", November 5, 2004.

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• I do indeed disbelieve that we or any other mortal men can attain on a given day to absolutely incorrigible and unimprovable truth about such matters of fact as those with which religions deal. But I reject this dogmatic ideal not out of a perverse delight in intellectual instability. I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.

  William James

  Men, Intellectual, Doubt

  William James (2015). “The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature”, p.116, Xist Publishing

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• The courage to be as oneself within the atmosphere of Enlightenment is the courage to affirm oneself as a bridge from a lower to a higher state of rationality. It is obvious that this kind of courage to be must become conformist the moment its revolutionary attack on that which contradicts reason has ceased, namely in the victorious bourgeoisie.

  Paul Tillich

  Bridges, Atmosphere, Enlightenment

  "The Courage to Be" by Paul Tillich, (p. 116), 1952.

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• The authority of science promotes and encourages the activity of observing, comparing, measuring and ordering the physical characteristics of human bodies. Cartesian epistemology and classical ideals produced forms of rationality, scientificity and objectivity that, though efficacious in the quest for truth and knowledge, prohibited the intelligibility and legitimacy of black equality. In fact, to "think" such an idea was to be deemed irrational, barbaric or mad.

  Cornel West

  Thinking, Objectivity, Ideas

  "Prophesy Deliverance!". Book by Cornel West, 1982.

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• Well, one time some attractive woman sat next to Charlie and asked him what he owed his success to, and, unfortunately, she insisted on a one word answer. He had a speech prepared that would have gone on for several hours. But when forced to boil it down to one word, he said that was "rational". You know, he comes equipped for rationality, and he applies it in business. He doesn't always apply it elsewhere, but he applies it in business and that has made him a huge business success.

  Warren Buffett

  Business Success, Next, Gone

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• A scientist, an artist, a citizen is not like a child who needs papa methodology and mama rationality to give him security and direction, he can take care of himself, for he is the inventor not only of laws, theories, pictures, plays, forms of music, ways of dealing with his fellow man, institutions, but also entire world view, he is the inventor of entire forms of like.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Children, Men, Artist

  "Science in a Free Society". Book by Paul Feyerabend, 1978.

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• Most haystacks do not even have a needle.

  Lorenzo Lamas

  Needles

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• Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Stars, Clever, Knowing

  Friedrich Nietzsche “Delphi Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (Illustrated): Friedrich Nietzsche”, Delphi Classics

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• Human rationality depends critically on sophisticated emotionality. It is only because our emotional brain works so well that our reasoning can work at all.

  Jonathan Haidt

  Emotional, Brain, Sophisticated

  Jonathan Haidt (2006). “The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom”, p.13, Basic Books

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• Mental or spiritual health, which is rationality, makes for progress, and the future demands greater and greater mental or spiritual health, greater and greater rationality. The brain must dominate and direct both the individual and society in the time to come, not the belly and the heart.

  Jack London

  Spiritual, Heart, Brain

  Jack London (2014). “The Kempton-Wase Letters”, p.77, Simon and Schuster

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• Skepticism must go hand in hand with rationality. When theories are shown to be false, the correct thing to do is to move on.

  Brian Cox

  Moving, Hands, Theory

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• God is great"). Conversations about the practical impossibility of God's existence and the science-based irrationality of an afterlife slid seamlessly into xenophobia over Muslim immigration or the practice of veiling. The New Atheists became the new Islamophobes, their invectives against Muslims resembling the rowdy, uneducated ramblings of backwoods racists rather than appraisals based on intellect, rationality and reason. "Islam, more than any other religion human beings have devised, has all the makings of a thoroughgoing cult of death.

  Sam Harris

  Atheist, Xenophobia, Practice

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• Unrestricted laissez faire capitalism allocates resources in a most efficient way to satisfy human wants without regard to the rationality or morality of those desires.

  Jerry Pournelle

  Political, Desire, Laissez Faire Capitalism

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• I am beyond logic and rationality.

  Imelda Marcos

  Logic

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• The metaphoric mind includes rationality, linearity, and logic - for it created them. But like some children, the rational mind often seems embarrassed by the presence of its parents.

  Bob Samples

  Children, Parent, Mind

  Bob Samples (1976). “The metaphoric mind: a celebration of creative consciousness”, Addison Wesley Publishing Company

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• The battle for evolution seems never-ending. And the battle is part of a wider war, a war between rationality and superstition.

  Jerry A. Coyne

  War, Battle, Superstitions

  Jerry A. Coyne (2009). “Why Evolution is True”, p.11, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Traditions are neither good nor bad, they simply are... Rationality is not an arbiter of traditions, it is itself a tradition or an aspect of a tradition.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Tradition, Aspect, Arbiter

  Paul Feyerabend (1993). “Against Method”, p.225, Verso

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• In the Soul is the awaking of Consciousness: Consciousness sets itself up as Reason, awaking at one bound to the sense of its rationality: and this Reason by its activity emancipates itself to objectivity and the consciousness of its intelligent unity.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Intelligent, Objectivity, Soul

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (2015). “Hegel's Philosophy of Mind”, p.275, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

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• In a society where rationality has ruled so long, the church frequently fails to see that in forsaking the weekly pursuit of the transcendent, we have given up the only ground that was uniquely ours in this world. In attempting to make the church something that can attract and add value to secular mind-sets, we have turned our backs on our one true proposition - transcendence.

  James MacDonald

  Long, Mind, Church

  James MacDonald (2012). “Vertical Church: What Every Heart Longs for. What Every Church Can Be.”, p.34, David C Cook

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• Capitalism demands the best of every man - his rationality - and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him.

  Ayn Rand

  Ambition, Men, Liberty

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.21, Penguin

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• To know one's own desires, their meaning and their costs requires the highest human virtue: rationality.

  Ayn Rand

  Desire, Cost, Virtue

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.424, Penguin

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• Logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial effect when taken in too large quantities.

  Lord Dunsany

  Taken, Math, Statistics

  "My Ireland". Book by Lord Dunsany (Chapter XIX: Weeds and Moss), 1937.

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• Anger may bring extra energy, but it eclipses the best part of our brain: its rationality. The energy of anger is almost always unreliable.

  Dalai Lama

  Brain, Energy, May

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• Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Knowledge, Thinking, Knowing

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• We all have within us a deep wisdom, but sometimes we don't know we have it. We live in a culture that doesn't acknowledge or validate human intuition and doesn't encourage us to rely on our intuitive wisdom. Much of the Western world emphasizes rationality and reason, but overlooks or ignores the enormous value of intuition and instinctive wisdom.

  Shakti Gawain

  Intuition, Culture, World

  "Shakti Gawain Is Still ‘Living in the Light’". Interview with BJ Gallagher, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 5, 2012.

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