Virtues

"It must have required enormous effort for man to overcome his natural tendency to live like the animals in a continual present. Moreover, the development of rational thought actually seems to have impeded man's appreciation for the significance of time. ... Belief that the ultimate reality is timeless is deeply rooted in human thinking, and the origin of rational investigation of the world was the search for permanent factors that lie behind the ever-changing pattern of events."

"Reason progressive, Instinct is complete; Swift Instinct leaps; slow reason feebly climbs. Brutes soon their zenith reach. * * * In ages they no more Could know, do, covet or enjoy."

"When we affirm that philosophy begins with wonder, we are affirming in effect that sentiment is prior to reason."

"Reason is the glory of human nature, and one of the chief eminences whereby we are raised above our fellow-creatures, the brutes, in this lower world."

"Reason [no more can] ever influence the Will, and operate as a motive,… than the eyes, which show a man his road, can enable him to move from place to place; or than a ship provided with a compass, can sail without a wind."

"And what is reason? Be she thus defined: Reason is upright stature in the soul."

"Most people in reasoning, dear Phaedrus, use notions that not only are "ready-made," but have actually been made by nobody. No one is responsible for them, and so they serve every one badly."

"Reason, sometimes, seems to me to be the faculty our soul possesses of understanding nothing about our body!"

"Reason deceives us more often than does nature."

"When even the brightest mind in our world has been trained up from childhood in a superstition of any kind, it will never be possible for that mind, in its maturity, to examine sincerely, dispassionately, and conscientiously any evidence or any circumstance which shall seem to cast a doubt upon the validity of that superstition. I doubt if I could do it myself."

"A man demonstrates his rationality, not by a commitment to fixed ideas, stereotyped procedures, or immutable concepts, but by the manner in which, and the occasions on which, he changes those ideas, procedures, and concepts."

"To ingenious attempts at explaining by the light of reason things which want the light of history to show their meaning, much of the learned nonsense of the world has indeed been due."

"Reason is the test of ridicule, and not ridicule the test of truth."

"That which exercises reason is more excellent than that which does not exercise reason; there is nothing more excellent than the universe, therefore the universe exercises reason."

"According to Blanchette and Campbell (2012), ―deductive reasoning in particular has often been seen as a hallmark of human intelligence and of the potential for logical thinking (159). Deductive reasoning consists of the method in which inference is constructed logically through valid conclusions from a set of premises (Wassertheil-Smoller & Smoller, 2015). The process of deductive reasoning consists of drawing a conclusion that is based on multiple arguments that are commonly presumed to be truthful or legitimate. Through deductive reasoning, individuals assume that the set of premises are truthful, and consequently, the conclusions that arise from these valid premises must in turn, produce legitimate truthful conclusions (Walton, 1990). According to Heit and Rotello (2010), deductive reasoning is ―more heavily influenced by slower analytic processes that encompass more deliberative, and typically more accurate, reasoning (805). Individuals who use deductive reasoning adopt rules,properties, and facts to reach a conclusion. Deductive reasoning starts out with a general premise, or hypothesis, and explores the possibilities to draw a particular, logical conclusion."

"What a return do we make for those blessings we have received! and how disrespectfully do we treat the gospel of Christ to which we owe that clear light both of reason and of nature which we now enjoy, when we endeavor to set up reason and nature in opposition to it! Ought the withered hand, which Christ has restored and made whole, to be lifted up against Him?"

"As with the research on deductive reasoning, research on inductive reasoning shows that affect impacts an individual‘s ability to inductively reason (Evans et al., 1993). For example, research shows that positive moods have been shown to promote imagination, ingenuity, creative and integrative thinking (Isen et al., 1985; Isen et al., 1987; Salovey et al., 1993), increase working memory load (Seibert & Ellis, 1991), enhance the ability to interpret information and increase cognitive flexibility (Isen & Daubman, 1984; Isen, 1999), and increase performance on a number of cognitive tasks (Ashby & Isen, 1999; Isen, 1999). Negative moods have been shown to decrease accuracy of judgment, deteriorate cognitive processing, and diminish decision making (Palfai & Salovey, 1993; Channon & Baker, 1994; Oaksford, Morris, Graigner, &Williams, 1996; Goel & Dolan, 2003; Blanchette & Richards, 2004; Blanchette, 2006). Again, as with deductive reasoning, conflicting results have also been found."

"I have no other but a woman's reason I think him so because I think him so."

"His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them, they are not worth the search."

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

"Though reason is not to be relied upon as a guide universally sufficient to direct us what to do, yet it is generally to be relied upon and obeyed when it tells us what we are not to do."

"Good reasons must, of force, give place to better."

"Give you a reason on compulsion! if reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I."

"But since the affairs of men rest still incertain, Let's reason with the worst that may befall."

"Nature must have provided some other principle, of more ready, and more general use and application; nor can an operation of such immense consequence in life, as that of inferring effects from causes, be trusted to the uncertain process of reasoning and argumentation."

"Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unus'd."

"Strong reasons make strong actions."

"Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired."

"Domina omnium et regina ratio."

"Then old age and experience, hand in hand, Lead him to death, make him to understand, After a search so painful and so long, That all his life he has been in the wrong. Huddled in dirt the reasoning engine lies, Who was so proud, so witty, and so wise."

"Were I (who to my cost already am One of those strange, prodigious creatures, man) A spirit free to choose, for my own share, What case of flesh and blood I pleased to wear, I'd be a dog, a monkey, or a bear, Or anything but that vain animal, Who is so proud of being rational. The senses are too gross; and he'll contrive A sixth to contradict the other five; And before certain instinct will prefer Reason, which fifty times for one does err; Reason, an ignis fatuus of the mind, Which, leaving light of nature, sense, behind, Pathless and dangerous wandering ways it takes, Through error's fenny bogs and thorny brakes; Whilst the misguided follower climbs with pain Mountains of whimseys, heaped in his own brain."

"Our sphere of action is life's happiness, And he that thinks beyond thinks like an ass. Thus, whilst against false reasoning I inveigh, I own right reason, which I would obey: That reason which distinguishes by sense And gives us rules of good and ill from thence, That bounds desires, with a reforming will To keep 'em more in vigour, not to kill. Your reason hinders, mine helps to enjoy, Renewing appetites yours would destroy."

"Surely the romantic and now permanent revolution against the ancient regime of reason is against a regime largely invented by the revolutionaries themselves."

"Reason cannot save us, nothing can; but reason can mitigate the cruelty of living."

"La raison est historienne, mais les passions sont actrices."

"There is no point on which a greater amount of decision is to be found in Courts of law and equity than as to what is reasonable; for instance, reasonable time, reasonable notice, and the like. It is impossible a priori to state what is reasonable in such cases. You must have the particular facts of each case established before you can ascertain what is meant by reasonable time, notice, and the like."

"Debout, les damnés de la terre Debout, les forçats de la faim La raison tonne en son cratère C'est l'éruption de la fin"

"Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise; His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies."

"Reason can discover Things only near; sees nothing that's above her."

"Say first, of God above or man below, What can we reason but from what we know?"

"All reasoning ends in an appeal to self-evidence."

"Reason, however able, cool at best, Cares not for service, or but serves when prest, Stays till we call, and then not often near."

"As soon as an object is regarded as a dynamic entity, then analysis and definition become both difficult and unsatisfactory. Thinking is under such circumstances well-nigh impossible for most people. To think at all logically, no matter how concretistic the thought may be, there must be some static point. Where, now are we to look for this point? The man of action answers, in its effect. Then an object becomes completely separated... from all other objective elements as well as from the perceiving self. ...Reality, in other words, is pragmatic. ...Like all other philosophers, he [the thinker, as opposed to the man of action] is... aware of the movement and the shifting form of things. He is as much impressed by this as the man of action. But the world must first be static and objects must first take on a permanent or, at least, a stable form before one can deal with them systematically. ...The attempts of these primitive thinkers are embodied in numerous creation myths... the task is always the same—an original, moving, shapeless or undifferentiated world must be brought to rest and given stable form. ...There exist, however, many things that manifestly do not have permanence of form and do look different at different times. Philosophers have always given the same answer to this problem and predicated a unity behind these changing aspects and forms."

"Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents."

"A man always has two reasons for what he does—a good one, and the real one."

"La parfaite raison fuit toute extremité, Et veut que l'on soit sage avec sobriètè."

"It's whispered that soon if we all call a tune, then the Piper will lead us to reason. And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo with laughter."

"Indu'd With sanctity of reason."

"Subdue By force, who reason for their law refuse, Right reason for their law."

"Mais la raison n'est pas ce qui règle l'amour."