Human Reason Quotes - Page 3

• Now it seems that everything in the world stems from sources other than God, since the products of nature have their source in nature; deliberate effects can be traced back to human reason or will as their source. There is no need then to assume that God exists.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Religion, Atheism, Needs

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• The opinion formulated by the Church has more value in my eyes than human reasons, whatever they may be.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Eye, Religion, Atheism

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• Abstract reason, formerly the servant of practical human reasons, has everywhere become its master, and denies poetry any excuse for existence.
  Though philosophers like to define poetry as irrational fancy, for us it is practical, humorous, reasonable way of being ourselves. Of never acquiescing in a fraud; of never accepting the secondary-rate in poetry, painting, music, love, friends. Of safeguarding our poetic institutions against the encroachments of mechanized, insensate, inhumane, abstract rationality.

  Robert Graves

  Humorous, Poetry, Fancy

  "The Crane Bag". Book by Robert Graves. "The Case for Xanthippe", 1969.

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• There is no great harm in the theorist who makes up a new theory to fit a new event. But the theorist who starts with a false theory and then sees everything as making it come true is the most dangerous enemy of human reason.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Science, Enemy, Events

  "The Flying Inn". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1914.

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• Civil liberty can be established on no foundation of human reason which will not at the same time demonstrate the right of religious freedom.

  John Quincy Adams

  Religious, Liberty, Foundation

  John Quincy Adams (1968). “Writings of John Quincey Adams”

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• Since historical reconstruction is a rational process, only justified and indeed possible if it involves the human reason, what we call history is the mess we call life reduced to some order. pattern and possibly purpose.

  Geoffrey Elton

  Order, History, Historical

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• Hegel said that `truth` is subjective, thus rejecting the existence of any `truth` above or beyond human reason. All knowledge is human knowledge.

  Jostein Gaarder

  Hegel, Truth Is, Reason

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• Intellect takes us along in the battle of life to a certain limit, but at the crucial moment it fails us. Faith transcends reason. It is when the horizon is the darkest and human reason is beaten down to the ground that faith shines brightest and comes to our rescue.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Shining, Religion, Battle

  Mohandas Karmchand Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, V. Geetha (2004). “Soul Force: Gandhi's Writings on Peace”, p.224, Tara Publishing

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• We're not called to live by human reason. All that matters is obedience to God's Word and his leading in our lives. if God says go,we'll go. If he says stay, we'll stay. When we are in his will, we are in the safest place in the world.

  Brother Yun

  World, Matter, Reason

  Brother Yun, Paul Hattaway (2002). “The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun”, p.272, Monarch Books

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• The whole object of the Prophets and the Sages was to declare that a limit is set to human reason where it must halt.

  Maimonides

  Sage, Limits, Reason

  Moses Maimonides (2016). “Guide for the perplexed”, p.288, Moses Maimonides

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• The idea of God implies the abdication of human reason and justice; it is the most decisive negation of human liberty and necessarily ends in the enslavement of mankind both in theory and practice.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Practice, Ideas, Justice

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• The argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reason can employ, but an argument against all exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Powerful, Organization, Liberty

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Part I: "The Value of Freedom". Chapter 2: "The Creative Power of a Free Civilization", 1960.

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• To prove religious faith by human reason is rationalistic claptrap.

  Jostein Gaarder

  Religious, Reason, Prove

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• And of all illumination which human reason can give, none is comparable to the discovery of what we are, our nature, our obligations, what happiness we are capable of, and what are the means of attaining it.

  Adam Weishaupt

  Inspirational, Happiness, Mean

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• Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Religious, War, Religion

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• Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing.

  Claude Levi-Strauss

  Men, Logic, Language

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• That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted.

  George Boole

  Learning, Expression, Language

  George Boole (1854). “An Investigation of the Laws of Thought: On which are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities”, p.24

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• Between two beings there is always the barrier of words. Man has so many ears and speaks so many languages. Should it nevertheless be possible to understand one another? Is real communication possible if word and language betray us every time? Shall, in the end, only the language of tanks and guns prevail and not human reason and understanding?

  Joost Meerloo

  Time, Real, Communication

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• Poor human reason, when it trusts in itself, substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts

  Saint John Chrysostom

  Saint, Poverty, Reason

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• Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other

  Martin Luther

  Men, Alcohol, Sides

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• Then we shall... be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we would know the mind of God.

  Stephen Hawking

  If There Is A God, Design, Mind

  A Brief History of Time ch. 11 (1988)

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• First the lover must learn charity and keep God's law. Then he shall be blessed a hundredfold, and he shall do great things without great effort, and bear all pain without suffering. And so his life will surpass human reason indeed.

  Hadewijch

  Christian, Pain, Blessed

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• Magic has power to experience and fathom things which are inaccessible to human reason. For magic is a great secret wisdom, just as reason is a great public folly.

  Paracelsus

  Magic, Secret, Reason

  Paracelsus (1951). “Paracelsus: Selected Writings”

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• Among the most joyful people I have known have been some who seem to have had no human reason for joy. The sweet fragrance of Christ has shown through their lives.

  Elisabeth Elliot

  Sweet, People, Joy

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• Human reason is by nature architectonic.

  Immanuel Kant

  Nature, Reason, Humans

  Immanuel Kant (1855). “Critique of Pure Reason”, p.297

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