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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• Throw in the towel right off the bat. Women argue in ways that aren't rational to men.

  Nick Lachey

  Men, Great Love, Bats

  "He Said, She Said: Celebs on Love". www.elle.com. February 13, 2012.

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• A religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt about the significance of those superpersonal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation

  Albert Einstein

  Religious, Goal, Perception

  Albert Einstein (2011). “Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words”, p.22, Open Road Media

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• That feelings of love and hate make rational judgments impossible in public affairs, as in private affairs, we can clearly enough see in others, though not so clearly in ourselves.

  Herbert Spencer

  Hate, Feelings, Impossible

  Herbert Spencer (1874). “The Study of Sociology”, p.153, London, D. Appleton

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• Our reverence for the nobility of manhood will not be lessened by the knowledge that man is in substance and in structure, one with the brutes; for he alone possesses the marvellous endowment of intelligible and rational speech whereby he has slowly accumulated and organized the experience which is almost wholly lost with the cessation of individual life in other animals; so that he now stands raised above it as on a mountain-top, far above the level of his humble fellows, and transfigured from his grosser nature by reflecting, here and there, a ray from the infinite source of truth.

  Thomas Huxley

  Humble, Animal, Men

  1880 Man's Place in Nature.

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• Intellectual men who quickly wolf down whatever nourishment is necessary for their bodies with a kind of disdain, may be very rational and have a noble intelligence, but they are not men of taste.

  Charles-Augustin de Coulomb

  Men, Intellectual, Intelligence

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• The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, and to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law.

  Ayn Rand

  Army, Government, Law

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.812, Hamilton Books

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• The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve 'the common good.' It is true that capitalism does -- if that catch-phrase has any meaning -- but this is merely a secondary consequence. The moral justification for capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man's rational nature, that it protects man's survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is: justice

  Ayn Rand

  Lying, Men, Justice

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.78, Penguin

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• A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort, or enslaves him, or attempts to limit the freedom of his mind, or compels him to act against his own rational judgment-a society that sets up a conflict between its edicts and the requirements of man’s nature—is not, strictly speaking, a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang-rule.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Effort, Mind

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden (1965). “The virtue of selfishness: a new concept of egoism”

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• Man has been called a rational being, but rationality is a matter of choice... Man has to be a man-by choice; he has to hold his life as a value-by choice; he has to learn to sustain it-by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtues by choice. A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Practice, Choices

  Ayn Rand (1984). “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, p.75, Penguin

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• If I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man's only moral commandment is: Thou shalt think.
  But a 'moral commandment' is a contradiction in terms. The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed.
  The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Thinking, Atheism

  Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.961, Penguin

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• Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy . . . Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals,
  seeks nothing but rational values, and finds his joy in nothing but rational actions.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Goal, Joy

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.107, Penguin

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• A penny here, and a dollar there, placed at interest, goes on accumulating, and in this way the desired result is attained. It requires some training, perhaps, to accomplish this economy, but when once used to it, you will find there is more satisfaction in rational saving than in irrational spending.

  P. T. Barnum

  Training, Dollars, Goes On

  P. T. Barnum (1999). “Art of Money Getting”, p.10, Applewood Books

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• We owe to memory not only the increase of our knowledge, and our progress in rational inquiries, but many other intellectual pleasures

  Samuel Johnson

  Memories, Intellectual, Progress

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.220

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• Fundamentalists are less concerned to be systematic and rational than to be humble and faithful, accepting God's commandments because they come from God, not because they proceed from common sense or sophisticated reason.

  Israel Shenker

  Humble, Humility, Accepting God

  Israel Shenker (1985). “Coat of Many Colors: Pages from Jewish Life”, Doubleday Books

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

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Earth, Happens, Ifs

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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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• 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

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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

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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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• 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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