Rational Quotes - Page 39

• Theology is a serious quest for the true knowledge of God, undertaken in response to His self-revelation, illumined by Christian tradition, manifesting a rational inner coherence, issuing in ethical conduct, resonating with the contemporary world and concerned for the greater glory of God.

  John Stott

  Christian, Self, World

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• Today's environment is beginning to threaten today's organizations, finding them seriously deficient in their nervous system design... The degree of coordination, perception, rational adaptation, etc., which will appear in the next generation of human organizations will drive our present organizational forms, with their clumsy nervous systems, into extinction.

  Douglas Engelbart

  Organization, Design, Perception

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• To go out of your mind once a day is tremendously important, because by going out of your mind you come to your senses. And if you stay in your mind all of the time, you are over rational, in other words you are like a very rigid bridge which because it has no give; no craziness in it, is going to be blown down by the first hurricane.

  Alan Watts

  Bridges, Giving, Mind

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• When I was a very young author, I knew I needed to build myself a tower outside of Europe. Like when you're a hunter, and build towers to watch the animals move. I knew I would never understand the world without that perspective. I came to Africa for that rational reason, although I love Mozambique now.

  Henning Mankell

  Moving, Animal, Europe

  "All along the watchtower" by Nick Hasted, www.theguardian.com. January 11, 2002.

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• ...(I)ndividual selfhood is expressed in the self's capacity for self-transcendence and not in its rational capacity for conceptual and analytic procedures.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Self, Spirituality, Transcendence

  Reinhold Niebuhr (1996). “The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation : Human Nature”, p.25, Westminster John Knox Press

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• The rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another . . . But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit — in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

  Garrett Hardin

  Believe, Men, Animal

  "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science, 13 Dec. 1968

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• Western civilisation needs a complete overhaul or it will fall apart one day or another. It has realised the most complete perversion of any rational order of things. Reign of matter, of gold, of machine, of number, it no longer possesses breath, or liberty, or light.

  Julius Evola

  Fall, Light, Order

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• The Holy Grail of universal coverage in the United States may remain out of reach unless, through rational collective action overriding some individual self-interest, we can reduce per capita costs.

  Donald Berwick

  Self, Holy Grail, United States

  "The Triple Aim: Care, Health, And Cost" by Donald Berwick, Thomas W. Nolan and John Whittington in "Health Affairs", Volume 27, No. 3 (pp. 759-769), May/June 2008.

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• I feel that one must deliberate then act, must scan every life choice with rational thinking but then base the decision on whether one's heart will be in it.

  Jean Shinoda Bolen

  Heart, Thinking, Choices

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• If the psychic energies of the average mass of people watching a football game or a musical comedy could be diverted into the rational channels of a freedom movement, they would be invincible.

  Wilhelm Reich

  Music, Sports, Football

  "The Mass Psychology of Fascism". Book by Wilhelm Reich, 1933.

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• I'm suggesting that criminalizing chemically fertilized grass in favor of unnaturally-fed corn is not a rational trade off.

  Joel Salatin

  Favors, Corn, Grass

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• Beyond [known peoples of black West Africa] to the south there is no civilization in the proper sense. There are only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings. They live in thickets and caves, and eat herbs and unprepared grain. They frequently eat each other. They cannot be considered human beings.

  Ibn Khaldun

  Animal, Civilization, Dumb

  "Muqaddimah" translated by Franz Rosenthal, Princeton University Press, 1981.

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• I don't have the slightest interest in gold. I like understanding what works and what doesn't in human systems. To me that's not optional; that's a moral obligation. If you're capable of understanding the world, you have a moral obligation to become rational. And I don't see how you become rational hoarding gold. Even if it works, you're a jerk.

  Charlie Munger

  Understanding, Gold, Hoarding

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• More than ambition, more than ability, it is rules that limit contribution; rules are the lowest common denominator of human behavior. They are a substitute for rational thought.

  Hyman Rickover

  Ambition, Limits, Common

  Hyman Rickover's address to US Naval Postgraduate School, March 16, 1954.

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• Rational behavior requires theory. Reactive behavior requires only reflex action.

  W. Edwards Deming

  Quality, Action, Management

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• There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust. But we lean forward nonetheless because, despite all risks and rational argument, we believe that the path we are choosing is right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we do not know exactly where our actions will lead.

  Howard Schultz

  Wise, Believe, Bystanders

  Howard Schultz, Joanne Gordon (2012). “Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul”, p.7, Rodale

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• I think my work has to do with a sense that we are attempting, all the time, to create a logical, rational path through the day. To the left and right there are an amazing set of distractions that we usually can't afford to follow. But the poet is willing to stop anywhere.

  Billy Collins

  Thinking, Path, Distraction

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• The old beliefs, of course, and the rational approach, are everywhere reinforced, and so it does have a great weight. The magical approach has far greater weight, if you use it and allow yourselves to operate in that fashion, for it has the weight of your basic natural orientation.

  Jane Roberts

  Fashion, Doe, Use

  Jane Roberts (2011). “The Magical Approach (A Seth Book): Seth Speaks About the Art of Creative Living”, p.23, Amber-Allen Publishing

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• We are all far less rational in our decision-making than standard economic theory assumes. Our irrational behaviors are neither random nor senseless: they are systematic and predictable. We all make the same types of mistakes over and over, because of the basic wiring of our brains.

  Dan Ariely

  Mistake, Decision, Brain

  "Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions". Book by Dan Ariely, February 19, 2008.

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• I have read that the secret of gallantry is to accept the pleasures of life leisurely, and its inconveniences with a shrug; as well as that, among other requisites, the gallant person will always consider the world with a smile of toleration, and his own doings with a smile of honest amusement, and Heaven with a smile which is not distrustful — being thoroughly persuaded that God is kindlier than the genteel would regard as rational.

  James Branch Cabell

  Heaven, Secret, World

  James Branch Cabell (2005). “Beyond Life”, p.130, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Rational arguments don't usually work on religious people. Otherwise, there wouldn't be religious people.

  Doris Egan

  Religious, People, Religion

  Doris Egan @AtheistQOTD, twitter.com. March 11, 2012.

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• The first and most optimistic response was complete rational expectations econometrics. A rational expectations equilibrium is a likelihood function. Maximize it.

  Thomas J. Sargent

  Optimistic, Expectations, Firsts

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• The great advantage of being human is that we can employ rational thought and resolve to change our circumstances.

  Mariella Frostrup

  Being Human, Advantage, Circumstances

  "Will underachieving and being directionless alienate me from people?" by Mariella Frostrup, www.theguardian.com. November 24, 2012.

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• The modern world needs people with a complex identity who are intellectually autonomous and prepared to cope with uncertainty; who are able to tolerate ambiguity and not be driven by fear into a rigid, single-solution approach to problems, who are rational, foresightful and who look for facts; who can draw inferences and can control their behavior in the light of foreseen consequences, who are altruistic and enjoy doing for others, and who understand social forces and trends.

  Robert J. Havighurst

  Light, People, Identity

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• A person without a shadow should keep out of the sun, that is the only safe and rational plan.

  Adelbert von Chamisso

  Shadow, Safe, Sun

  Adelbert von Chamisso (1845). “The Shadowless Man; Or, The Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl”

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