Rationale Quotes - Page 3

• It is quite true that many scientists, many physicists, maintain that the physical constants, the half dozen or so numbers that physicists have to simply assume in order to derive the rest of their understanding ... have to be assumed. You can't provide a rationale for why those numbers are there. Physicists have calculated that if any of these numbers was a little bit different, the universe as we know it wouldn't exist.

  Richard Dawkins

  Numbers, Order, Understanding

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• I think, unfortunately, we live in a world where people attack other people and I think a legitimate rationale for war is the saving of human life, the saving of lives of people who cannot defend themselves.

  Sebastian Junger

  War, Thinking, People

  "Journalist Sebastian Junger". "Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. June 10, 2011.

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• If charter schools are not more successful on average than the public schools they replace, what is accomplished by demolishing public education? What is the rationale for authorizing for-profit charters or charter management organizations with high-paid executives, since their profits and high salaries are paid by taxpayers' dollars?

  Diane Ravitch

  School, Successful, Average

  Diane Ravitch (2013). “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools”, p.219, Vintage

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• People had an illogical, self-serving rationale when it came to interpreting the behavior of others.

  Marisha Pessl

  Self, People, Behavior

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• I don't know," I said. "Maybe you're right, and all that stuff I think I missed is overrated. Why should I even bother? What's the point really?" He thought for a moment. "Who says there has to be a point?" he asked. "Or a reason. Maybe it's just something you have to do." He moved down to start bagging while I just stood there, letting this sink in. Just something you have to do. No excuse or rationale necessary. I kind of like that.

  Sarah Dessen

  Thinking, Stuff, Kind

  Sarah Dessen (2009). “Along for the Ride”, p.116, Penguin

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• The physical powers of the body cannot be separated from the rationale of the mind and the emotions of the heart. They are one and the same, a compilation of a singular being. It is in the harmony of these three-body, mind, and heart- that we find spirit. ... Spirit. In every language in all the Realms, surface and Underdark, in every time and every place, the word has a ring of strength and determination. It is the hero's strength, the mother's resilience, and the poor man's armor. It cannot be broken, and it cannot be taken away.

  R. A. Salvatore

  Mother, Determination, Taken

  R.A. Salvatore (2009). “Exile: The Legend of Drizzt”, p.224, Wizards of the Coast

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• Surely, the best and most effective measure is to get the economy moving and shorten the period of recession or slowdown. That's the rationale for Gordon Brown's "fiscal stimulus" and it sounds like a good one to me.

  Lucy Powell

  Moving, Sound, Economy

  "Fiscal policy announcements show Labour and the Tories are diverging at last" by Lucy Powell, www.theguardian.com. November 21, 2008.

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• The line between faith and fanaticism is a constantly shifting one,” Dr. Poblocki said. “When does belief become justification? When does right become rationale and crusade become crime?

  Libba Bray

  Doe, Drs, Lines

  Libba Bray (2012). “The Diviners: Number 1 in series”, p.126, Hachette UK

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• What a blessing 'terrorism' is for the state! It's the ideal distraction from the day-to-day reality of the state's chief activity: wringing from its subjects the wealth they produce. Last September (2001) a handful of fanatics, armed only with box-cutters, provided a new rationale for the trillion -dollar swindle. A bonanza! I don't know what these 'terrorists' thought they were achieving: Making the infidel respect Allah? If so, they were wrong. You might as well try to make the U.S. government respect the U.S. Constitution.

  Joseph Sobran

  Blessing, Reality, Government

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• The urge to explore has propelled evolution since the first water creatures reconnoitered the land. Like all living systems, cultures cannot remain static; they evolve or decline. They explore or expire. . . . Beyond all rationales, space flight is a spiritual quest in the broadest sense, one promising a revitalization of humanity and a rebirth of hope no less profound than the great opening out of mind and spirit at the dawn of our modern age.

  Buzz Aldrin

  Spiritual, Land, Space Flight

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• By establishing a social policy that keeps physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia illegal but recognizes exceptions, we would adopt the correct moral view: the onus of proving that everything had been tried and that the motivation and rationale were convincing would rest on those who wanted to end a life.

  Ezekiel Emanuel

  Suicide, Motivation, Views

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• Most decisions are seat-of-the-pants judgments. You can create a rationale for anything. In the end, most decisions are based on intuition and faith.

  Nathan Myhrvold

  Decision, Intuition, Pants

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• It seems to me that it had no other rationale than to show that we are not simply the country of entertainers, but also that of engineers and builders called from across the world to build bridges, viaducts, stations and major monuments of modern industry, the Eiffel Tower deserves to be treated with consideration.

  Gustave Eiffel

  Country, Science, Bridges

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• Unless God and His revealed Word is the overarching influencer and rationale over how our electoral decisions are made as believers, then we cannot expect God to be the overarching influencer in our nation.

  Tony Evans

  Christian, Decision, Vote

  Tony Evans (2014). “One Nation Under God: His Rule Over Your Country”, p.96, Moody Publishers

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• Authoritarianism and secrecy breed incompetence; the two feed on each other. It's a vicious cycle. Governments with authoritarian tendencies point to what is in fact their own incompetence as the rationale for giving them yet more power.

  Josh Marshall

  Government, Two, Giving

  "I Was Finally Able". Talking Points Memo, talkingpointsmemo.com. January 17, 2006.

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• Terrorism has replaced Communism as the rationale for the militarization of the country [America], for military adventures abroad, and for the suppression of civil liberties at home. It serves the same purpose, serving to create hysteria.

  Howard Zinn

  Country, Military, Home

  Howard Zinn (2011). “Terrorism and War”, p.38, Seven Stories Press

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• Whatever the rationale, the suppression of unorthodox cancer therapies and the sustained persecution of their proponents by government and colleagues runs counter to freedom of thought, much less freedom of choice.

  Marilyn Ferguson

  Running, Cancer, Dark

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• The title's so upfront. It gives fair warning about the play's content. I'm writing about a kind of disenchantment, an anger, but quite a cool 90's anger, at a time when we're not very good at openly being angry. . . . I don't think I ever thought the title was titillating. I thought it was incredibly catchy. If the play is about the reduction in human relations down to a consumerist rationale, then thematically, the title is entirely linked into the thesis of the play.

  Mark Ravenhill

  Writing, Thinking, Play

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• The collapse of the administration's rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. In this case, the 'liberal media' didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.

  Scott McClellan

  Country, War, Media

  "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception". Book by Scott McClellan, April 21, 2008.

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• I'm sure you have some cosmic rationale, but here you are with your faith and your Peter Pan advice.

  Billy Joel

  Friendship, Advice, Peter

  Billy Joel (1993). “The Billy Joel Keyboard Book (Songbook): Note-for-Note Keyboard Transcriptions”, p.110, Hal Leonard Corporation

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• Most of us at the Reserve Bank come from a background in economics and hence have a predisposition in favour of free markets and a sceptical attitude towards intervention in those markets unless there is a clearly defined economic rationale for it.

  Ian Macfarlane

  Attitude, Freedom, Favour

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• Can a physicist visualize an electron? The electron is materially inconceivable and yet, it is so perfectly known through its effects that we use it to illuminate our cities, guide our airlines through the night skies and take the most accurate measurements. What strange rationale makes some physicists accept the inconceivable electrons as real while refusing to accept the reality of a Designer on the ground that they cannot conceive Him?

  Wernher von Braun

  God, Real, Airplane

  Letter to California State board of Education, September 14, 1972.

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• Since outright slavery has been discredited, "democracy" is the only remaining rationale for state compulsion that most people will accept.

  Joseph Sobran

  People, Democracy, Liberty

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• My dad was an absentee dad, so it was always important to me that I was part of my daughter's life, and she deserved two parents, which is part of the rationale behind us staying married for 30 years.

  Samuel L. Jackson

  Daughter, Mother, Dad

  "Samuel L. Jackson: What I've Learned" by John H. Richardson, www.esquire.com. December 15, 2010.

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• Myth is the system of basic metaphors, images, and stories that informs the perceptions, memories, and aspirations of a people; provides the rationale for its institutions, rituals and power structure; and gives a map of the purpose and stages of life.

  Sam Keen

  Memories, People, Giving

  Sam Keen (1992). “The passionate life: stages of loving”, Harper San Francisco

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