Reasonable Man Quotes - Page 2

• Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.

  Aristotle

  Jealousy, Men, Envy

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• The Common Law of England has been laboriously built about a mythical figure-the figure of 'The Reasonable Man'.

  A. P. Herbert

  Funny, Humor, Men

  'Uncommon Law' (1935) 'The Reasonable Man'

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• An act of God was defined as something which no reasonable man could have expected.

  A. P. Herbert

  Hope, Men, Miracle

  Uncommon Law "Act of God" (1935)

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• Nothing is ever accomplished by a reasonable man.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Men, Accomplished, Reasonable

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• Armament should be an illegality everywhere, and some sort of international force should patrol a treaty-bound world. Partial armament is one of those absurdities dear to moderate-minded 'reasonable' men. Armament itself is making war. Making a gun, pointing a gun, and firing it are all acts of the same order. It should be illegal to construct anywhere upon earth any mechanism for the specific purpose of killing men. When you see a gun it is reasonable to ask: 'Whom is that intended to kill?'

  H. G. Wells

  War, Gun, Men

  H. G. Wells (2007). “The New World Order”, p.114, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

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• Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself?

  Alexander Hamilton

  War, Mean, Men

  Alexander Hamilton, Morton J. Frisch (1985). “Selected writings and speeches of Alexander Hamilton”, Aei Pr

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• Ornamental pattern work, to be raised above the contempt of reasonable men, must possess three qualities: beauty, imagination and order.

  William Morris

  Men, Order, Imagination

  William Morris, May Morris (2012). “The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris”, p.179, Cambridge University Press

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• The essential tendency of life is toward happiness . . . . Optimism is the only true condition for a reasonable man.

  Phillips Brooks

  Men, Optimism, Essentials

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• And pray what more can a reasonable man desire, in peaceful times, in ordinary noons, than a sufficient number of ears of green sweet corn boiled, with the addition of salt?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sweet, Men, Numbers

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.66, Cambridge University Press

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• Many modern scholars have found the asceticism expressed in Plato unacceptable; it does not sound like the advice of a reasonable man in the Cartesian tradition.

  Thomas McEvilley

  Plato, Men, Advice

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• We do not see God, but everywhere we see something divine; first and most typically in the center of a reasonable man, in the depth of a living human product. You can directly feel and think nature, the universe, but not the Godhead. Only the man among men can poetize and think divinely and live with religion.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  God, Men, Thinking

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• I believe that there is much less difference between the author and his works than is currently supposed; it is usually in the physical appearance of the writer,--his manners, his mien, his exterior,--that he falls short of the ideal a reasonable man forms of him--rarely in his mind.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Believe, Fall, Men

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• Amplification is the vice of modern oratory. It is an insult to an assembly of reasonable men, disgusting and revolting instead ofpersuading. Speeches measured by the hour, die by the hour.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Vices, Amplification

  Thomas Jefferson (2004). “Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness”, p.56, Modern Library

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• Reasonable men are the best dictionaries of conversation.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Conversation, Dictionary

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• There are some things in this establishment that are fundamental... about which I shall deal plainly with you... the government by a single person and a parliament is a fundamental... and... though I may seem to plead for myself, yet I do not: no, nor can any reasonable man say it... I plead for this nation, and all the honest men therein.

  Oliver Cromwell

  Men, May, Honest

  Speech to the First Protectorate Parliament, September 12, 1654.

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• The most reasonable man always manages, when he pulls the trigger, to become a dispenser of justice.

  Jean Genet

  Men, Justice, Triggers

  Jean Genet (1960). “The Balcony: (Le Balcon) a Play in Nine Scenes”

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• It is natural for men to want power. But to seek power actively takes a temperament baffling to both the simple and the wise. The simple cannot fathom how any man would dare presume to prevail, while the wise are amazed that any reasonable man would want the world, assuming he could get it.

  Gore Vidal

  Wise, Men, Power

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• And what have you laymen made of hell? A kind of penal servitude for eternity, on the lines of your convict prisons on earth, to which you condemn in advance all the wretched felons your police have hunted from the beginning - enemies of society, as you call them. You're kind enough to include the blasphemers and the profane. What proud or reasonable man could stomach such a notion of God's justice? And when you find that notion inconvenient it's easy enough for you to put it on one side. Hell is not to love any more, Madame. Not to love any more!

  Georges Bernanos

  Men, Justice, Police

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.163, Da Capo Press

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• Reasonable men are not reasonable when you're in the bubbles which have characterized capitalism since the beginning of time.

  Paul Samuelson

  Men, Capitalism, Reasonable

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• Reasonable men adapt themselves to their environment; unreasonable men try to adapt their environment to themselves. Thus all progress is the result of the efforts of unreasonable men.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Men, Effort, Progress

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• A reasonable man adjusts himself to the world. An unreasonable man expects the world to adjust itself to him. Therefore all progress is made by unreasonable people.

  Confucius

  Men, People, Progress

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