Reasoning Quotes - Page 26

• It is the moment when our resolution seems about to become irrevocable--when the fatal iron gates are about to close upon us--that tests our strength. Then, after hours of clear reasoning and firm conviction, we snatch at any sophistry that will nullify our long struggles, and bring us the defeat that we love better than victory.

  George Eliot

  Struggle, Love Is, Iron

  George Eliot (2005). “Four Novels of George Eliot”, p.1166, Wordsworth Editions

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• Some people simply use their faith as a lexicon of behavioral reasoning; without that they would be forced to face their own moral and ethical failings honestly according to a secular code of right and wrong.

  Deborah Feldman

  People, Would Be, Lexicon

  Deborah Feldman (2014). “Exodus: A Memoir”, p.75, Penguin

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• His hypothesis goes to this - to make the common run of his readers fancy they can do all that can be done by genius, and to make the man of genius believe he can only do what is to be done by mechanical rules and systematic industry. This is not a very feasible scheme; nor is Sir Joshua sufficiently clear and explicit in his reasoning in support of it.

  William Hazlitt

  Running, Believe, Men

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners”

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• The principles of ethics come from our own nature as social, reasoning beings.

  Peter Singer

  Principles, Ethics, Social

  Peter Singer (2011). “The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress”, p.149, Princeton University Press

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• The highest reach of a news-writer is an empty Reasoning on Policy, and vain Conjectures on the public Management.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  News, Management, Journalism

  "The Characters or Manners of the Present Age". Book by Jean de La Bruyère, Chapter I, 1688.

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• Self-taught poverty is a help toward philosophy, for the things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice.

  Diogenes

  Philosophy, Self, Practice

  "Anthology (Book 4)". Book by Joannes Stobaeus, 1536.

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• In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Principles, Firsts, Kind

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers”, p.28, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Why not? Why not?Why not not, then, if the best reasoning you can contrive is why not?

  David Foster Wallace

  Why Not, Infinite Jest, Ifs

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• In the long run my observations have convinced me that some men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion in their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads.

  Galileo Galilei

  Running, Men, Long

  "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems". Book by Galileo Galilei (p. 322), 1632.

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• Intellectual freedom means the right to re-examine much that has been long taken for granted. A free man must be a reasoning man, and he must dare doubt what a legislative or electoral majority may most passionately assert.

  Robert H. Jackson

  Taken, Mean, Men

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• The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower it is in arriving at maturity. A man reaches the maturity of his reasoning powers and mental faculties hardly before the age of twenty-eight; a woman at eighteen.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Maturity, Men, Eight

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Studies in Pessimism: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.47, 谷月社

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• Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity. The activity of the intuition consists in making spontaneous judgements which are not the result of conscious trains of reasoning. The exercise of ingenuity in mathematics consists in aiding the intuition through suitable arrangements of propositions, and perhaps geometrical figures or drawings.

  Alan Turing

  Exercise, Two, Drawing

  "Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals". Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, Series 2, Volume 45, 1939.

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• The main importance of Francis Bacon's influence does not lie in any peculiar theory of inductive reasoning which he happened to express, but in the revolt against second-hand information of which he was a leader.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Lying, Hands, Leader

  Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.51, Simon and Schuster

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• Hope was an instinct only the reasoning human mind could kill. An animal never knew despair.

  Graham Greene

  Animal, Mind, Despair

  Graham Greene (1990). “The power and the glory”, Viking Pr

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• When gratitude has become a matter of reasoning there are many ways of escaping from its bonds.

  George Eliot

  Gratitude, Escaping, Matter

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.244, Penguin

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• In your efforts to dazzle us your reasoning has gone awry. You know very well that love is, above all, the gift of oneself.

  Jean Anouilh

  Love Is, Effort, Gone

  Jean Anouilh (1959). “Ardèle: and Colombe : two plays”

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• It's not in the mainstream media yet, but the biggest jump in skin cancer has occurred since the advent of sunscreens. That kind of thing makes me happy. The fact that people, in pursuit of a superficial look of health, give themselves a fatal disease. I love it when 'reasoning' human beings think they have figured out how to beat something and it comes right back and kicks them in the nuts. God bless the law of unintended consequences. And the irony is impressive: Healthy people, trying to look healthier, make themselves sick. Good!

  George Carlin

  Cancer, Thinking, Media

  George Carlin (1998). “Brain Droppings”, Hyperion

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• We ought to be able to persuade on opposite sides of a question; as also we ought in the case of arguing by syllogism: not that we should practice both, for it is not right to persuade to what is bad; but in order that the bearing of the case may not escape us, and that when another makes an unfair use of these reasonings, we may be able to solve them.

  Aristotle

  Order, Opposites, Practice

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• Acts themselves alone are history, and these are neither the exclusive property of Hume, Gibbon nor Voltaire, Echard, Rapin, Plutarch, nor Herodotus. Tell me the Acts, O historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away with your reasoning and your rubbish. All that is not action is not worth reading.

  William Blake

  Reading, Rubbish, Action

  William Blake (1966). “Complete Writings: With Variant Readings”, p.579, Oxford University Press, USA

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• THERE is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads to absurdities, it is certainly false; but it is not certain that an opinion is false, because it is of dangerous consequence. Such topics, therefore, ought entirely to be forborne; as serving nothing to the discovery of truth, but only to make the person of an antagonist odious.

  David Hume

  Philosophical, Discovery, Topics

  David Hume (1875). “Essays Moral, Political, and Literary”, p.79

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• I make up my opinions from facts and reasoning, and not to suit any body but myself. If people don't like my opinions, it makes little difference as I don't solicit their opinions or votes.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Differences, People, Body

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• The mind is the attribute of man. When man is born, he comes into existence with only one weapon with him--The reasoning mind.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Mind, Weapons

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• To have a true investment, there must be a true margin of safety. And a true margin of safety is one that can be demonstrated by figures, by persuasive reasoning, and by reference to a body of actual experience.

  Benjamin Graham

  Safety, Body, Investment

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• When I consider this carefully, I find not a single property which with certainty separates the waking state from the dream. How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?

  Rene Descartes

  Love, Dream, Ontology

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• Logic is a large drawer, containing some useful instruments, and many more that are superfluous. A wise man will look into it for two purposes, to avail himself of those instruments that are really useful, and to admire the ingenuity with which those that are not so, are assorted and arranged.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wise, Math, Men

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.163

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