Unreasonable Quotes - Page 3

• It is not unreasonable to look upon Concorde as a miracle.

  Brian Trubshaw

  Miracle, Looks, Aviation

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• Punishments of unreasonable severity, especially where indiscriminately afflicted, have less effect in preventing crimes, and amending the manners of a people, than such as are more merciful in general, yet properly intermixed with due distinctions of severity.

  William Blackstone

  Punishment, People, Hell

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• Since the date, 1776, is placed on the bottom course of the pyramid [on the Great Seal], and since the number 13 has been so important in the history of the United States and in the symbols of the seal, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the thirteen courses of the pyramid may represent thirteen time-periods of thirteen years each.

  Paul Foster Case

  Years, Pyramids, Numbers

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• The unreasonable efficiency of mathematics in science is a gift we neither understand nor deserve.

  Eugene Wigner

  Science, Efficiency, Mathematics

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• That the great majority of those who leave school should have some idea of the kind of evidence required to substantiate given types of belief does not seem unreasonable. Nor is it absurd to expect that they should go forth with a lively interest in the ways in which knowledge is improved and a marked distaste for all conclusions reached in disharmony with the methods of scientific inquiry.

  John Dewey

  School, Knowledge, Science

  John Dewey, Jo Ann Boydston, H. S. Thayer (2008). “The Middle Works, 1899-1924: 1910-1911”, p.77, SIU Press

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• It is unreasonable to expect science to produce a system of ethics-ethics are a kind of highway code for traffic among mankind-and the fact that in physics atoms which were yesterday assumed to be square are now assumed to be round is exploited with unjustified tendentiousness by all who are hungry for faith; so long as physics extends our dominion over nature, these changes ought to be a matter of complete indifference to you.

  Sigmund Freud

  Science, Yesterday, Squares

  Sigmund Freud, Oskar Pfister (1963). “Psycho-analysis and Faith: The Letters of Sigmund Freud & Oskar Pfister”

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• Many of the Nazis were convicted after the war, but they were not convicted for being 'unreasonable'. They were convicted for being gruesome murderers.

  Jostein Gaarder

  War, Nazi, Murderer

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• Love is anticipation and memory, uncertainty and longing. It’s unreasonable, of course. Nothing begins with so much excitement and hope and pleasure as love, except maybe writing a story. And nothing fails as often, except writing stories. And like a story, love must be troubled to be interesting.

  John Dufresne

  Memories, Writing, Love Is

  John Dufresne (2008). “Love Warps the Mind a Little: A Novel”, p.140, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Political economy has disapproved equally of monopoly and communism in the various branches of human activity, wherever it has found them. Is it not then strange and unreasonable that it accepts them in the security industry?

  Gustave de Molinari

  Political, Branches, Strange

  Gustave Molinari (1977). “Production of Security, The”, p.28, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• There is no such thing as an unreasonable question, or a silly question, or a frivolous question, or a waste-of-time question. It's your life, and you've got to get these answers.

  Marcia Wallace

  Silly, Answers, Waste

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• It is not, perhaps, unreasonable to conclude, that a pure and perfect democracy is a thing not attainable by man, constituted as he is of contending elements of vice and virtue, and ever mainly influenced by the predominant principle of self-interest. It may, indeed, be confidently asserted, that there never was that government called a republic, which was not ultimately ruled by a single will, and, therefore, (however bold may seem the paradox,) virtually and substantially a monarchy.

  Alexander Fraser Tytler

  Men, Self, Perfect

  " Universal History: From the Creation of the World to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. I" by Alexander Fraser Tytler, Petridge and Company, (p. 216), 1854.

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• Hip to the fact that well-behaved women rarely make history, Diane [Wilson] has already inspired a new movement of totally uncontrollable, irresistible and unreasonable women!

  Medea Benjamin

  Movement, Facts, Hips

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• No matter how unreasonable others may seem, I am responsible for not reacting negatively. Regardless of what is happening around me I will always have the prerogative, and the responsibility, of choosing what happens within me. I am the creator of my own reality. When I [review my day], I know that I must stop judging others. If I judge others, I am probably judging myself. Whoever is upsetting me most is my best teacher. I have much to learn from him or her, and in my hearts, I should thank that person.

  Bill W.

  Teacher, Heart, Responsibility

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• Babies are unreasonable; they expect far too much of existence. Each new generation that comes takes one look at the world, thinks wildly, "Is this all they've done to it?" and bursts into tears.

  Clarence Day

  Baby, Children, Thinking

  "The Crow's Nest".

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• It would be stupid tameness, and unaccountable folly, for whole nations to suffer one unreasonable, ambitious and cruel man, to wanton and riot in their misery

  Jonathan Mayhew

  Stupid, Men, Suffering

  Jonathan Mayhew (1750). “A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher Powers: With Some Reflections on the Resistance Made to King Charles I, and on the Anniversary of His Death: in which the Mysterious Doctrine of the Princes' Saintship and Martyrdom is Unriddled: the Substance of which was Delivered in a Sermon Preached in the West Meeting-house in Boston the Lord's-day After the 30th of January, 1749/50...”, p.40

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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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• Dependence goes somewhat against the grain of a generous mind; and it is no wonder that it should do so, considering the unreasonable advantage which is often taken of the inequality of fortune.

  Jeremy Collier

  Taken, Mind, Wonder

  Jeremy COLLIER (the Nonjuror.), J. E. (1838). “Pearls of Great Price: or, Maxims, reflections, characters and thoughts, on miscellaneous subjects ... Selected from the works of the Rev. Jeremy Collier by the editor of “Sir William Jones's Discourses,” etc. [The editor's preface signed: J. E., i.e. James Elmes.]”, p.28

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• Such is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to suspicion, however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from the object of its interest.

  Ann Radcliffe

  Love, Real, Relapse

  Ann Radcliffe (1998). “The Mysteries of Udolpho”, p.317, OUP Oxford

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• Live. Love. Smile. Hug. Laugh. Dream. Do. Create. Have fun. Be intense. Be audacious. Be unreasonable. Act impeccably. Breathe. Be you. Be different.

  Brian Johnson

  Motivational, Dream, Fun

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• There is simply no comparison between a man who is armed and one who is not. It is simply unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey one who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Men

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• Research – and using what you learn from it to analyze every situation – is what separates being unreasonable from being irrational.

  Eli Broad

  Research, Irrational, Situation

  Eli Broad (2012). “The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking”, p.5, John Wiley & Sons

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• In strange and uncertain times such as those we are living in, sometimes a reasonable person might despair. But hope is unreasonable and love is greater even than this. May we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse.

  Robert Fripp

  Love Is, Creative, Despair

  "Robert Fripp's Diary". Robert Fripp, DGMlive.com, May 27, 2010.

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• Sometimes sorrow, sometimes joy. But beneath it all remember the innate perfection of your life unfolding. That is the secret of unreasonable happiness.

  Dan Millman

  Perfection, Joy, Secret

  Dan Millman (2009). “Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives”, p.276, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• It came down to the obvious point that all the union cared about was the money and these other things certainly didn't matter enough. It's a tremendous situation that they have and it has become burdensome for the teams. Yes, we're asking for some relief going forward. I don't think that was unreasonable.

  Mike Brown

  Team, Thinking, Nfl

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• Time will prolong time, and life will serve life. In this field that is both limited and bulging with possibilities, everything to himself, except his lucidity, seems unforeseeable to him. What rule, then, could emanate from that unreasonable order? The only truth that might seem instructive to him is not formal: it comes to life and unfolds in men. The absurd mind cannot so much expect ethical rules at the end of its reasoning as, rather, illustrations and the breath of human lives.

  Albert Camus

  Men, Illustration, Order

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.68, Vintage

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