Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner? William Shakespeare, Macbeth I iii 84
Reason has always existed. But not always in a reasonable form. Karl Marx
Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled. Edmund Burke
The passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in man, by substituting justice for instinct in his conduct, and giving his actions the morality they had formerly lacked. Then only, when the voice of duty takes the place of physical impulses and right of appetite, does man, who so far had considered only himself, find that he is forced to act on different principles, and to consult his reason before listening to his inclinations. Although, in this state, he deprives himself of some advantages which he got from nature, he gains in return others so great, his faculties are so stimulated and developed, his ideas so extended, his feelings so ennobled, and his whole soul so uplifted, that, did not the abuses of this new condition often degrade him below that which he left, he would be bound to bless continually the happy moment which took him from it for ever, and, instead of a stupid and unimaginative animal, made him an intelligent being and a man. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The noblest work in education is to make a reasoning man, and we expect to train a young child by making him reason! This is beginning at the end; this is making an instrument of a result. If children understood how to reason they would not need to be educated. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
The satirist may laugh, the philosopher may preach, but Reason herself will respect the prejudices and habits which have been consecrated by the experience of mankind. Edward Gibbon, 1737-94, Memoirs of My Life ch1
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. David Hume, A Treatise Upon Human Nature
It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger. ibid.
I’ll not listen to reason … Reason always means what someone else has got to say. Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford, 1853
Reason can treacherously deceive a man, but emotion is always sure and never leaves him. Adolf Hitler
Whatsoever is contrary to Nature is contrary to reason. And whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd. Baruch Spinoza
He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason. Baruch Spinoza
We cannot all become experts in everything. I’m a biologist and I’m manifestly not an expert in Physics. So is it just faith when I accept the Big Bang, Quantum Theory – not really … it’s not blind faith, it’s reasoned faith. Richard Dawkins, with Matt Dillahunty Vancouver 6th November 2016
Today Reason has a battle on its hands. I want to confront the epidemic of irrational superstitious thinking. It’s a multi-million pound industry that impoverishes our culture, and throws up new-age gurus who exult us to run away from reality. Richard Dawkins, Enemies of Reason: Slaves to Superstition, Channel 4 2007
Reason and a respect for evidence are the source for our progress. Our safeguard against fundamentalists. And those who profit from obscuring the truth. We live in dangerous times when superstition is gaining ground, and rational science is under attack. ibid.
Today a war is being fought against reason. Science is treated with suspicion, perhaps born of fear, and medical advance is challenged by the march of irrational belief. ibid.
Reason has built the modern world. It is a precious but also a fragile thing which can be corroded by apparently harmless irrationality. We must favour verifiable evidence over private feeling otherwise we leave ourselves vulnerable to those who would obscure the truth. ibid.
Today a war is being fought against Reason. Science is treated with suspicion perhaps borne of fear. And medical advance is challenged by the march of irrational belief. Richard Dawkins: Enemies of Reason: The Irrational Health Service
A third of us now spend over £1.6 billion a year on superstitious alternative remedies which as far as the evidence can show don’t work. If any remedy is tested under controlled scientific conditions and proved to be effective it will cease to be alternative and will simply become medicine. So-called alternative medicine either hasn’t been tested or it has failed its tests. And some alternatives are funded by us taxpayers. ibid.
It’s little wonder that alternative health fairs like this are flourishing across the country. People may come here with real health problems, but what do they get? Remedies that appear to have no basis in science or evidence ... Remember this is a multi-billion-pound industry. Yet 80% of alternative remedies have never subjected themselves to controlled scientific trials. ibid.
The indulgence of superstitious alternative remedies implicitly casts doubt on scientific advance, and undermines confidence in real medical progress. Yet as we’ve seen, the attack on medicine is just one small part of the creeping rise of irrational superstition. ibid.
Reason has liberated us from superstition and given us centuries of progress. We abandon it at our peril. ibid.
To me reason is as spiritual as anything else. The beauty of reason seems to me to be something ineluctable, ineffable and numinous. Stephen Fry, in conversation with Christopher Hitchens
Only Reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we believe is not necessarily true; that what we like is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open. Clive Bell, 1881-1964, English art critic
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. George Washington
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. Blaise Pascal
The law is reason, free from passion. Aristotle
Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die. Alfred Lord Tennyson
I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality. Mahatma Gandhi
Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent. Mahatma Gandhi
Faith ... must be enforced by reason ... when faith becomes blind it dies. Mahatma Gandhi
Intellect takes us along in the battle of life to a certain limit, but at the crucial moment it fails us. Faith transcends reason. It is when the horizon is the darkest and human reason is beaten down to the ground that faith shines brightest and comes to our rescue. Mahatma Gandhi
The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis. Dalai Lama
Humour is reason gone mad. Groucho Marx
Listen to the people who love you. Believe that they are worth living for even when you don’t believe it. Seek out the memories depression takes away and project them into the future. Be brave; be strong; take your pills. Exercise because it’s good for you even if every step weighs a thousand pounds. Eat when food itself disgusts you. Reason with yourself when you have lost your reason. Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves. Lord Byron
You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don’t want to understand you. Anton Chekhov
You might be looking for reasons but there are no reasons. Nina LaCour, Hold Still
All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason. Immanuel Kant
The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four
You see, gentlemen, reason is an excellent thing, there’s no disputing that, but reason is nothing but reason and satisfies only the rational side of man’s nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life, that is, of the whole human life including reason and all the impulses. And although our life, in this manifestation of it, is often worthless, yet it is life and not simply extracting square roots. Fyodor Dostoyevsky