Reasoned Quotes
More Reasoned Quotes
Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
thomas henry huxley— Science and Culture and Other Essays, "The Coming of Age of the Origin of the Species" (1880).
Gildas's On the Ruin of Britain is not an attempt at a reasoned account of his times: it is...a brilliant vitriolic diatribe on the wickedness of all things British and the virtue of all things Roman. It is a sermon, obscure, learned and immensely difficult to read, almost as though the writer's pen were choked with the fury of his words.
gildas— Richard Barber The Figure of Arthur (1972) pp. 42-43.
There is no comparison between the suicidal terrorism of the desperate and the reasoned terrorism of an overarmed state.
ilan halevi— A History of the Jews (1987)
The communications challenge faced by reform movements the world over and illustrated by this incident is this: in the modern communications business, particularly in the case of television, negative is more newsworthy than positive; short term is more newsworthy than long term; disagreement is more newsworthy than agreement; emotion-laden critiques are more newsworthy than well reasoned proposals for constructive change; discord, threats to order, and bad government are much more newsworthy than peace, order, and good government.
preston manning— Chapter Seven, The Vancouver Assembly, p. 137
It is because I have confidence in the reasoned appeal the Socialist Party can make to all sections of the community – manual workers and black coats alike – that I have decided to go to East Lewisham, if I am selected, emphasizing by this action my conviction that the soundest socialist appeal is that which is most universal in its scope.
herbert morrison— The Times, 10 January 1945.
— Morrison abandoned his safe seat in Hackney South for Lewisham East in the 1945 general election despite it being a Conservative-held seat that had never previously returned a Labour MP. The move paid off, and he was elected there.
Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil ... a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons ... never to truth.
fulton j. sheen— "A Plea For Intolerance" (1931)
It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.
jonathan swift— As quoted in Treasury of thought: forming an encyclopædia of quotations from ancient and modern authors (1872) by Maturin Murray Ballou, p. 433
It must be said that today, at the end of its semantic evolution, the word 'terrorist' is an intrinsically propagandistic term. It has no neutral readability. It dispenses with all reasoned examination of political situations, of their causes and consequences.
alain badiou— From Philosophy and the 'war against terrorism' in Infinite Thought: truth and the return of philosophy. London: Continuum, 2003. ISBN 0826467245.
A man is to be cheated into passion, but to be reasoned into truth.
john dryden— Religio Laici (1682), Preface.
Persecution always says, 'I know the consequences of your opinion better than you know them yourselves.' But the language of toleration was always amicable, liberal, and just: it confessed its doubts, and acknowledged its ignorance ... Persecution had always reasoned from cause to effect, from opinion to action, [that such an opinion would invariably lead to but one action], which proved generally erroneous; while toleration led us invariably to form just conclusions, by judging from actions and not from opinions.
charles james fox— Speech in the House of Commons (2 March 1790), quoted in Loren Reid, Charles James Fox: A Man for the People (1969), p. 261.
In the Congress as a whole-both House and Senate-the enhanced role of money in the re-election process, coupled with the sharply diminished role for reasoned deliberation and debate, has produced an atmosphere conducive to pervasive institutionalized corruption. The Abramoff scandal is but the tip of a giant iceberg that threatens the integrity of the entire legislative branch of government.
al gore— Martin Luther King Day address, Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C. (16 January 2006)
"But there are times when being happy just happy, nothing else is simply vile." "Why?" Jill inquired. "Because," Enrique reasoned, "one cant be happy in a place where everybody is unhappy."
imre kertész— p. 55 (Detective Story (2008))
It has been remarked that when one passes among the patients of the psychiatric ward, he encounters among the several sufferers every aspect of normal personality in morbid exaggeration. … As one passes through the modern centers of enterprise and of higher learning, he is met with similar autonomies of development. … The scientist, the technician, the scholar, who have left the One for the Many are puffed up with vanity over their ability to describe precisely some minute portion of the world. Men so obsessed with fragments can no more be reasoned with than other psychotics.
richard weaver— p. 62 (Ideas have Consequences (1948))
Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Alfred Pennyworth— The Dark Knight (2008), Michael Caine
In discourse more sweet, (For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the sense,) Others apart sat on a hill retir'd, In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will and Fate, Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute; And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.
john milton— John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book II, line 555.
It is not the truth of Marxism that explains the willingness of intellectuals to believe it, but the power that it confers on intellectuals, in their attempts to control the world. And since, as Swift says, it is futile to reason someone out of a thing that he was not reasoned into, we can conclude that Marxism owes its remarkable power to survive every criticism to the fact that it is not a truth-directed but a power-directed system of thought.
roger scruton— Roger Scruton, Political Philosophy: Arguments for Conservatism (Continuum International Publishing Group 2006).
It is not the truth of Marxism that explains the willingness of intellectuals to believe it, but the power that it confers on intellectuals, in their attempts to control the world. And since, as Swift says, it is futile to reason someone out of a thing that he was not reasoned into, we can conclude that Marxism owes its remarkable power to survive every criticism to the fact that it is not a truth-directed but a power-directed system of thought.
— Roger Scruton, in Political Philosophy : Arguments for Conservatism (2006)
Gildas's On the Ruin of Britain is not an attempt at a reasoned account of his times: it is...a brilliant vitriolic diatribe on the wickedness of all things British and the virtue of all things Roman. It is a sermon, obscure, learned and immensely difficult to read, almost as though the writer's pen were choked with the fury of his words.
— Richard Barber The Figure of Arthur (1972) pp. 42-43.
She let me go. I think 'cause I reasoned with her, girl to girl.
— Who: Ice Princess
— Note: After Penguin and Catwoman had earlier kidnapped the Ice Princess, Catwoman takes her to the top of a tall building. After Batman arrives, he finds the Ice Princess placed precariously on the edge of the building. As he moves over to help her, Penguin appears and uses a trick umbrella full of bats to swarm her, causing her to panic and fall off the side of the building to her death, successfully framing Batman for the deed.
To those who have an active belief, reasoned proofs are needless and probably useless.
— Book IV, Chapter 17 (From St. Athanasius' Life of St. Antony)
On the way to the wardrobe I thought I would [[|w:Dress|dress]] in baggy pants, big shoes , and a cane and a derby hat. I wanted everything to be a contradiction; the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large. I was undecided whether to look young or old , but remembering Sennet had expected me to be a much older man, I added a small moustache , which I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression .
— Charlie Chaplin , in Keith Johnstone Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, A&C Black, 29-Jun-2007, p.145
