In short, this or that behavior wasn't good because scripture said so. Scripture mandated this or that behavior because it was good, and if it was already good before scripture said so, then it was good for some reason inherent to itself, some reason that reason could discover.

~ Tamim Ansary

Tamim Ansary Logic Reason Religion Revelation

I assure you, my good Lestrade, that I have an excellent reason for everything that I do.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle Humor Logic Reason

If man was a logical creature: his last suspect—namely, his mouth—was going to be the first; whenever he thinks that someone, or, something is smelly.

~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Mokokoma Mokhonoana Bad Breath Logic Mouth Rationality Reason Suspect

If we take reason strictly, the perceiving of spiritual beauty and excellence no more belongs to reason than it belongs to the sense of feeling to perceive colors or to the power of seeing to perceive the sweetness of food.

~ Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards Glory Of God Logic Reason

Helen stared at him How do you do that? How do you figure everything out so quickly?You may be all-powerful, but nothing beats plain old logic. He smiled at her

~ Josephine Angelini

Josephine Angelini Logic Philosophical Reason

The widest cause of secularization may be the steady change of thinking so that there is the expectation that reason and a consideration of cause and effect will help with explanations. Supernatural power began to be removed from explanations of the process of life or society in the seventeenth century, and although there may be a nod towards astrology or the crossed finger today, superstition is not seriously used in decision making. ... Scientific thinking, which similarly developed in the seventeenth century, has been influential in bringing this change. We now see that tornadoes and earthquakes have rational explanations in terms of climatology and seismology rather than as divine punishments. Most people when deciding whether to take a new job, embark on a divorce, or simply plan a holiday will not seek divine guidance, but rather discuss with themselves or others the issues of cause and effect.

~ Jim Herrick

Jim Herrick Decision Making Evidence Humanism Logic Rational Thought Reason Secularization Superstition

The sensible man,' Crow had said (to Sherlock Holmes), 'don't look to confirm what he already knows -- he looks to deny it. Finding evidence that backs up your theories ain't useful, but finding evidence that your theories are wrong is priceless. Never try to prove yourself right -- always try to prove yourself wrong instead.

~ Andy Lane

Andy Lane Deduction Evidence Logic Logical Thinking Prove Reason Reasoning

I win by means of nothing but logic and I surrender to nothing but logic. I do not surrender my reason or deal with men who surrender theirs.

~ Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand Fighting Ignorance Logic Reason

In contrast to logic, there is common sense, or still better, the Spirit of Reasonableness.

~ Lin Yutang

Lin Yutang Chinese Philosophy Common Sense Logic Philosophy Reason

God's existence needs to be established independently before he can be brought into account for causation, it cannot be assumed at the start.

~ S.t. Joshi

S.t. Joshi Argument Burden Of Proof Causation Existence Logic

It's remarkable the logic we'll build around a misapprehension.

~ Sloane Crosley

Sloane Crosley Childhood Logic Misunderstandings

A man goes to a foreign country and kills somebody who's not aggressing against him; in a Hawaiian shirt he's a criminal, in a green costume he's a hero who gets a parade and a pension. So that, as a culture, we remain in a state of moral insanity. To point out these contradictions to people in society is to be labeled insane. This is how insane society remains, that anybody who points out logical opposites in the most essential human topic of ethics, is considered to be insane.

~ Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux Critical Thinking Delusion Freedom Integrity Liberty Logic Morals Rationality Statism Values Virtue

Their love story: It’s when logic fell in love with paranoia and paranoia learned to love logic; logic grounded paranoia and paranoia turned up the heat because logic never knew where that heat would come from. Logic needs to be stimulated and paranoia needs to be soothed and therefore they need each other, which resulted in the birth of combustion. The end.

~ Donna Lynn Hope

Donna Lynn Hope Combustion Logic Love Story Paranoia

If chess has any relationship to film-making, it would be in the way it helps you develop patience and discipline in choosing between alternatives at a time when an impulsive decision seems very attractive.

~ Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick Cinematography Critical Thinking Discipline Film Film Making Films Impulsive Inspirational Logic Movie Movies Patience Thought Wait Waiting

People who cannot put strings of sentences together in good order cannot think. An educational system that does not teach the technology of writing is preventing thought.

~ Richard Mitchell

Richard Mitchell Education System Logic Thought

To want to tackle everything rationally is irrational.

~ Ilyas Kassam

Ilyas Kassam Emotion Kassam Logic Rationality Reminiscence Thought

Pure analysis puts at our disposal a multitude of procedures whose infallibility it guarantees; it opens to us a thousand different ways on which we can embark in all confidence; we are assured of meeting there no obstacles; but of all these ways, which will lead us most promptly to our goal? Who shall tell us which to choose? We need a faculty which makes us see the end from afar, and intuition is this faculty. It is necessary to the explorer for choosing his route; it is not less so to the one following his trail who wants to know why he chose it.

~ Henri Poincaré

Henri Poincaré Analogy Epistemology Ethics Intuition Logic Math Mathematics Moral Opinion Philosophy Physics Science Thought

Richness and fat does need,In logic clever fine deeds,But paunches never do breed,Fine thoughts or sublime seeds.[45] - 2

~ Munindra Misra

Munindra Misra Fame Fat Logic Paunches Richness Thought

A distinguished writer [Siméon Denis Poisson] has thus stated the fundamental definitions of the science:'The probability of an event is the reason we have to believe that it has taken place, or that it will take place.''The measure of the probability of an event is the ratio of the number of cases favourable to that event, to the total number of cases favourable or contrary, and all equally possible' (equally like to happen).From these definitions it follows that the word probability, in its mathematical acceptation, has reference to the state of our knowledge of the circumstances under which an event may happen or fail. With the degree of information which we possess concerning the circumstances of an event, the reason we have to think that it will occur, or, to use a single term, our expectation of it, will vary. Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave neither room nor demand for a theory of probabilities.

~ George Boole

George Boole Knowledge Logic Math Mathematics Poisson Probability Science Siméon Denis Poisson Thought

Science attempts to find logic and simplicity in nature. Mathematics attempts to establish order and simplicity in human thought.

~ Edward Teller

Edward Teller Human Thought Logic Math Mathematics Nature Science Simplicity Thought

Clinging to any form of conservatism can be dangerous. Become too conservative and you are unprepared for surprises. You cannot depend on luck. Logic is blind and often knows only its own past. Logic is good for playing chess but is often too slow for the needs of survival.

~ Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Conservatism Logic Survival

It is not the logical part of thinking that changes emotions but the perceptual part. If we see something differently, our emotions may alter with the altered perception. (p64)

~ Edward De Bono

Edward De Bono Emotion Logic Perception

Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.

~ Edward De Bono

Edward De Bono Logic Perception

For the artist himself art is not necessarily therapeutic; he is not automatically relieved of his fantasies by expressing them. Instead, by some perverse logic of creation, the act of formal expressions may simply make the dredged-up material more readily available to him.

~ Al Álvarez

Al Álvarez Art Artist Creation Fantasies Logic Relief Relieved Therapeutic

[T]he success of democracy depends, in the end, on the reliability of the judgments we citizens make, and hence upon our capacity and determination to weigh arguments and evidence rationally.

~ Irving M. Copi

Irving M. Copi Citizenship Democracy Logic

Faith should be tempered with logic and reasoning.

~ J. Bartell

J. Bartell Faith Quotes Logic Logic Quote

Elohim was, in logical terminology, the genus of which ghosts, Chemosh, Dagon, Baal, and Jahveh were species. The Israelite believed Jahveh to be immeasurably superior to all other kinds of Elohim. The inscription on the Moabite stone shows that King Mesa held Chemosh to be, as unquestionably, the superior of Jahveh.

~ Thomas Henry Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley Anthropology Baal Chemosh Dagon Elohim Genus Ghosts Israelite Jahveh King Mesa Logic Science Superior Terminology Theology Yahweh

Here is the tragedy of theology in its distilled essence: The employment of high-powered human intellect, of genius, of profoundly rigorous logical deduction—studying nothing. In the Middle Ages, the great minds capable of transforming the world did not study the world; and so, for most of a millennium, as human beings screamed in agony—decaying from starvation, eaten by leprosy and plague, dying in droves in their twenties—the men of the mind, who could have provided their earthly salvation, abandoned them for otherworldly fantasies.

~ Andrew Bernstein

Andrew Bernstein Essense Fantasies Genius Intellect Leprosy Logic Logical Deduction Middle Ages Plague Salvation Starvation Theology Tragedy

Theologians, and religionists in general, start with a fantasy premise and then proceed to apply rigorous formal logic to tease out its implications. Stark himself points out that “theology consists of formal reasoning about God.” This is admirably exact. Theologians, beginning with a wished-for creation of their own minds, analyze that creation’s characteristics by rigorous application of the principles of formal—that is, deductive—logic.

~ Andrew Bernstein

Andrew Bernstein Deductive Logic Fantasy Logic Reasoning Religionists Theologians Theology

Look up, always. Look back, never.

~ Karen Quan

Karen Quan Don T Look Back Logic Look Up Quotes Random Regret Statement

Consequently, if you believe God made Satan, you must realize that all Satan's power comes from God and so that Satan is simply God's child, and that we are God's children also. There are no children of Satan, really.

~ Anne Rice

Anne Rice Logic Satan Vampire

You do realize that you are addressing the emperor of the Crescent Empire.And you are addressing a free woman of the desert. You are not my emperor. Therefore, I am your equal.

~ Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst Bravery Courage Emperor Girl Power Liyana Logic Spunk

Things which are seemingly opposed may in fact be working together

~ Idries Shah

Idries Shah Logic Rumi Rumi Quote Sufis Sufism

Until you can understand illogicality, and the meaningfulness of it, shun the Sufis except for limited, precise, self-evident services.

~ Idries Shah

Idries Shah Limits Of Logic Logic Sufis Sufism

Some ideas are not born of logic and good sense. They are made of clouds and cobwebs. They sprout from nowhere and feed on excitement, sprinkled with adventure juice and the sweet flavor of the forbidden. The psyche moves from the realms of the ordinary and takes a delicate step towards the unknown. We know we shouldn't and that is exactly why we do.

~ Brigid Lowry

Brigid Lowry Good Sense Ideas Logic Why We Do

Oh, you humans may prefer empathy and mercy, but that's like intuiting the answer to an equation: you still have to go back and work the problem to be certain you were right. We can come to genuinely moral conclusions by our own paths.

~ Rachel Hartman

Rachel Hartman Ethics Logic Rationality

I don’t have to be logical. I’m a leopard. We’re considered wild animals, you know. (Spoken by Megan.)

~ Amy Neftzger

Amy Neftzger Animals Leopard Logic Wild Animal

Kids didn't have huge backpacks when I was their age. We didn't have backpacks at all. Now it seemed all the kids had them. You saw little second-graders bent over like sherpas, dragging themselves through the school doors under the weight of their packs. Some of the kids had their packs on rollers, hauling them like luggage at the airport. I didn't understand any of this. The world was becoming digital; everything was smaller and lighter. But kids at school lugged more weight than ever.

~ Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton Children Kids Logic School

Honey, there is no one right way to eat cannelloni.

~ Alyssa Brugman

Alyssa Brugman Alex As Well Father Gender Gender Identity Intersex Logic Sexuality

What, then, should you do? With an excellent hand, you should bet: You lose nothing if your opponent folds, while giving yourself a good chance of winning a big pot if he calls. But with a middling hand, you shouldn't bet: If he has a bad hand, he'll fold, and you'll win the ante, which is what you'd have won anyway by checking; but if he has a good hand, he'll call and win. It's heads he wins, tails you don't. You should check instead, and hope your middling hand wins the ante.What about with a terrible hand? Should you check or bet? The answer is surprising. Checking would be unwise, because the hands will be compared and you will lose. It actually makes more sense to bet with these bad hands, because the only way he might drop out is if you make a bet. Perversely, you are better off betting with awful cards than with mediocre ones, the quintessential (and rational) bluff. There's a second reason for you to bet with terrible cards rather than middling ones: Your opponent will have to call a little more often. Because he knows that your bets are sometimes very weak, he can't afford to fold too easily. That means that when you bet with a good hand, you are more likely to be called, and to win when you are. Because you are bluffing with bad cards, your good hands make more money.

~ Tim Harford

Tim Harford Bluffing Economics Logic Poker
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