Philosophy & Thought: Reason & Logic Quotes

"I regard it, in fact, as the great advantage of the mathematical technique that it allows us to describe, by means of algebraic equations, the general character of a pattern, even where we are ignorant of the numerical values which will determine its particular manifestation"

Friedrich August von Hayek, Economist

"The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion, but rather to know it"

Andre Maurois, Writer

"Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it"

Reinhold Niebuhr, Theologian

"Vanity is the quicksand of reason"

George Sand, Novelist

"Belief is the death of intelligence"

Robert Anton Wilson, Writer

"Logical positivists have never taken psychology into account in their epistemology, but they affirm that logical beings and mathematical beings are nothing but linguistic structures"

Jean Piaget, Psychologist

"Logic and mathematics are nothing but specialised linguistic structures"

Jean Piaget, Psychologist

"In complex trains of thought, signs are indispensable"

George Henry Lewes, Philosopher

"To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual"

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Philosopher

"An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think"

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Philosopher

"We must also be permitted to bear in mind that evolution, though it may explain everything else, cannot explain itself"

Goldwin Smith, Historian

"There is nothing that can help you understand your beliefs more than trying to explain them to an inquisitor"

Frank Howard Clark, Writer

"The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it"

Edward W. Howe, Writer

"Part of our western outlook stems from the scientific attitude and its method of isolating the parts of a phenomenon in order to analyze them"

Arthur Erickson, Architect

"Mathematics allows for no hypocrisy and no vagueness"

Stendhal, Writer

"Logic is neither an art nor a science, but a dodge"

Stendhal, Writer

"The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions"

Claude Levi-Strauss, Scientist

"The power of the people and the power of reason are one"

Georg Buchner, Dramatist

"The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found"

Miguel de Unamuno, Educator

"That which the Fascists hate above all else is intelligence"

Miguel de Unamuno, Educator

"Kant introduced the concept of the negative into philosophy. Would it not also be worthwhile to try to introduce the concept of the positive into philosophy?"

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, Poet

"If a person never contradicts himself, it must be that he says nothing"

Miguel de Unamuno, Educator

"Anyone who in discussion relies upon authority uses, not his understanding, but rather his memory"

Miguel de Unamuno, Educator

"Man is a mind betrayed, not served, by his organs"

Edmond De Goncourt, Writer

"The investigator should have a robust faith - and yet not believe"

Claude Bernard, Psychologist

"A fact in itself is nothing. It is valuable only for the idea attached to it, or for the proof which it furnishes"

Claude Bernard, Psychologist

"Man can know his world without falling back on revelation; he can live his life without feeling his utter dependence on supernatural powers"

Christopher Dawson, Writer

"In Hinduism, conscience, reason and independent thinking have no scope for development"

B. R. Ambedkar, Politician

"Whoever does not philosophize for the sake of philosophy, but rather uses philosophy as a means, is a sophist"

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, Poet

"Since philosophy now criticizes everything it comes across, a critique of philosophy would be nothing less than a just reprisal"

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, Poet

"Mathematics is, as it were, a sensuous logic, and relates to philosophy as do the arts, music, and plastic art to poetry"

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, Poet

"He who has religion will speak poetry. But philosophy is the tool with which to seek and discover religion"

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, Poet

"That neither our thoughts, nor passions, nor ideas formed by the imagination, exist without the mind, is what every body will allow"

George Berkeley, Philosopher

"There are strange flowers of reason to match each error of the senses"

Louis Aragon, Poet

"Of all possible sexual perversions, religion is the only one to have ever been scientifically systematized"

Louis Aragon, Poet

"Fear of error, which everything recalls to me at every moment of the flight of my ideas, this mania for control, makes men prefer reason's imagination to the imagination of the senses. And yet it is always the imagination alone which is at work"

Louis Aragon, Poet

"Can the knowledge deriving from reason even begin to compare with knowledge perceptible by sense?"

Louis Aragon, Poet

"The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense"

George Berkeley, Philosopher

"So long as I confine my thoughts to my own ideas divested of words, I do not see how I can be easily mistaken"

George Berkeley, Philosopher

"Nothing requires a greater effort of thought than arguments to justify the rule of non-thought"

Milan Kundera, Writer

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