Rational Thought Quotes

“Feelings should never supersede rational thought ... so, if you feel that you've got the answer, you should think some more.”

— Julie Ann Elliott-Morton

“Like fanning through a deck of cards, my mind flashes on the thousand chances, trivial to profound, that converged to re-create this place. Any arbitrary turning along the way and I would be elsewhere; I would be different. Where did the expression "a place in the sun" first come from? My rational thought process cling always to the idea of free will, random event; my blood, however, streams easily along a current of fate.”

— Frances Mayes

“More than ambition, more than ability, it is rules that limit contribution; rules are the lowest common denominator of human behavior. They are a substitute for rational thought.”

— Hyman G. Rickover

“Oh yes, Sean Kowalski. Your amazing kisses have made all rational thought fly out of my besotted brain. If only you could fill me with your magic penis, I know we'll fall madly in love and live happily ever after.”

— Shannon Stacey

“Manic-depression distorts moods and thoughts, incites dreadful behaviors, destroys the basis of rational thought, and too often erodes the desire and will to live. It is an illness that is biological in its origins, yet one that feels psychological in the experience of it, an illness that is unique in conferring advantage and pleasure, yet one that brings in its wake almost unendurable suffering and, not infrequently, suicide.”

— Kay Redfield Jamison

“Our exclusive dependence on rational thought and language has obscured our natural ability to sense the flow of energy.”

— Ilchi Lee

“The entire history of humanity is marked by a single inexorable movement - from animal instinct toward rational thought, from inborn behavior toward acquired knowledge. A half-grown panther abandoned in the wilderness will grow up to be a perfectly normal panther. But a half-grown child similarly abandoned will grow up into an unrecognizable savage, unfit for normal society. Yet there are those who insist the opposite: that we are creatures of instinct, like wolves.”

— Philipp Meyer

“The feel of her body against his was exhilarating, driving all rational thought from his head. "All right, prepare
yourself, Claire Brennan."
She looked up at him curiously. "Prepare myself for
what?"
He gazed at her affectionately. "Repeat your mantra, or
whatever it is you do. Because I'm about to kiss you.”

— Syrie James

“Shane felt a jolt of heat, a desire that threatened to overwhelm rational thought. And perhaps for the moment that was all right.”

— Rebecca York

“Exterminate all rational thought. That is the conclusion I have come to. (William Lee-Naked Lunch)”

— David Cronenberg

“Letting go of rational thought, he surrendered himself to instinct, to the odd quirk within that made him one with machines. The same quirk that had melded him almost effortlessly with his prosthetic limb and perhaps was the reason he'd lost none of his connection with the Force, even though his arm and hand were made of metal.”

— Karen Miller

“Revenge and rational thought never sleep together.”

— Kevin Hearne

“My anger is like some rudimentary, single-celled beast, an exploding virus of fury that paralyses rational thought and blinds me to everything except one single goal ...”

— Candace Bushnell

“Lemme guess," Regin said. "You had your introductory spiel all planned, but rational thought deserted you when you saw me stroll in braless.”

— Kresley Cole

“Exterminate all rational thought”

— William S. Burroughs

“My need to be around Abby Abernathy overruled any rational thought. It had always been that way, and I imagined it always would.”

— Jamie McGuire

“Tea was the great arbiter of many things, and for Pastaddams, his morning cup meant the difference between expressing rational thought and succumbing to the ineptitude that occupied recesses of his dormant mind. Merely having the cup in his hand facilitated the flow of ideas, and upon tea, the great nourishment of the tailor's life, rested all his claims to rational dependence.”

— Michelle Franklin

“Perhaps for the first time in any medium, the person teaching you science-Carl Sagan-cared about the tangled mental roadways that can rob a person of rational thought.”

— Carl Sagan

“He presses two fingers against each eye and attempts to account for this crippling melancholy, but is having trouble with rational thought. It feels as if someone has taken his head and shaken it. Words are turning to mush and he can see no plausible way of getting through this. Don't fall apart, he tells himself, not here, not now. Hold it together.”

— David Nicholls

“The shudder went all through him. Bones pressed me so close that his body ground into mine, jerking my head back with a thick handful of hair until our eyes locked. What had started out as a game was now an open challenge, as well as a direct threat. Any further action would bear results, it was clear from the way his gaze smoldered into mine. All of this should have frightened me, but it was as if my mind were incapable of rational thought. He was a vampire, a hit man, and had almost killed me ... and nothing mattered more than the feel of him. I licked my lips and didn't pull away, and it was all the invitation he needed.”

— Jeaniene Frost

“Sometimes, I work a little more from emotion than I do from rational thought.”

— Ronnie Dunn

“When an atheist enjoys the cool breeze of a sunny autumn day as he writes his treatise saying God doesn't exist, the ultimate source of his pleasure remains God. God is the author of the universe itself-including the powers of rational thought the atheist misuses to argue against God. David”

— Randy Alcorn

“You can see the proof in an MRI scan of someone presented with political opinions that conflict with her own. The brain scans of a person shown statements that oppose her political stance show that the highest areas of the cortex, the portions responsible for providing rational thought, get less blood until another statement is presented that confirms her beliefs. Your brain literally begins to shut down when you feel your ideology is threatened. Try it yourself. Watch a pundit you hate for fifteen minutes. Resist the urge to change the channel. Don't complain to the person next to you. Don't get online and rant. Try to let it go. You will find this is excruciatingly difficult.”

— David McRaney

“The last thing I needed was rational thought.”

— Jennifer A. Nielsen

“Everyone grieves differently. No one handles the loss of a loved one the same. Some put on a brave face for others, keeping everything internal. Others let it all out at once and shatter, only to pick up the pieces just as quickly as they came apart. Still others don't grieve at all, implying they are incapable of emotion.
Then there are the ones like me, where grief is a badge we wear, where it's hard to let go because we don't want to. We probably wouldn't know how even is we wanted to. There's unanswered questions, unresolved feelings. Tere is anger that this person could even conceive of leaving us behind. We are the furious ones, the ones that scream at the injustice and the pain. We are the ones who obsess and slowly lose rational thought, knowing it is happening but unable to find a way to care. We are the ones who drown.”

— T.J. Klune

“Marketers know - no matter how deep the emotional connection or brand loyalty - when a product does not perform, rational thought overtakes emotion, and most consumers make a new choice.”

— Mark McKinnon

“Science has proven that sin has the power to change us for the worse. In a healthy brain, rational thought can override impulsive behavior. Not so in a brain affected by addiction. This is how Satan steals our ability to choose wisely. Addiction costs us the ability to exercise our agency.”

— Toni Sorenson

“The doctrine of the Trinity teaches that God is one in essence and three in person, so He is one in one sense and three in another sense, and that does not violate the categories of rational thought or the law of non-contradiction.”

— R.C. Sproul

“Feelings are invulnerable to rational thought.”

— Stephen King

“Worry lives a long way from rational thought.
Self”

— Mary Roach

“The task of a university is the creation of the future, so far as rational thought and civilized modes of appreciation can affect the issue.”

— Alfred North Whitehead

“We cannot sway extremists with rational thought or with our ideas of right and wrong.”

— Roxane Gay

“Arms, ankles turning as I stepped in holes and stumbled on rocks. I had no room in my mind for any form of rational thought; I wanted only to get away from him. A heavy weight struck me hard in the”

— Diana Gabaldon

“I am a socialist, a believer in rational thought and the rule of law.”

— Ken Livingstone

“Science stands for rational thought, faith for superstition and unreason.”

— Deepak Chopra

“Reason flows from the blending of rational thought and feeling. If the two functions are torn apart, thinking deteriorates into schizoid intellectual activity and feeling deteriorates into neurotic life-damaging passions.”

— Erich Fromm

“It was then that she cut him off in midsentence and said that it was over. She said it with a certainty and a conviction in her voice and her face that left him fascinated and awed. Because guys, at least of his age, didn't have the confidence to make major decisions from their gut like that. They had to build a superstructure of rational thought on top of it. But not Zula. She didn't have to decide. She just had to pass on the news.”

— Neal Stephenson

“All changes, even positive ones, are scary. Attempts to reach goals through radical or revolutionary means often fail because they heighten fear. But the small steps of kaizen disarm the brain's fear response, stimulating rational thought and creative play.”

— Robert D. Maurer

“Painting quickly is a calculated act to block out rational thought.”

— Antoni Tapies

“It is the job of conscious rational thought to decide what you want, select the goals you wish to achieve-and concentrate upon these rather than upon what you do not want. To spend time and effort concentrating upon what you do not want is not rational.”

— Maxwell Maltz

“Water creates a neurosis in golfers. The very thought of this harmless fluid robs them of their normal powers of rational thought, turns their legs to jelly, and produces a palsy of the upper limbs.”

— Peter Dobereiner

“Even those who identify themselves as libertarians follow an overtly anti-rationalist philosophy, as even a brief acquaintance with the work of Friedrich Hayek should make clear. The argument against reason in this literature is straightforward: it is impossible for any individual to acquire enough reliable information to make a rational decision, any actions founded on rational thought will therefore be delusional, any attempts at reason should therefore regarded as dangerous, and all action should instead be guided by tradition.”

— Philip E. Agre

“The sheer folly of trying to defend a nation by destroying all life on the planet must be apparent to anyone capable of rational thought. Nuclear capability must be reduced to zero, globally, permanently. There is no other option.”

— Queen Noor Of Jordan

“No, no, no - you don't argue with concepts. You have to claim Dogma, and therefore leave no room for rational thought.”

— Kevin J. Anderson

“Nobody ever arrives at a very big idea through a conscious, rational thought process. It comes from your unconscious.”

— David Ogilvy

“Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science, and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process. You can help this process by going for a long walk, or taking a hot bath, or drinking half a pint of claret. Suddenly, if the telephone line from your unconscious is open, a big idea wells up within you.”

— David Ogilvy

“Only the heart knows the correct answer. Most people think the heart is mushy and sentimental. But it's not. The heart is intuitive; it's holistic, it's contextual, it's relational. It doesn't have a win-lose orientation. It taps into the cosmic computer - the field of pure potentiality, pure knowledge, and infinite organizing power - and takes everything into account. At times it may not even seem rational, but the heart has a computing ability that is far more accurate and far more precise than anything within the limits of rational thought.”

— Deepak Chopra

“Our science is like a store filled with the most subtle intellectual devices for solving the most complex problems, and yet we are almost incapable of applying the elementary principles of rational thought.”

— Simone Weil

“I no longer idolize reason. I have come to accept that ninety percent of what we do is irrational and that we spend what little rational thought we have in justifying our irrationality.”

— Rita Mae Brown

“The real University ... has no specific location. It owns no property, pays no salaries, and receives no material dues ... The real University is a state of mind. It is that great heritage of rational thought that has been brought down to us through the centuries.”

— Robert M. Pirsig