Thinking rationally is often different from "positive thinking," in that it is a realistic assessment of the situation, with a view towards rectifying the problem if possible. — Albert Ellis
Wisdom lies in thinking. The spear-head of thinking is rationalism. — Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
Only when you combine sound intellect with emotional discipline do you get rational behavior. — Warren Buffett
When it comes to thought, you should be in full control. Your brain’s job is to produce logic for you to consider. — Mo Gawdat
Rationality and reason should always prevail over ideology and dogma. — Bret Weinstein
Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning. — Karen Horney
Human beings are the only creatures who are able to behave irrationally in the name of reason. — Ashley Montagu
If one devalues rationality, the world tends to fall apart. — Lars von Trier
I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking — Albert Einstein
Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. — Ambrose Bierce
There is nothing higher than reason. — Immanuel Kant
When one's thoughts are neither frivolous nor flippant, when one's thoughts are neither stiff-necked nor stupid, but rather, are harmonious -- they habitually render physical calm and deep insight. — Hildegard of Bingen
Short Rational Thought Quotes
Thought that accepts reality as given is no thought at all. — Herbert Marcuse
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
I think 'vegan' is a beautiful word. It is more than just a description for our diet. I see it as a visible template for an ethical, healthy, responsible, and rational life. Because it describes our character, it says we do not take the life of another living being to satisfy our wants. — Philip Wollen
Emotions are one of the main things that derail communication. Once people get upset at one another, rational thinking goes out of the window. — Chris Voss
I think I got off on the wrong planet. Beam me up Scotty, there's no rational life here. — Robert Anton Wilson
If you have a bad thought about yourself, tell it to go to hell because that is exactly where it came from.
If you attach your mind to any ideology, you're going to be on a road, and that road may or may not lead you in a good direction. But you're gonna stay on that road because you are attached to an ideology. It could be a terrible road, but you stick with it regardless of rational thinking. — Joe Rogan
In daily life, reality gives us material incentives to restrain our irrationality. But what incentive do we have to think rationally about politics? — Bryan Caplan
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality. — Bertrand Russell
I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists. However, this is not entirely a matter of joy as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health. — John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Logical Thinking Quotes
Live simply and without thinking too much, like a child with his father. Faith without too much thinking works wonders. The logical mind hinders the Grace of God and miracles. Practice patience without judging with the logical mind. — Elder Paisios of Mount Athos
In Architecture there is a part that is the result of Logical Reasoning and a part that is created through the Senses. There is always a point where they Clash. I don't think Architecture can be created without that Collision. — Tadao Ando
We are living in an interminable succession of absurdities imposed by the myopic logic of short-term thinking. — Jacques Yves Cousteau
Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.
You cannot approach people who think differently with reason and logic if they don't know what that means. First, you have to appeal to their values to start with. If you attack them, you lose them. — Jacque Fresco
Stop making sense. Logic is predictable. Think differently. — Paul Smith
Address to Albert Einstein: You are not thinking. You are merely being logical. — Niels Bohr
One small positive thought in the morning can change you whole day.
Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world. All knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it. — Albert Einstein
A good designer must rely on experience, on precise, logic thinking; and on pedantic exactness. No magic will do. — Niklaus Wirth
But men love abstract reasoning and neat systematization so much that they think nothing of distorting the truth, closing their eyes and ears to contrary evidence to preserve their logical constructions. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Rational Decisions Quotes
When we repeat 1 percent errors, day after day, by replicating poor decisions, duplicating tiny mistakes, and rationalizing little excuses, our small choices compound into toxic results. — James Clear
Those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome cannot see that for 63 million Americans, voting for Trump was an obviously rational decision. — Gad Saad
The decision to invest in an asset class must be rational, not emotional. — Naved Abdali
How amazing is it to find someone who wants to hear about all the things that go in your head.
If we are to make even remotely rational decisions about energy going forward, the reality of today’s unnatural level of nourishment and its dependence on fossil fuels need to be widely understood. — Alex Epstein
We are all far less rational in our decision-making than standard economic theory assumes. Our irrational behaviors are neither random nor senseless: they are systematic and predictable. We all make the same types of mistakes over and over, because of the basic wiring of our brains. — Dan Ariely
I feel that one must deliberate then act, must scan every life choice with rational thinking but then base the decision on whether one's heart will be in it. — Jean Shinoda Bolen
Empty Minds Make The Most Noise!
People who have cut their teeth on philosophical problems of rationality, knowledge, perception, free will and other minds are well placed to think better about problems of evidence, decision making, responsibility and ethics that life throws up. — Simon Blackburn
I believe that decisions about the timing and manner of death belong to the individual as a human right. I believe it is wrong to withhold medical methods of terminating life painlessly and swiftly when an individual has a rational and clear-minded sustained wish to end his or her life. — A.C. Grayling
The movie business is very much like that: people in authority making purely emotional decisions instead of interesting rational ones. — Bill Forsyth
My position is to listen to my constituents, learn from the best information available and ultimately make sound, rational decisions that are going to be beneficial to the people of the 8th Congressional District. — Gabrielle Giffords
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. — Albert Einstein
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. — Aldous Huxley
Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the love and joy beneath the pain.
There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him, and those who live not seeking, or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy. — Blaise Pascal
If you are not the victim, don't examine it entirely from your point of view because when YOU'RE not the victim, it becomes pretty easy to rationalize and excuse cruelty, injustice, inequality, slavery, and even murder. But when you're the victim, things look a lot differently from that angle. — Gary Yourofsky
Western civilisation needs a complete overhaul or it will fall apart one day or another. It has realised the most complete perversion of any rational order of things. Reign of matter, of gold, of machine, of number, it no longer possesses breath, or liberty, or light. — Julius Evola
If you wouldn't say it to a friend, don't say it to yourself.
Any opposition not based on rationalism or science or experience will one day or other, reveal the fraud, selfishness, lies and conspiracies. — Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free. — Kavita Ramdas
You cannot expect any rational thought from a religious man. He is like a rocking log in water. — Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude. — Karl Popper
Human Thought Quotes
Our greatest human freedom is that, despite whatever our physical situation is in life, WE ARE ALWAYS FREE TO CHOOSE OUR THOUGHTS! — Viktor E. Frankl
We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n'ani ji onwe ya: 'He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.' — Chinua Achebe
America will tolerate the taking of a human life without giving it a second thought. But don't misuse a household pet. — Dick Gregory
Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain.
If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut — Albert Einstein
The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence. — Charles Bukowski
In my games I have sometimes found a combination intuitively simply feeling that it must be there. Yet I was not able to translate my thought processes into normal human language. — Mikhail Tal
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Experiences have clearly shown that an approach which 'de-medicalizes' birth, restores dignity and humanity to the process of childbirth, and returns control to the mother is also the safest approach. — Michel Odent
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence. — Louis Pasteur
I don't have any understanding of a human being who doesn't respect the beauty of life and that goes for all creatures that have thoughts, feelings and needs. — Alicia Silverstone
If human emotions largely result from thinking, then one may appreciably control one's feelings by controlling one's thoughts - or by changing the internalized sentences, or self-talk, with which one largely created the feeling in the first place. — Albert Ellis
Logical Reasoning Quotes
I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life: It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found. — John Forbes Nash
There is no logical reason why thoughts, which have no substance, should have so much power over you, nor is there any reason why you should become their slave — Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing. — Claude LeviStrauss
Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing. — Claude Levi-Strauss
The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve. — Eugene Wigner
My purity manifests itself in countless ways, including an utter inability to sit idly when exposed to attacks on truth, reason, logic, and/or individual dignity. — Gad Saad
All logical arguments can be defeated by the simple refusal to reason logically — Steven Weinberg
There is no logical reason why the camel of great art should pass through the needle of mob intelligence. — Rebecca West
Chess is a very logical game and it is the man who can reason most logically and profoundly in it that ought to win. — Jose Raul Capablanca
When I consider this carefully, I find not a single property which with certainty separates the waking state from the dream. How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream? — Rene Descartes
Moral Reasoning Quotes
You can't make people change, but the organizers of WorldFest hope that people consider being vegetarian for both moral and health reasons — Grace Slick
Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. — George Washington
How many of us have been attracted to reason; first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism. — Edward George BulwerLytton
How many of us have been first attracted to reason, first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism from Rochefoucauld or La Bruyere. — Bill Vaughan
How many of us have been attracted to reason; first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Freemasonry is an institution founded on eternal reason and truth; whose deep basis is the civilization of mankind, and whose everlasting glory it is to have the immovable support of those two mighty pillars, science and morality. — George Washington
The needs of a human being are sacred. Their satisfaction cannot be subordinated either to reasons of state, or to any consideration of money, nationality, race, or color, or to the moral or other value attributed to the human being in question, or to any consideration whatsoever. — Simone Weil
If one rejects laissez faire on account of mans fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action. — Ludwig von Mises
Having killed God, the atheist is left with no reason for being, no morality to espouse, no meaning to life, and no hope beyond the grave. — Ravi Zacharias
The only reason why you are unhappy is because you are trying to be happy. — Jaggi Vasudev
Thought Process Quotes
People who have no hold over their process of thinking are likely to be ruined by liberty of thought. If thought is immature, liberty of thought becomes a method of converting men into animals. — Muhammad Iqbal
Science is the process of thinking God's thoughts after Him. — Johannes Kepler
Part of the process of letting go is releasing any thoughts of how you or your piece will be received. When making art, the audience comes last. Let’s not consider how a piece will be received or a release strategy until the work is finished and we love it. — Rick Rubin
The study of the wisdom teachings should be a continuous process in which the teachings become the predominant factor of life rather than the useless and oftentimes negative and illusory thoughts of those who are ignorant of spiritual truths. — Egyptian Proverbs
If people stopped looking on their emotions as ethereal, almost inhuman processes, and realistically viewed them as being largely composed of perceptions, thoughts, evaluations, and internalized sentences, they would find it quite possible to work calmly and concertedly at changing them. — Albert Ellis
The simplest and most satisfactory view is that thought is simply behavior - verbal or nonverbal, covert or overt. It is not some mysterious process responsible for behavior but the very behavior itself in all the complexity of its controlling relations. — B. F. Skinner
The thought of continually eating something like macaroni, spat out by machinery, fills me with fear and revulsion, so I make macaroni sculptures. I make them and make them and then keep on making them, until I bury myself in the process. I call this 'obliteration.' — Yayoi Kusama
All physical systems can be thought of as registering and processing information, and how one wishes to define computation will determine your view of what computation consists of. — Seth Lloyd
I think Ronald Reagan was one of the great presidents, period, not just recently. I thought he had the demeanor. I thought he had the bearing. I thought he had the thought process. — Donald Trump
It turns out that moving our muscles produces proteins that travel through the bloodstream and into the brain, where they play pivotal roles in the mechanisms of our highest thought processes. — John Ratey
Conceptual Thinking Quotes
I tried to fit it in with some previous broad conceptual understanding of some part of mathematics that would clarify the particular problem I was thinking about. — Andrew Wiles
All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man. — Jiddu Krishnamurti
Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. — George Lakoff
I do think it's important that we experiment with new vocabularies. That new words help us conceptualize our social existence in a different way. — Judith Butler
Words are a distraction to enlightenment. Getting rid of conceptual thinking means enlightenment. — Ramesh S Balsekar
General relativity is the cornerstone of cosmology and astrophysics. It has also provided the conceptual basis for string theory and other attempts to unify all the forces of nature in terms of geometrical structures. — Paul Davies
I think the women - Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu - are doing new conceptual things and using their voices to create new American music. — Boz Scaggs
You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. — Jiddu Krishnamurti
Thinking fragments reality - it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces. — Eckhart Tolle
The Buddha himself said, "I still use conceptual thinking, but I'm not formed by it." And that's the Buddha. — Tenzin Palmo
Being Rational Quotes
The chief aim of all investigations of the external world should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God and which He revealed to us in the language of mathematics. — Johannes Kepler
To be loved, feelings must be rationed. To love, the doors of hysteria, fantasy, and madness may be flung open. — Anton Szandor LaVey
Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them. — Salvador Dali
I am convinced of the afterlife, independent of theology. If the world is rationally constructed, there must be an afterlife — Kurt Gödel
I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth — Karl Popper
If women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long? — Gloria Steinem
We didn’t evolve to be healthy, but instead we were selected to have as many offspring as possible under diverse, challenging conditions. As a consequence, we never evolved to make rational choices about what to eat or how to exercise in conditions of abundance and comfort. — Daniel Lieberman
You have to be just as mistrustful of straightforward rationality in business as you do of a uniquely gut approach. — Bernard Arnault
If the psychic energies of the average mass of people watching a football game or a musical comedy could be diverted into the rational channels of a freedom movement, they would be invincible. — Wilhelm Reich
There can be no doubt that our Nation has had a long and unfortunate history of sex discrimination. Traditionally, such discrimination was rationalized by an attitude of "romantic paternalism" which, in practical effect, put women, not on a pedestal, but in a cage. — William J. Brennan
Let them get at the books themselves, and do not let them be flooded with diluted talk from the lips of their teacher. The less the parents 'talk-in' and expound their rations of knowledge and thought to the children they are educating, the better for the children...Children must be allowed to ruminate, must be left alone with their own thoughts. — Charlotte Mason
So, let us, you and I, for the sake of our brother man, individually strive by example and influence to lift the standard of thought and conduct from the low level of selfishness and self-indulgence up to the lofty realms of aspirational thought and self-denial. — Ossian Everett Mills
I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system. — Noam Chomsky
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms. — Albert Einstein
I suspect that most of the individuals who have religious faith are content with blind faith. They feel no obligation to understand what they believe. They may even wish not to have their beliefs disturbed by thought. — Mortimer Adler
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 Rickover
For me, each game is a new challenge, which has to be dealt with rationally and systematically. At that time, every other thought fades into oblivion. — Viswanathan Anand
It is not the world that is absurd, nor human thought: the absurd arises when the human need to understand meets the unreasonableness of the world, when 'my appetite for the absolute and for unity' meets 'the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle.' — Albert Camus
To unfold the secret laws and relations of those high faculties of thought by which all beyond the merely perceptive knowledge of the world and of ourselves is attained or matured, is a object which does not stand in need of commendation to a rational mind. — George Boole
I believe that words uttered in passion contain a greater living truth than do those words which express thoughts rationally conceived. It is blood that moves the body. Words are not meant to stir the air only: they are capable of moving greater things. — Soseki Natsume
At 42, I decided to become a photographer because it offered a means of creative thought and action. I didn't rationalize this, I just felt it intuitively and followed my intuition, which I have never regretted. — Wynn Bullock
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
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. — Kay Redfield Jamison
Rationality is not just something you do so that you can make more money, it is a binding principle. Rationality is a really good idea. You must avoid the nonsense that is conventional in one's own time. It requires developing systems of thought that improve your batting average over time. — Charlie Munger
It seems to me that my lack of faith is not, as I once thought, a triumph of the rational mind, but rather a failure of the imagination - an inability to tolerate mistery. — Zoë Heller
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
I'm an extremely private dude and all this is happening so damn quick. I really haven't had any time to rationalize it. But it's nothing that I'm going to let freak me out or take control of me or my thoughts or my real life. — Heath Ledger
We should exterminate all rational thought. — William S. Burroughs
Rationalism is an adventure in the clarification of thought. — Alfred North Whitehead
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
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
-But rational thoughts lead only to rational thoughts, whereas irrational thoughts lead to new experiences. — Alan Lightman
The genuine values in America arose from rational thought and breaking with tradition, not from blind allegiance to dirt and cloth. — Stefan Molyneux
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
Painting quickly is a calculated act to block out rational thought. — Antoni Tapies
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
It is quite deplorable to see how many rational creatures, or at least who are thought so, mistake suffering for sanctity, and think a sad face and a gloomy habit of mind propitious offerings to that Deity whose works are all light and lustre and harmony and loveliness. — Sydney, Lady Morgan
Zen is based on the recognition of two incompatible types of thought: rational and intuitive. — Tom Hoover
Unlike rational thought, intuition cannot be 'taught' or even turned on. In fact, it is impossible to find or manipulate this intuitive consciousness using our rational mind—any more than we can grasp our own hand or see our own eye. — Tom Hoover
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
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
Lasker thought that his rationalism rendered him immune from the surprises of chess theory. — Savielly Tartakower
In sports teams, apart from talk of sporting prowess and the imparting of inspirational thought, an extraordinary amount of time is spent discussing, and flaunting, material possessions. — Harsha Bhogle
Our garden was debated territory between five local cats, and we'd heard that the best way to keep other cats out of the garden was to have one yourself. A moment's rational thought here will spot the slight flaw in this reasoning. — Terry Pratchett
Rational thought is interpretation according to a scheme which we cannot escape. — Friedrich Nietzsche
I am a secularist in the Gandhian sense of the word, not the Nehruvian one. Nehru thought religion was an antique superstition which stood in the way of rational modern politics. I side with Gandhi, who wanted religious figures out of politics but also was suspicious of purely rational politics. — Pankaj Mishra
Eliminate the word "impossible" from your conversation, drop it from your thoughts, erase it from your attitudes. Stop rationalizing it. Cease excusing it. Substitute for it that bright and shining word...POSSIBLE." — Norman Vincent Peale
I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought. — Harold Ramis
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
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
The child is thinking and receiving vibrational thought from you on the day that he enters your environment. That is the reason that beliefs are transmitted so easily from parent to child. — Esther Hicks
In Conclusion
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