Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal... In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately.
Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away for two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh--not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.
Tags: cats man animals dogs religion monkeys doves foxes geese reasoning squirrels
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
Galileo GalileiTags: science dissent reasoning independent-thought scientific-method truth-telling
when man determined to destroy
himself he picked the was
of shall and finding only why
smashed it into because
I'll not listen to reason... reason always means what someone else has got to say.
Elizabeth GaskellTags: humor reasoning independent-thought self-trust
The truly terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons.
Jean RenoirTags: reason understanding motivation reasoning reasons
Thus, you see, he arrived at the same end, via supposed duty, that he was previously pledged to via interest. I fancy a good number of us, when any line of action will promote our own interest, can make ourselves believe that reasons exist which compel us to it as a duty.
Elizabeth GaskellTags: purpose belief self-deception reasoning duty ends interest sardonic
In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.
David HumeTags: wisdom science certainty doubt reason belief facts skepticism reasoning evidence proportion assurance degrees
Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.
Margaret MeadTags: education children judgement reasoning mentoring
Words never fail. We hear them, we read them; they enter into the mind and become part of us for as long as we shall live. Who speaks reason to his fellowmen bestows it upon them. Who mouths inanity disorders thought for all who listen. There must be some minimum allowable dose of inanity beyond which the mind cannot remain reasonable. Irrationality, like buried chemical waste, sooner or later must seep into all the tissues of thought.
Richard MitchellTags: words language wit reasoning
People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.
Anthony de MelloPage 1 of 5.
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