All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
A composition—and every work of art is one—is created in a wondrous interplay between imagination and reason, or between mind and reflection. For there will always be an element of chance in the creative process.
The faculty of vision can vary from person to person. On the other hand, we can rely on what our reason tells us because that is the same for everyone
I believe there is a reason such as autism, severe manic-depression, and schizophrenia remain in our gene pool even though there is much suffering as a result.
Fire and water, logic and reason—those footholds of reality that you mortals hold so near and dear become like so much mist on the plains of the dreamscape.
If we cannot persuade our friends by reasons we must be content "and not bring a mercenary army to our aid" (He meant passions.)
It does not, in the conventional phrase, accept the conclusions of science, for the simple reason that science has not concluded. To conclude is to shut up; and the man of science is not at all likely to shut up.
I don’t think much about guys from the past. I’m glad I knew them, but there’s a reason they didn’t make it into my future.
There are good reasons to learn how to read. Poetry isn't one of them... Why can't poets just say what they want to say and then shut up?
Life is not a series of pathetic, meaningles actions. Some of them are so far from pathetic, so far from meaningless as to be beyond reason, maybe beyond forgiveness.
Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion. To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain.
A pure democracy is generally a very bad government, It is often the most tyrannical government on earth; for a multitude is often rash, and will not hear reason.
They passed the point where they'd made their previous retreat, but this time felt no urgency or fear. For some reason the dubious energy field was gone.
Fire can destroy or purify, strengthen or weaken, all depending on the nature of the material being burned. Pain has the same effects on the human soul, and for the same reasons.
You sound so reasonable for a man who's been jilted. Can't you sound a bit angry? You just lost the best sex of your life. Punch a wall or something!
Know this about yourself: there is only one reason professional salespeople lose orders-- they are outsold.
Perhaps it is only human nature to inflict suffering on anything that will endure suffering, whether by reason of its genuine humility, or indifference, or sheer helplessness.
The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
When we want something, we have to have a clear purpose in mind for the thing that we want. The only reason for seeking a reward is to know what to do with that reward
There were no scruples, no feelings of respect or loyal affection that would stop us from making up our minds by the pure light of reason - and of our own desires.
America, to me, should be shouting all the time, a bunch of shouting voices, most of them wrong, some of them nuts, but please, not just one droning glamourous reasonable voice.
