Reference > Quotations > Hoyt & Roberts, comps. > Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
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Hoyt & Roberts, comps.  Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations.  1922.
 
Reason
 
  Il n’est pas nécessaire de tenir les choses pour en raisonner.
  It is not necessary to retain facts that we may reason concerning them.
        Beaumarchais—Barbier de Séville. V. 4.		  1
Domina omnium et regina ratio.
  Reason is the mistress and queen of all things.
        Cicero—Tusculanarum Disputationum. II. 21.		  2
  Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule … as making the worse appear the better reason.
        Diogenes Laertius—Socrates. V.		  3
  He who will not reason, is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not, is a slave.
        William Drummond—Academical Question. End of preface.		  4
              Two angels guide
The path of man, both aged and yet young,
As angels are, ripening through endless years,
On one he leans: some call her Memory,
And some Tradition; and her voice is sweet,
With deep mysterious accords: the other,
Floating above, holds down a lamp which streams
A light divine and searching on the earth,
Compelling eyes and footsteps. Memory yields,
Yet clings with loving check, and shines anew,
Reflecting all the rays of that bright lamp
Our angel Reason holds. We had not walked
But for Tradition; we walk evermore
To higher paths by brightening Reason’s lamp.
        George Eliot—Spanish Gypsy. Bk. II.		  5
  Reasons are not like garments, the worse for wearing.
        Earl of Essex to Lord Willoughby. Jan. 4, 1598–9.		  6
  Setting themselves against reason, as often as reason is against them.
        Hobbes—Works. III. P. 91. Ed. 1839. Also in Epistle Dedicatory to Tripos. IV. XIII.		  7
Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.
  I will it, I so order, let my will stand for a reason.
        Juvenal—Satires. VI. 223.		  8
  You have ravished me away by a Power I cannot resist; and yet I could resist till I saw you; and even since I have seen you I have endeavored often “to reason against the reasons of my Love.”
        Keats—Letters to Fanny Braune. VIII.		  9
La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure.
  The reasoning of the strongest is always the best.
        La Fontaine—Fables. I. 10.		  10
  To be rational is so glorious a thing, that two-legged creatures generally content themselves with the title.
        Locke—Letter to Antony Collins, Esq.		  11
But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels.
        Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. II. L. 112.		  12
                    Subdue
By force, who reason for their law refuse,
Right reason for their law.
        Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. VI. L. 40.		  13
                Indu’d
With sanctity of reason.
        Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. VII. L. 507.		  14
Mais la raison n’est pas ce qui règle l’amour.
  But it is not reason that governs love.
        Molière—Le Misanthrope. I. 1.		  15
La parfaite raison fuit toute extremité,
Et veut que l’on soit sage avec sobriètè.
  All extremes does perfect reason flee,
  And wishes to be wise quite soberly.
        Molière—Le Misanthrope. I. 1.		  16
Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?
        Pope—Essay on Man. Ep. I. L. 17.		  17
Reason, however able, cool at best,
Cares not for service, or but serves when prest,
Stays till we call, and then not often near.
        Pope—Essay on Man. Ep. III. L. 85.		  18
Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise;
His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.
        Pope—Moral Essays. Ep. I. L. 117.		  19
Omnia sunt risus, sunt pulvis, et omnia nil sunt:
Res hominum cunctæ, nam ratione carent.
  All is but a jest, all dust, all not worth two peason:
  For why in man’s matters is neither rime nor reason.
        Puttenham—Arte of English Poesie. P. 125. Attributed by him to Democritus.		  20
 
 
  Nam et Socrati objiciunt comici, docere eum quomodo pejorem causam meliorem faciat.
  For comic writers charge Socrates with making the worse appear the better reason.
        Quintilian—De Institutione Oratoria. II. 17. 1.		  21
On aime sans raison, et sans raison l’on hait.
  We love without reason, and without reason we hate.
        Regnard—Les Folies Amoureuses.		  22
  Nihil potest esse diuturnum cui non subest ratio.
  Nothing can be lasting when reason does not rule.
        Quintus Curtius Rufus—De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni. IV. 14. 19.		  23
  Id nobis maxime nocet, quod non ad rationis lumen sed ad similitudinem aliorum vivimus.
  This is our chief bane, that we live not according to the light of reason, but after the fashion of others.
        Seneca—Octavia. Act II. 454.		  24
Every why hath a wherefore.
        Comedy of Errors. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 44.		  25
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason
To fust in us unus’d.
        Hamlet. Act IV. Sc. 4. L. 36.		  26
  Give you a reason on compulsion! if reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.
        Henry IV. Pt. I. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 263.		  27
Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.
        Julius Cæsar. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 203.		  28
But since the affairs of men rest still incertain,
Let’s reason with the worst that may befall.
        Julius Cæsar. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 96.		  29
Strong reasons make strong actions.
        King John. Act III. Sc. 4. L. 182.		  30
  His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them, they are not worth the search.
        Merchant of Venice. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 16.		  31
I have no other but a woman’s reason
I think him so because I think him so.
        Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 23.		  32
While Reason drew the plan, the Heart inform’d
The moral page and Fancy lent it grace.
        Thomson—Liberty. Pt. IV. L. 262.		  33
Reason progressive, Instinct is complete;
Swift Instinct leaps; slow reason feebly climbs.
Brutes soon their zenith reach.  *  *  *  In ages they no more
Could know, do, covet or enjoy.
        Young—Night Thoughts. Night VII. L. 81.		  34
And what is reason? Be she thus defined:
Reason is upright stature in the soul.
        Young—Night Thoughts. Night VII. L. 1,526.		  35
 
 
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