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;void(0)) REAGAN (RONALD) --- REALISM --- REALITY . . . see: "PEOPLE" for related links see: "POLITICS" for related links Ronald Reagan won America's respect with his greatness, and won its love with his goodness. He had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility, and the humor that comes with wisdom. [...] He always told us that for America, the best was yet to come. We comfort ourselves in the knowledge that this is true for him, too. His work is done. And now a shining city awaits him. May God bless Ronald Reagan. --George W. Bush (1946— ) The 43rd President of the United States and a former Governor of Texas. Paris [5 June 2004] http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/6/5/185723.shtml - Ronald Reagan might have owed his reputation as The Great Communicator to baseball: one of his first communicating jobs was as a long-distance announcer, re-creating Chicago Cubs games on the radio in Iowa. Later, during his Hollywood days, Reagan played a Hall of Famer in the 1952 film 'The Winning Team,' a sanitized biography of the Phillies, Cubs, and Cardinals pitching great Grover Cleveland Alexander. Bob Lemon, a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and a future Hall of Famer himself, served as Reagan's stand-in for scenes requiring play. At one point the script called for Alexander to hit a catcher's mitt nailed to the side of a barn. "Piece of cake," Lemon said. Maybe it was the cameras, but Lemon proceeded to hit everything except the mitt. "Mind if I try it?" Reagan asked in an affable voice. "One pitch, smack in the middle of that mitt," Lemon later told a reporter. "I've never been so embarrased in all my life." --Carl M. Cannon, _The Oval Office and the Diamond_, 'The Atlantic Monthly' [May 2001] - One thing about Ronald Reagan that struck me time and again was his obvious, visceral loathing of communism. For him it wasn't just a difference of opinion about economics or governance: he saw through the whole thing to its essentially anti-human nature. And this was at a time, we all too easily forget, when plenty of people in the West — I think a majority of the intellectual classes even as late as the 1980s — didn't mind communism at all, thought in fact that it was just the ticket, if perhaps not for the USA, at least for poor counties like Nicaragua. Reagan had the firmest, clearest, truest moral compass of any modern President. May he rest in peace. --John Derbyshire (b. 1945) British-born American author. "National Review Online" [5 June 2004] - In 1983 Reagan's popularity took a dip, mostly due to a rise in unemployment. One of his advisers came to him with the bad polling data, announcing that for the first time since he took office, a majority of Americans disapproved of his job performance. Reagan thought for a moment, then said, "I know what we can do. I'll just have to go and get shot again." --Bob Dole (1923— ) Republican senator and majority leader and unsuccesful candidate in the 1996 presidential election. In _Great Political Wit: Laughing (Almost) All The Way To The White House_ [1998]. - When that fool Reagan said that the Soviet Union was a failed experiment headed for the ash heap of history, I knew he was a demagogue. When that fool Reagan said that the Soviet Union was an evil empire, I knew he was a dangerous kook. When that fool Reagan said that we could end the Cold War by escalating the arms race, I knew the odds favored nuclear annihilation. When the Soviet Union went broke, dissolved, and repudiated its past, I knew it was all Gorbachev's genius, and that fool Reagan had nothing to do with it. Because if that fool Reagan was right all along ...what kind of fool am I? --Jules Feiffer (1929— ) American cartoonist and author. - Many of his jokes were learned by heart or even written for him. But some of his best one-liners were spontaneous. Of a mob of peace protestors: 'Their signs say make love not war, but they didn't look as if they could do either.' To a bearded man who shouted, 'We are the future,' Reagan replied, 'I'll sell my bonds.' When he was shot and nearly died in 1981, he let out a string of one-liners. Thus, to his wife Nancy, 'Honey, I forgot to duck,' a recycling of Jack Dempsey's famous 1926 joke about his defeat by Gene Tunney. Just before being wheeled into the operating theater, he said to the doctors, 'Please tell me you're all Republicans,' and when he was in the recovery room he said to the nurses, paraphrasing W. C. Fields during the wagon- train fight against the Sioux: 'All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.' --Paul Johnson (1928— ) British historian. _A History of the American People_ [1997] p. 921 Ronald Reagan's popularity soared after the [John W. Hinckley, Jr.] shooting because of the gallant way he had responded. Even with a bullet lodged centimeters from his heart, he walked into the hospital unaided, because he did not want the commander in chief to be shown on television as immobilized. --Kitty Kelley (1942— ) American journalist. _The Family: The Real Story of The Bush Dynasty_ [2004], Ch. 19 - [To the surgeons about to operate after he was shot:] Please tell me you're Republicans. --Ronald Reagan (1911—2004) American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor. Quoted in "Washington Post" [31 March 1981]. As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner: "This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality." Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom. --Ronald Reagan "Tear Down This Wall" speech, West Berlin [12 June 1987] There are advantages to being President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret. --Ronald Reagan I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. --Ronald Reagan (1911—2004) American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor. Letter to the American people revealing he had Alzheimer's [5 November 1994]. & see: I admire Ronald Reagan. He had the courage to write a letter to the world when he knew he had Alzheimer's disease. This courageous act, speaking so openly about a disease that would inevitably conquer him, helped so many other people, not only those with that treacherous malady, but also their friends and family. --Kirk Douglas [Issur Danielovitch] (1916— ) American film actor and producer. _My Stroke of Luck_ [2002], "Presidents" Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement. --Ronald Reagan (1911—2004) U.S. President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor. Speech, in Lou Cannon "Thanks for the Reaganisms" _Washington Post_ [2 January 1989]. ^ It was a cold winter day in Washington, and the president was walking with his Secret Service detail from the residence to the Oval Office, and I was headed in the opposite direction. We spoke at a distance and then he said something to the agents accompanying him. I stopped, not sure of what was taking place, and he came toward me while the agents held their positions. He stopped, looked me straight in the eye, and said, "Choose your weapon." Puzzled, I said, "Mr. President, I'm not sure what you mean." He replied, "Snowballs at 20 paces; I have the one on the left." I said, "I have the one on the right." We made our snowballs and fired them at the agents along the rose garden, hitting our intended targets, and the story around the White House was that it was the first time Secret Service agents had been fired on and had not returned the fire. The playful event was typical of a man who, for me, was larger than life. He gave so much to this country and to the cause of freedom and democracy -- a contribution that will outlast us all. We are honored to have been in his presence. --Ronald K. Sable [in a letter to "The Wall Street Journal"] (The author was special assistant for national security affairs to President Reagan.) ^ Nearly 20 years ago, confined to an 8-by-10 cell in a prison on the border of Siberia, I was granted by my Soviet jailers the 'privilege' of reading the latest copy of Pravda, the official mouthpiece of the Communist regime. splashed across the front page was a condemnation of Ronald Reagan for having the temerity to call the Soviet Union an 'evil empire.' Tapping on walls and talking through toilets, prisoners quickly spread the word of Reagan's 'provocation' throughout the prison. The dissidents were ecstatic. Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth--a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us. --Natan Sharansky (1948— ) Ukranian-born anti-Communist and Israeli politician and writer. "Afraid of the Truth", _The Washington Post_ [12 October 2000] - Edmund Morris has described his subject as an “airhead” and concluded that it’s “like dropping a pebble in a well and hearing no splash.” Morris may not have heard the splash, but he’s still all wet: The elites were stupid about Reagan in a way that only clever people can be. Take that cheap crack: If you drop a pebble in a well and you don’t hear a splash, it may be because the well is dry but it’s just as likely it’s because the well is of surprising depth. I went out to my own well and dropped a pebble: I heard no splash, yet the well supplies exquisite translucent water to my home. But then I suspect it’s a long while since Morris dropped an actual pebble in an actual well: As with walls, his taste runs instinctively to the metaphorical. Reagan looked at the Berlin Wall and saw not a poem-quoting opportunity but prison bars. I once discussed Irving Berlin, composer of “God Bless America”, with his friend and fellow songwriter Jule Styne, and Jule put it best: “It’s easy to be clever. But the really clever thing is to be simple.” At the Berlin Wall that day, it would have been easy to be clever, as all those ’70s detente sophisticates would have been. And who would have remembered a word they said? Like Irving Berlin with “God Bless America”, only Reagan could have stood there and declared without embarrassment: Tear down this wall! - and two years later the wall was, indeed, torn down. Ronald Reagan was straightforward and true and said it for everybody - which is why his “rhetorical opportunity missed” is remembered by millions of grateful Eastern Europeans. The really clever thing is to have the confidence to say it in four monosyllables. --Mark Steyn (1959— ) Canadian journalist. - In his lifetime Ronald Reagan was such a cheerful and invigorating presence that it was easy to forget what daunting historic tasks he set himself. He sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism. These were causes hard to accomplish and heavy with risk. [...] Yet his humour often had a purpose beyond humour. In the terrible hours after the attempt on his life, his easy jokes gave reassurance to an anxious world. They were evidence that in the aftermath of terror and in the midst of hysteria, one great heart at least remained sane and jocular. They were truly grace under pressure. [...] And surely it is hard to deny that Ronald Reagan's life was providential, when we look at what he achieved in the eight years that followed. Others prophesied the decline of the West; he inspired America and its allies with renewed faith in their mission of freedom. Others saw only limits to growth; he transformed a stagnant economy into an engine of opportunity. Others hoped, at best, for an uneasy cohabitation with the Soviet Union; he won the Cold War - not only without firing a shot, but also by inviting enemies out of their fortress and turning them into friends. [...] Yet his ideas, though clear, were never simplistic. He saw the many sides of truth. Yes, he warned that the Soviet Union had an insatiable drive for military power and territorial expansion; but he also sensed it was being eaten away by systemic failures impossible to reform. Yes, he did not shrink from denouncing Moscow's 'evil empire'. But he realised that a man of goodwill might nonetheless emerge from within its dark corridors. So the President resisted Soviet expansion and pressed down on Soviet weakness at every point until the day came when communism began to collapse beneath the combined weight of these pressures and its own failures. And when a man of goodwill did emerge from the ruins, President Reagan stepped forward to shake his hand and to offer sincere cooperation. --Margaret Thatcher (1925— ) British conservative stateswoman and Prime Minister [1979—1990]. Eulogy of Reagan. http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38914 - In Solidarity By Lech Walesa June 11, 2004; _The Wall Street Journal_ GDANSK, Poland -- When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989. Poles fought for their freedom for so many years that they hold in special esteem those who backed them in their struggle. Support was the test of friendship. President Reagan was such a friend. His policy of aiding democratic movements in Central and Eastern Europe in the dark days of the Cold War meant a lot to us. We knew he believed in a few simple principles such as human rights, democracy and civil society. He was someone who was convinced that the citizen is not for the state, but vice-versa, and that freedom is an innate right. I often wondered why Ronald Reagan did this, taking the risks he did, in supporting us at Solidarity, as well as dissident movements in other countries behind the Iron Curtain, while pushing a defense buildup that pushed the Soviet economy over the brink. Let's remember that it was a time of recession in the U.S. and a time when the American public was more interested in their own domestic affairs. It took a leader with a vision to convince them that there are greater things worth fighting for. Did he seek any profit in such a policy? Though our freedom movements were in line with the foreign policy of the United States, I doubt it. I distinguish between two kinds of politicians. There are those who view politics as a tactical game, a game in which they do not reveal any individuality, in which they lose their own face. There are, however, leaders for whom politics is a means of defending and furthering values. For them, it is a moral pursuit. They do so because the values they cherish are endangered. They're convinced that there are values worth living for, and even values worth dying for. Otherwise they would consider their life and work pointless. Only such politicians are great politicians and Ronald Reagan was one of them. The 1980s were a curious time -- a time of realization that a new age was upon us. Communism was coming to an end. It had used up its means and possibilities. The ground was set for change. But this change needed the cooperation, or unspoken understanding, of different political players. Now, from the perspective of our time, it is obvious that like the pieces of a global chain of events, Ronald Reagan, John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher and even Mikhail Gorbachev helped bring about this new age in Europe. We at Solidarity like to claim more than a little credit, too, for bringing about the end of the Cold War. In the Europe of the 1980s, Ronald Reagan presented a vision. For us in Central and Eastern Europe, that meant freedom from the Soviets. Mr. Reagan was no ostrich who hoped that problems might just go away. He thought that problems are there to be faced. This is exactly what he did. Every time I met President Reagan, at his private estate in California or at the Lenin shipyard here in Gdansk, I was amazed by his modesty and even temper. He didn't fit the stereotype of the world leader that he was. Privately, we were like opposite sides of a magnet: He was always composed; I was a raging tower of emotions eager to act. We were so different yet we never had a problem with understanding one another. I respected his honesty and good humor. It gave me confidence in his policies and his resolve. He supported my struggle, but what unified us, unmistakably, were our similar values and shared goals. I have often been asked in the United States to sign the poster that many Americans consider very significant. Prepared for the first almost-free parliamentary elections in Poland in 1989, the poster shows Gary Cooper as the lonely sheriff in the American Western, "High Noon." Under the headline "At High Noon" runs the red Solidarity banner and the date -- June 4, 1989 -- of the poll. It was a simple but effective gimmick that, at the time, was misunderstood by the Communists. They, in fact, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the "Wild" West, especially the U.S. But the poster had the opposite impact: Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual. Solidarity trounced the Communists in that election, paving the way for a democratic government in Poland. It is always so touching when people bring this poster up to me to autograph it. They have cherished it for so many years and it has become the emblem of the battle that we all fought together. As I say repeatedly, we owe so much to all those who supported us. Perhaps in the early years, we didn't express enough gratitude. We were so busy introducing all the necessary economic and political reforms in our reborn country. Yet President Ronald Reagan must have realized what remarkable changes he brought to Poland, and indeed the rest of the world. And I hope he felt gratified. He should have. Mr. Walesa, winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, was president of Poland from 1990 to 1995. - His philosophical approach is superficial, overly simplistic, one-dimensional. What he preaches is pure economic pap, glossed over with uplifting homilies and inspirational chatter. Yet so far the guy is making it work. Appalled by what seems to me a lack of depth, I stand in awe never- theless of his political skill. I am not sure that I have seen its equal. --Jim Wright Jr. (1922— ) American politician. (Of Ronald Reagan.) - If anything is laid to rest with him at the end of this remarkable week, it ought to be the lazy condescension of the elites. That's all but indestructible, alas. Last Monday, the Washington Post and many other papers carried an Associated Press story by Adam Geller on Reagan's economic legacy which began, "He had almost no schooling in economics..." Actually, that's one of the few things he did have schooling in: In 1932, he earned a bachelor's degree in social science and economics from Eureka College. I guess a certificate from Eureka just doesn't impress these reporters the way Bush's Yale Business School diploma impresses them. What is an ''intelligent'' person? As defined by the media, it seems to mean someone who takes the media seriously. Someone wonkish on the nuts and bolts of particular topics of interest to media types, and able to sit around yakking about them till 3 in the morning. Ronald Reagan had a much rarer intelligence -- a strategic intelligence. In 1977, he told Richard Allen, ''My theory of the Cold War is that we win and they lose.'' Cute. So few politicians talked like that a quarter-century ago that I'd have been content if it was just a neat line. But Reagan figured out a way to make it come true. Within 10 years. That's strategic thinking. Those who disparage him say it would have happened anyway. It was obvious to all that the Soviet Union was on the verge of total collapse. After all, as big-time Ivy League history prof Arthur Schlesinger wrote in 1982, "Those in the United States who think the Soviet Union is on the verge of economic and social collapse" are "wishful thinkers who are only kidding themselves." No, hang on, I must be thinking of Professor J.K. Galbraith, who in 1984 was marveling at "the great material progress" of the USSR. In fairness to Galbraith, as the Associated Press would say, he has almost no schooling in economics, aside from being a Harvard economics professor for several decades. --Mark Steyn (1959— ) Canadian journalist. SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST, "Like Thatcher, Americans grasped Reagan's worth" [13 June 2004] -  ;void(0)) REALISM . . see: "EMOTIONS" see: "OBJECTIVITY" To live happily with other people one should ask of them only what they can give. --Tristan [Paul] Bernard (1866—1947) French playwright, novelist, journalist, and lawyer. _L'Enfant Prodigue du Vesinet_ [1921] Graham Greene famously remarked that there was a splinter of ice in the heart of every writer, and the comment is borne out by Arnold Bennett. A realist writer, Bennett took trouble to get the details right. He claimed that the description of the death of an old character in one of his novels could not be improved on. 'I took infinite pains over it ,' he said. 'All the time my father was dying I was at the bedside making copious notes.' --in _The Mammoth Book of Literary Anecdotes_ ed. Philip Gooden [2002]. I don't think it does any harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are other people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals. --Charles Kuralt (1934—1997) American journalist and broadcaster. The pessimist complains about the wind; The optimist expects it to change; The realist adjusts the sails. --attributed to William Arthur Ward (1921—1994) American college administrator and author. ----- pragmatic (adj.) [præg-'mæ-tik] 1. Realistic, relating to facts, causal relations, and action as opposed to speculation, theory, or abstract principles; 2. A school of philosophy that claims that nothing without real, observable manifestations is relevant to human thought. . . see: "ADAPTABILITY" see: "APPEARANCE" see: "FACTS" see: "PERCEPTION" see: "TRUTH" Beware the writer who always encloses the word reality in quotation marks: He's trying to slip something over on you. Or into you. --Edward Abbey (1927—1989) American author. _A Voice Crying in the Wilderness_ (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) [1989], ch. 1 "Philosophy, Religion, and so Forth." - Many of us leave home convinced we are going to conquer the world. We are anxious to shuck off the restraints of family and traditions, to cut our own swath and make our own rules. We know we can do it better, make it faster and see it all. Somewhere along the way we learn we didn't know quite as much as we thought. Our ideas weren't as new as we took them to be. Suddenly the "quaint" homespun wisdom that once was rejected takes on new life. The first trip home after such an awakening is a return to reality. --Gary L. Bauer (1946— ) American conservative politician who ran for the Republican nomination in 2000. _Our Journey Home_ - A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality. --Christian Nestell Bovee (1820—1904) American writer. _Intuitions and Summaries of Thought_ [1862] Happy season of virtuous youth, when shame is still an impassable celestial barrier, and the sacred air-cities of Hope have not shrunk into the mean clay-hamlets of Reality; and man, by his nature, is yet infinite and free. --Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881) Scottish historian and political philosopher. _Sartor Resartus_, bk. II, ch. V [1831] If you walk on snow you cannot hide your footprints. --Chinese proverb. Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. --Philip K. Dick (1928—1982) American science fiction writer. Perhaps the rare and simple pleasure of being seen for what one is compensates for the misery of being it. --Margaret Drabble (1939— ) English novelist. _A Summer Bird-Cage_ [1963] We should tackle reality in a slightly joky way, otherwise we miss the point. --Lawrence Durrell (1912—1990) British novelist and poet. Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one. --Albert Einstein (1879—1955) German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. --George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880) English novelist. _Silas Marner_, ch. 18 [1861] Human kind Cannot bear very much reality. --T.S. Eliot (1888—1965) Anglo-American poet, critic, and dramatist. "Burnt Norton" pt. I [1936] Handsome is that handsome does. --Henry Fielding (1707—1754) English novelist and dramatist. _A History of Tom Jones, a Foundling_, bk. IV, ch. xii [1749] The reality of the other person lies not in what he reveals to you but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say. --Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931) Lebanese poet. _Sand and Foam_ [1926] Things are seldom what they seem, Skim milk masquerades as cream. --W. S. Gilbert (1836—1911) English writer of comic and satirical verse. _H.M.S. Pinafore_, act 2 [1878] Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you. --Alex Haley (1921—1992) American author. I have laughed in bitterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem and what I am! --Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804—1864) American novelist and short-story writer. _The Scarlet Letter_ [1850] Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced. Even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it. --John Keats (1795—1821) English poet. Letter to George and Georgiana Keats [19 March 1819], in _The Letters of John Keats_ [1958], ed. Hyder Edward Rollins. Some days you need to look reality in the eye, and deny it. --Garrison Keillor (1942— ) American writer and radio host. What we see depends mainly on what we look for. --attributed to both Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet (1803—1865) English banker, mathematician and astronomer. & Sir John Lubbock (1834—1913) The First Lord and Baron Avebury who was a British banker, politician, and archaeologist. There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realised until personal experience has brought it home. --John Stuart Mill (1806—1873) English philosopher and social reformer. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured - disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui - in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. --Henry Miller (1891—1980) American novelist and essayist. Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever. --Baron Münchhausen (1720—1797) German nobleman. - All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream. --Edgar Allan Poe (1809—1849) American poet and short-story writer. "A Dream Within a Dream" l. 10 [1849] He made no resistance whatever, and was stabbed in the back... I must not dwell upon the fearful repast... Words have no power to impress the mind with the exquisite horror of their reality. --Edgar Allan Poe (1809—1849) American poet and short-story writer. - We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality. --attributed to Ayn Rand (1905—1982) Russian-born American writer. No one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it. --Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860) German philosopher. _Studies in Pessimism_ [1851] In youth, everything seems possible; but we reach a point in the middle years when we realize that we are never going to reach all the shining goals we had set for ourselves. And in the end, most of us reconcile ourselves, with what grace we can, to living with our ulcers and arthritis, our sense of partial failure, our less-than-ideal families — and even our politicians! --Adlai E. Stevenson (1900—1965) American Democratic politician. _Call to Greatness_ [1954] - The great Taoist master Chuang Tzu once dreamt that he was a butterfly fluttering here and there. In the dream he had no awareness of his individuality as a person. He was only a butterfly. Suddenly, he awoke and found himself laying there, a person once again. But then he thought to himself, "Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?" --A Zen Fable ----- ontology (noun) The philosophical study of existence and the nature of reality. Derived: ontological, adj.; ontologist, n. veritable [VER-ih-tuh-bul], adjective: Agreeable to truth or to fact; actual; real; true; genuine. . . see: "CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES" see: "IMPULSIVE" see: "MOTIVATION" see: "THE MIND" for other related links Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason. --Samuel Adams (1722—1803) American revolutionary leader. In a letter to Samuel Cooper [30 April 1776]. Those who will not reason Perish in the act: Those who will not act Perish for that reason. --W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973) English-born poet and man of letters. "Shorts" [1974] Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. --Buddha [Gautama] (c. 6th—4th century B.C.) Founder of Buddhism. There is hardly any error into which men may not easily be led if they base their conduct upon reason only. --Samuel Butler (1835—1902) English novelist, essayist, and critic. _Erewhon, Or: Over the Range_ [1872] When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become afraid of them, as if their reason had left them. --Willa Sibert Cather (1873—1947) American novelist. _My Mortal Enemy_, pt. I, ch. 6 [1926] Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; and beasts, by nature. --Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC) Roman orator and statesman. Attributed in John Taylor _The Pocket Lacon_ [1845]. The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an *empty* head than the most superficial declamation, as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a *vacuum*. --C.C. Colton (1780—1832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, "Preface" [1821 ed.] All is but a jest, all dust, all not worth two peason: For why in man's matters is neither rime nor reason. --Democritus of Abdera (c. 460 B.C.—c. 370 B.C.) Greek philosopher. Attributed in George Puttenham _The Arte of English Poesie_ [1589]. We should never allow ourselves to be persuaded excepting by the evidence of our Reason, of our Reason and not of our imagination nor of our senses. --René Descartes (1596—1650) French philosopher and mathematician. In E.F. Schumacher _A Guide for the Perplexed_ [1977]. I feel that there is reason lurking in you somewhere, so we will patiently grope round for it. --Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859—1930) Scottish-born writer of detective fiction. _The Lost World_ [1912] He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not, is a slave. --Sir William Drummond (c.1780—1828) Scottish scholar and philosopher. _Academical Questions_ [1805] Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind before you reach eighteen. --Albert Einstein (1879—1955) German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Quoted in Lincoln Barnett _The Universe and Dr Einstein_ [1950 ed.]. The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American philosopher and poet. "Journal" [18 August 1830] Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason. --attributed to Euripides (485?—406 B.C.) Greek dramatist by James Boswell in his _Life of Johnson_. Neither great poverty, nor great riches, will hear reason. --Henry Fielding (1707—1754) English novelist and dramatist. Attributed in Henry Southgate (ed.) _Many Thoughts of Many Minds_, p. 525 [1862, 3rd edition]. If Passion drives, let Reason hold the Reins. --Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. _Poor Richard's Almanack_ [May 1749] - Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. --Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931) Lebanese poet. "On Reason and Passion" _The Prophet_ [1923] Let reason, not impulse, be your guide. --Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931) Lebanese poet. Anthony Ferris (translator) _A Second Treasury of Kahlil Gibran_ [1962] - A man cannot govern a nation if he cannot govern a city; he cannot govern a city if he cannot govern a family; he cannot govern a family unless he can govern himself; and he cannot govern himself unless his passions are subject to reason. --attributed to Hugo Grotius (1583—1645) Dutch philosopher. playwright, and poet. That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where nonconformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where orthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent; where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter out convictions in the open lists, to win or lose. --Learned Hand (1872—1961) American judge. Speech to the Board of Regents, University of the State of New York [24 October 1952]. There is no way of proving your point to someone whose income or position depends on believing the contrary. --Sydney J. Harris (1917—1986) American journalist. _Pieces of Eight_ [1982] To give a reason for anything is to breed a doubt of it. --William Hazlitt (1778—1830) English essayist. _Table Talk_ [1821—1822] "On the Difference Between Writing and Speaking" Reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. --David Hume (1711—1776) Scottish philosopher. _A Treatise Upon Human Nature_ [1738] In matters of the intellect follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration... and do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable. That I take to be the agnostic faith, which if a man keep whole and undefiled, he shall not be ashamed to look the universe in the face, whatever the future may have in store for him. --T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley (1825—1895) English biologist {grandfather of Aldous Huxley}. The emotions aren't always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action. --William James (1842—1910) American philosopher. Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. --Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826) American statesman and president [1801—1809]. Letter to Peter Carr [10 August 1787]. All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason. --Immanuel Kant (1724—1804) Prussian philosopher. _Critique of Pure Reason_ [1781] I have no high opinion of human beings: they are always going to fight and do nasty things to each other. They are always going to be part animal, governed by their emotions and subconscious drives rather than by reason. --George Frost Kennan (1904—2005) Ambassador to the USSR in 1952, and to Yugoslavia from 1961 to 1963 and chief architect of the U.S. Cold War policy of containment and deterrence against communism. In an interview with George Urban published in "Encounter" magazine, September, 1976. Every sect, as far as reason will help them, gladly use it; when it fails them, they cry out it is a matter of faith, and above reason. --John Locke (1632—1704) English political and educational philosopher. Attributed in _The Lady's Book_ [May 1831]. Perfect reason avoids all extremes. --Jean Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622—1673) French comic dramatist. _Le Misanthrope_ [1666] He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak. --Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592) French moralist and essayist. A man always has two reasons for what he does — a good one, and the real one. --John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837—1913) American banker, financier, and benefactor of the arts. Attrib. by Owen Wister in _Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship_ [1930]. Pousser la raison à ses limites aboutit au délire. (Pushing reason to its limits leads to delirium) --Edgar Morin [Edgar Nahoum] (1921— ) French sociologist. "Amour, poésie, sagesse" To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. --Thomas Paine [spelled Pane prior to 1774] (1737—1809) English-American writer and political pamphleteer. _Age of Reason_ [1794] - The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it. --Blaise Pascal (1623—1662) French mathematician, physicist, and moralist. _Pensées_ [1670], # 267 The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of. --Blaise Pascal (1623—1662) French mathematician, physicist, and moralist. _Pensées_ ("Thoughts"), no. 680 [1658] - - Judge not of actions by their mere effect; Dive to the center, and the cause detect; Great deeds from meanest springs may take their course, And smallest virtues from a mighty source. --Alexander Pope (1688—1744) English poet. The ruling passion, be it what it will, The ruling passion conquers reason still. --Alexander Pope (1688—1744) English poet. _Epistles to Several Persons_ "To Lord Bathurst", l. 155 [1733] - Anger is never without an argument, but seldom with a good one. --George Savile, 1st Marquess Halifax (1633—1695) English politician and essayist. _Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections_ [1750] Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge; For, on their answer, will we set on them, And God befriend us as our cause is just! --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist, _Henry IV_ [1597] Women prefer emotions to reasoning. --Stendhal [Marie-Henri Beyle] (1783—1842) French writer. _Love_, p. 55, translated by Suzanne Sale [Published 1975]. - An idle reason lessens the weight of the good ones you gave before. --Jonathan Swift (1667—1745) Anglo-Irish poet and satirist. _Thoughts on Various Subjects_ [1706] It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into. --Jonathan Swift (1667—1745) Anglo-Irish poet and satirist. Attributed in _Monthly Literary Miscellany_ [January 1853]. - Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all; and others, to persecute those who do reason. --Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) (1694—1778) French writer and philosopher. _The Philosophical Dictionary_ [1764], Why is this thus? What is the reason of this thusness? --Artemus Ward [Charles Farrar Browne] (1834—1867) American humorist and writer. _Artemus Ward's Lecture_ "Mr. Heber C. Kimball's Harem" [1869] Women never reason, or if they do, they either draw correct inferences from wrong premises, or wrong inferences from correct premises. --Richard Whately (1787—1863) English philosopher and theologian. Attributed in Littell's Living Age [12 November 1864]. ----- adamant [AD-uh-muhnt], adjective: Not capable of being swayed by pleas, appeals, or reason; not susceptible to persuasion; unyielding. adduce [uh-DOOS; -DYOOS], verb: To offer as a reason in support of an argument; bring up as an example; give as proof or evidence; cite. Ex.: Nor does he adduce any historic arguments to prove that doctors make great governors of men, perhaps because such arguments are difficult to find. --"Carrel's Man", _Time_, September 15, 1931 casuistry (noun) ['kæzh(ê)-wi-stree] The resolution of questions of morality by comparing specific cases against general (religious) principles; specious reasoning; that is, reasoning that sounds logical but is false. cogent [KOH-juhnt], adjective: Having the power to compel conviction; appealing to the mind or to reason; convincing. discursive (adj.) 1. Ranging over numerous topics, esp. in an orderly or coherent way. 2. Proceeding by reason rather than intuition, as an argument or discourse. Synonyms: deductive Similar: rational, logical, inductive, reasonable. expostulate [ik-SPOS-chuh-leyt], verb: To reason earnestly with someone against something that person intends to do or has done. incongruous [in-KONG-groo-us], adjective: 1. Lacking in harmony, compatibility, or appropriateness. 2. Inconsistent with reason, logic, or common sense. pervious (adj.) ['pê(r)-vi-ês] 1. Permeable, penetrable, allowing passage through itself. 2. Susceptible to reason, approachable, can be reasoned with. ratiocination (noun) [ræ-shi-ah-sê-'ney-shên] To reason methodically with precise logic. remonstrate [rih-MAHN-strayt], intransitive verb: 1. To present and urge reasons in opposition to an act, measure, or any course of proceedings -- usually used with 'with'. 2. To say or plead in protest, opposition, or reproof. . . see: "ACTIONS" for related links It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return. --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841—1935) Justice of the United States Supreme Court, legal historian, and philosopher. [1884 Memorial Day Address] There is a destiny that makes us brothers, None goes his way alone; All that we send into the lives of others, Comes back into our own. --Edwin Markham (1852—1940) American poet and lecturer. _A Creed_ [1900] . . see: "CREDIT" (ACKNOWLEDGEMENT) see: "PRAISE" see: "FRIENDS / FRIENDSHIP" for other related links see: "KINDNESS" for other related links A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man. --John Adams (1735—1826) First VP and second President of the United States. _Discourses on Davila: A Series of Papers on Political History_ [1790] [Remark upon accepting an award for humanitarian work:] I don't deserve this, but I have arthritis — and I don't deserve that either. --Jack Benny [Benjamin Kubelsky] (1894—1974) American entertainer. Quoted in "Washington Post" [20 August 1968]. I know not why we should delay our tokens of respect to those who deserve them, until the heart that our sympathy could have gladdened has ceased to beat. As men cannot read the epitaphs inscribed upon the marble that covers them, so the tombs that we erect to virtue often only prove our repentance that we neglected it when with us. --Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803—1873) British novelist, playwright, and politician. Quoted in Craufurd Tait Ramage _Great Thoughts from Latin Authors_, p. 178 [3rd ed. 1884]. Remember, they only name things after you when you're dead or really old. --Barbara Bush (1925— ) Wife of American the 41st U.S.president, George H.W. Bush and mother of the 43rd president, Geowge W. Bush. At the naming ceremony at the George Bush Center for Intelligence, in "Independent" [28 April 1999]. 'Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as we draw near home; 'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark Our coming, and look brighter when we come. --Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824) English Romantic poet and satirist. _Don Juan_ [1818], canto I, st. 123 The applause of a single human being is of great consequence. --Samuel Johnson (1709—1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ (entry of 1780) [1791]. The Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government of the de facto authority of the new state of Israel. --Harry S. Truman (1884—1972) American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945—1953]. Statement. 6:11 p.m. Washington time, 14 May 1948; in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.} _History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 932. Cohan & Major explain: Recognition was accorded 11 minutes after the proclamation of the state of Israel, and Israel thereafter became the protectorate of the United States in the heart of the Arab world. A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, but is miles ahead in results. --Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850—1919) American author and poet. - During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: 'What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?' Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark- haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. 'Absolutely,' said the professor. 'In your careers you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello'. I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy. --anon. - end page | RABBITS - RAIN | RAP - READING | REAGAN (RONALD) - RECOGNITION | RED HEADS - RELIEF | RELIGION - PAGE 1 (A-M) | RELIGION - PAGE 2 (N-Z) | REMEMBERING - REPORTERS | REPUTATION - RESPONSIBILITY | REST - REUNIONS | REVENGE - REWARD | RICH (THE) - RIGHTEOUS | RIGHTS - ROLLER COASTERS | ROMANCE - RUDENESS | RULES - RUSSIA | | R | S | T | U - END | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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