Reason

Mere opinions, theories, or prejudices, will not be sufficient; the demand for it must be made to appear with sunlight clearness.
~ William Aikman, in the Presbyterian Quarterly Review (July 1862). The Future Of The Colored Race In America

There is one principle in life which we so often forget -- there is always a reason why a person thinks and acts as he does, and if we knew that reason, it would be so much easier to understand and to sympathise and to forgive.
~ William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 1 (1956).

I have a feeling that we have been placed on this earth for a special reason and although I have not fulfilled all my missions, I am trying.
~ Billy Barty

Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.
~ Bill Bernbach, Bill Bernbach said ... (1989).

Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more.
~ William Blake, There Is No Natural Religion (1788).

[T]here are unquestionably in the human mind certain necessary and universal principles, which, shining with an intrinsic light of evidence, are themselves above proof, but the authority for all mediate and contingent principles. That which is thus above reasoning is the reason.
~ William Thomas Brande, A Dictionary of Science, Literature, & Art (1842).

Reason at the best is but a child to faith.
~ William Bridge, The Works of William Bridge, Volume I (1645). The Spiritual Actings of Faith Through Natural Impossibilities

I would not always reason. The straight path
Wearies us with its never-varying lines,
And we grow melancholy.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1832 edition). The Conjunction of Jupiter and Venus

The simplest explanation is that it doesn't make sense.
~ Professor William Buechner

Better a bad excuse, than none at all.
~ William Camden, Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine (1605).

Peace rules the day, where reason rules the mind.
~ William Collins, Persian Eclogues (1742). II, Hassan; or, The Camel Driver

Philosophy, wisdom, and liberty, support each other; he, who will not reason, is a bigot; he, who cannot, is a fool; and he, who dares not, is a slave.
~ William Drummond (of Logiealmond), Academical Questions (1805). Preface

My father said that the reason for living is getting ready to stay dead.
~ William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930).

Let the apetite be obedient to reason.
~ William Wentworth-FitzWilliam (4th Earl FitzWilliam), Motto

Reason has prevailed with me more than popular opinion.
~ William Lloyd Garrison, in William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story Of His Life Told By His Children, Volume I (1885). Chapter V: Bennington and the Journal of the Times. 1828-29

[I]the discovery of secret things and in the investigation of hidden causes, stronger reasons are obtained from sure experiments and demonstrated arguments than from probable conjectures and the opinions of philosophical speculators of the common sort.
~ William Gilbert, De Magnete (1600). Preface

Never mind the why and wherefore.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, H.M.S. Pinafore (1878 opera).

One of the prerogatives by which man is eminently distinguished from all other living beings inhabiting this globe of earth, consists in the gift of reason.
~ William Godwin, Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions and Discoveries (1831). Essay XIII. Of Belief

[I]f no man can be happy in the free exercise of his reason, no wise man can be happy without it.
~ William Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819). On the Periodical Essayists

It is always easier to quote an authority than to carry on a chain of reasoning.
~ William Hazlitt, from A Reply To The Essay On Population: By The Rev. T. R. Malthus. In A Series Of Letters (1807). Letter I. Introductory

[P]rejudice is never easy unless it can pass itself off for reason, or abstract undeniable truth.
~ William Hazlitt, in Sketches and Essays (1839). On Prejudice (written in 1830)

Reason is the interpreter and critic of nature and genius, not their lawgiver and judge.
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk; or, Original Essays, Volume II (1821-1822). Essay IV. On Genius and Common Sense

Reason, with most people, means their own opinion.
~ William Hazlitt, from The Plain Speaker, Volume I (1826). Essay XVII. The New School of Reform

There is no force but argument in the case, and it is reason, not the will of another, that gives the law.
~ William Hazlitt, in Winterslow, Essays and Characters Written There (1850). Project for a New Theory of Civil and Criminal Legislation (written in 1828)

To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn, presents a rational aspect.
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (G.W.F.) Hegel, The Philosophy of History (1832). III. Philosophic History

The enthronement of reason means the enthronement of man who becomes his own lawgiver.
~ Willem Adolph (W.A.) Visser't Hooft, The Kingship of Christ (1948).

Just how the expression "horse sense" came into use is not known, but the meaning of the combination means good reason, old fashioned logic, simply analysis and actual truth, and the basing of your actions upon simple things rather than complex things.
~ (Col.) William C. Hunter, Dollars and Sense: Being Memoranda made in the School of Practical Experience (1907). Horse Sense

[R]eason is, or should be, the logic of our entire personality.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, from Christian Mysticism, The Bampton Lectures (1899). Appendix A. Definitions of Mysticism and Mystical Theology

As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.
~ William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). Lectures XIV and XV: The Value of Saintliness

Impulse without reason is not enough, and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift.
~ William James, in The Letters of William James Vol. 2 (1920). XI. Letter to Benjamin Paul Blood (28 June 1896)

[M]ystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of knowledge. They are states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect.
~ William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). Lectures XVI and XVII: Mysticism

Our reason is quite satisfied, in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of every thousand of us, if it can find a few arguments that will do to recite in case our credulity is criticised by some one else.
~ William James, An Address to the Philosophical Clubs of Yale and Brown Universities (published in the New World; June 1896). The Will to Believe

Reason is one of the very feeblest of Nature's forces, if you take it at any one spot and moment. It is only in the very long run that its effects become perceptible.
~ William James, published in The Atlantic Monthly (December 1904). Remarks at the Peace Banquet, World Peace Congress. Boston, MA (7 October 1904)

[T]his is an eternal truth, which you cannot too much reflect upon, that reason always follows the state of the heart, and what your heart is, that is your reason.
~ William Law, A Demonstration Of The Gross And Fundamental Errors Of A Late Book (1737).

There is nothing really absurd except that which proves contrary to logic and experience.
~ William (W.) Stanley Jevons, The Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method (1873). Chapter XXVI: Character of the Experimentalist

The Age of Reason is also called the Enlightenment or the Age of Rationalism. ... The leaders of the Age of Reason relied heavily on the scientific method, with its emphasis on experimentation and careful observation. The period produced many important advances in such fields as anatomy, astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Philosophers of the Age of Reason organized knowledge in encyclopedias and founded scientific institutes. The philosophers believed that the scientific method could be applied to the study of human nature. They explored issues in education, law, philosophy, and politics and attacked tyranny, social injustice, superstition, and ignorance. Many of their ideas contributed directly to the outbreak of the American and French revolutions in the late 1700's.
~ William T. Jones, Chicago, IL: World Book Inc. (1988). The World Book Encyclopedia

Reason is our universal law, that obliges us in all places, and at all times; and no actions have any honour, but so far as they are instances of our obedience to reason.
~ William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728). Chapter XXIV

Although the whole of this life were said to be nothing but a dream and the physical world nothing but a phantasm, I should call this dream or phantasm real enough, if, using reason well, we were never deceived by it.
~ Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

Nihil est sine ratione. There is nothing without a reason.
~ Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Studies in Physics and the Nature of Body (1671).

From the standpoint of pure reason, there are no good grounds to support the claim that one should sacrifice one's own happiness to that of others.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from A Writer's Notebook (1949). 1896 entry

How did reason come into the world? As is fitting, in an irrational manner, by accident. One will have to guess at it as at a riddle.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Dawn (a.k.a. Daybreak): Thoughts on the prejudices of morality (1881).

The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878).

The fair way of conducting a dispute, is to exhibit one by one the arguments of your opponent, and with each argument, the precise and specific answer you are able to give it.
~ William Paley, in The Works of William Paley, Volume IV (1811). A Defence of the Considerations on the Propriety of Requiring a Subscription to Articles of Faith

Horror is contradicted by reason.
~ William Palmer, The Good Republic (1990).

Truth never lost Ground by Enquiry, because she is most of all Reasonable.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part II. Of the Rule of Judging

If prejudice could reason, it would dispel itself.
~ William Pickens, The New Negro: His Political, Civil and Mental Status (1916).

Everyone has leaped to the conclusion that was the cause ... I'm not ready to say that. That is certainly the leading candidate right now, but we have to rule things out.
~ William Readdy (of debris breaking loose from Space Shuttle Columbia during launch and striking the left side of the orbiter), NASA News Conference, Johnson Space Center, Houston TX (3 February 2003).

[F]or they say every why hath a wherefore.
~ William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors. Act II, scene ii

Give you a reason on compulsion! If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I. Act II, scene iv

Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. Act IV, scene iii

[H]ave we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act I, scene iii

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.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice. Act I, scene i

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
Makes ill deeds done!
~ William Shakespeare, King John. Act IV, scene ii

I have no other but a woman's reason;
I think him so, because I think him so.
~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I, scene ii

[L]et your reason serve
To make the truth appear where it seems hid.
~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. Act V, scene i

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. Act III, scene ii

Strong reasons make strong actions.
~ William Shakespeare, King John. Act III, scene iv

There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V. Act V, scene i

When clouds appear, wise men put on their cloaks;
When great leaves fall, the winter is at hand;
When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III. Act II, scene iii

Let reason instruct you to shun
What it cannot instruct you to cure.
~ William Shenstone, A Pastoral Ballad in Four Parts (written in 1743). IV. Disappointment

Reason may be described as the candle in the man's hand, to which revelation brings the necessary flame.
~ William Gilmore Simms, Egeria: Or, Voices of Thought and Counsel for the Woods and Wayside (1853).

A fool may say many wise things, a wise man no foolish ones: good sense runs throughout.
~ Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, in The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart., Vol. I (1720). Miscellanea, Part III. Heads, Designed for an Essay on Conversation

The same faculty of reason, which gives mankind the great advantage and prerogative over the rest of the creation, seems to make the greatest default of human nature; and subjects it to more troubles, miseries, or at least disquiets of life, than any of its fellow creatures: it is this which furnishes us with such variety of passions, and consequently of wants and desires, that none other feels and these followed by infinite designs and endless pursuits, and improved by that restlessness of thought which is natural to most men, give him a condition of life suitable to that of his birth; so that, as he alone is born crying, he lives complaining and dies disappointed.
~ Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, from Miscellanea, Part II (1690). Upon The Gardens of Epicurus: or, Of Gardening, in the Year 1685

People hate as they love, unreasonably.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes (1853-55). Chapter LVI

In inductive reasoning, we begin with specific observations and measures, begin to detect patterns and regularities, formulate some tentative hypotheses that we can explore, and finally end up developing some general conclusions or theories.
~ William M.K. Trochim, The Research Methods Knowledge Base, 2nd Edition (2000). Chapter 1: Foundations. Philosophy of Research

[R]eason was the test of ridicule, ... not ridicule the test of truth.
~ William Warburton, Divine Legation of Moses (1738). Dedication to the Free-Thinkers

[T]he common definition of man is false: he is not a reasoning animal. The best you can predicate of him is, that he is an animal capable of reason, and this too we take upon old tradition.
~ William Warburton, in Letters: From A Late Eminent Prelate To One Of His Friends (1809 edition). Letter LXXXVIL

The power of reason is the noblest gift of Heaven to man, because it assimilates man to his Maker.
~ William Whipper, Speech delivered at the First African Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia PA (16 August 1837). Non-Resistance to Offensive Aggression

So, dear friend, put fear out of your heart. This nation will survive, this state will prosper, the orderly business of life will go forward if only men can speak in whatever way given them to utter what their hearts hold -- by voice, by posted card, by letter or by press. Reason never has failed men. Only force and repression have made the wrecks in the world.
~ William Allen White, Editorial in The Emporia Gazette (27 July 1922). To an Anxious Friend

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to; all they need is one reason why they can.
~ Willis R. Whitney

Because they know not the forces of nature, and in order that they may have comrades in their ignorance, they suffer not that others should search out anything, and would have us believe like rustics and ask no reason. ... But we ask in all things a reason must be sought.
~ William of Conches, De Philsophia Mundi (c. 1130)

If one proceeds by the light of reason, there seem to be a formidable weight of argument against the jury system.
~ Glanville Llewelyn William, The Hamlyn Lectures, Seventh Series (October 1955). The Proof of Guilt. A Study of the English Criminal System

Reason is emotion for the sexless.
~ Heathcote Williams, The Speakers (1964).

Reason, which fifty times to one does err,
Reason, an ignis fatuus of the mind,
Which leaves the light of nature, sense, behind.
~ John Wilmot, 2nd Earl Of Rochester, A Satire Against Mankind (1675).

The fact that logic cannot satisfy us awakens an almost insatiable hunger for the irrational.
~ Andrew Norman (A.N.) Wilson, in The Guardian (30 September 1989).