William O. Douglas Quotes

Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect.

I continue to be fascinated by the fact that feelings are not just the shady side of reason but that they help us to reach decisions as well.

Of course our feelings matter. But emotional decisions are usually not the best ones. On the other hand, your emotions can affect your decisions whether you like it or not because the effects can occur on the unconscious level.

Without our emotions, we can't make smart decisions.

All our reasoning boils down to yielding to sentiment.

First with the head, then with the heart.

There's no evidence whatsoever that men are more rational than women. Both sexes seem to be equally irrational.

Beneath words and logic are emotional connections that largely direct how we use our words and logic.

We don't look at problems logically, we look at them emotionally. We look at them through the guts. We look at them as if we're doing a high school problem, like what is beautiful, what makes me recognized among my peers. We don't go and think about things. We, as a society, don't wish to engage in rational thought.

Logic will never change emotion or perception.

Some people carry their heart in their head and some carry their head in their heart. The trick is to keep them apart yet working together.

Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.

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.

Logic is one thing, the human animal another. You can quite easily propose a logical solution to something and at the same time hope in your heart of hearts it won't work out.

In life, particularly in public life, psychology is more powerful than logic.

Half our mistakes in life arise from feeling where we ought to think, and thinking where we ought to feel.

People and nations act on the basis of what they feel rather than what is real.

Emotion is a rotten base for politics.

Anytime emotions are involved, you cannot come up with an impartial and objective assessment of any given problem.

The mind is always the patsy of the heart.

Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.

A buddy of mine is doing a documentary on decisions, and they're not based on a ton of logic. It's mostly how you relate to them emotionally.

You should listen to your heart, and not the voices in your head.

When you need to make a decision, don't let your emotions vote.

The dominance of conclusions over arguments is most pronounced where emotions are involved.