Carl Sagan Quotes

Rationality is not just something you do so that you can make more money, it is a binding principle. Rationality is a really good idea. You must avoid the nonsense that is conventional in one's own time. It requires developing systems of thought that improve your batting average over time.

I'm against ignorance. I'm against sloppy, emotional thinking. I'm against fashionable thinking. I am against the whole cliché of the moment.

Logic is a wonderful thing but doesn't always beat actual thought.

The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion - in the long run, these are the only people who count.

Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, and the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well.

To fix the thoughts by writing, and subject them to frequent examinations and reviews, is the best method of enabling the mind to detect its own sophisms, and keep it on guard against the fallacies which it practices on others

Talk about rationality can get very confusing unless the things with which rationality deals are also included.

It is for this reason that rationality is of supreme importance to the well-being of the human species...even more, in those less fortunate times in which it is despised and rejected as the vain dream of men who lack the virility to kill where they cannot agree.

Science is a way of thinking that helps you not to fool yourself.

I say this often, THINK. There is something in life called common sense. Webster's says common sense is sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. Perhaps this is why in 1776, Thomas Paine used these words as a title for the most famous pamphlet ever written.

Of course, analysis can sometimes give more accurate results than intuition but usually it’s just a lot of work. I normally do what my intuition tells me to do. Most of the time spent thinking is just to double-check.

We seem to have trouble with [critical thinking]. And our political system doesn't help.

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

A rational man is guided by his thinking - by a process of Reason - not by his feelings and desires.

Reason is universal because no attempted challenge to its results can avoid appealing to reason in the end-by claiming, for example, that what was presented as an argument is really a rationalization. This can undermine our confidence in the original method or practice only by giving us reasons to believe something else, so that finally we have to think about the arguments to make up our minds.

Unless one can think wisely it is better to remain a dummy.

The effective thinker treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking.

Thinking clearly and effectively is the greatest asset of any human being. We are constantly reminded that the one superiority that man has over other animals is the ability to think. It is primarily our ability to think that sets us apart from other animals.

If you will take my advice you will think little of Socrates, and a great deal more of truth.

When I start a new seminar I tell my students that I will undoubtedly contradict myself, and that I will mean both things. But an acceptance of contradiction is no excuse for fuzzy thinking. We do have to use our minds as far as they will take us, yet acknowledge that they cannot take use all the way.

I have this real moron thing I do? It's called thinking.

Being rational is a moral Imperative. You should never be stupider than you need to be.

An educated mind is practiced in the uses of reason, which inevitably leads to a skeptical outlook.

Rationality is the master lifehack which distinguishes which other lifehacks to use.

There is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out.