Marquis de Lafayette Quotes

Anything that gives us new knowledge gives us an opportunity to be more rational.

Philosophy likes to keen common sense on the run.

The true function of philosophy is to educate us in the principles of reasoning and not to put an end to further reasoning by the introduction of fixed conclusions.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

When we reason upon general subjects, one may justly affirm, that our speculations can scarce ever be too fine, provided they be just.

Thought is a process of exaggeration. The refusal to exaggerate is not infrequently an alibi for the disinclination to think or praise.

I began to realize that thinking itself is nothing but the process of asking and answering questions.

Like all religions, Reason presents itself as the solution to the problems it has created

Many of her thoughts were perfect syllogisms; unluckily they always remained thoughts. Only a few were irrational assumptions; but, unfortunately, they were the ones which most frequently grew into deeds

I don't guess. I think. I ponder. I deduce. Then I decide. But I never guess.

Science is not wisdom.

It doesn't matter how smart you are unless you stop and think.

Read! Study never stops because publications never stop coming in. It's read and study. And think about what you're studying. Take it apart and put it together. Ask 'why?' And know the answers.

No one has ever understood anything better by assuming that there is no reason for why it is the way it is.

No matter how close thought sticks to the actual, it follows its own rules.

Intelligent thinking means an increment of freedom in action-an emancipation from chance and fatality. 'Thought' represents the suggestion of a way of response that is different from that which would have been followed if intelligent observation had not effected an inference as to the future.

We do not at present educate people to think but, rather, to have opinions, and that is something altogether different.

Think before you speak. Read before you think.

Science is not a substitute for common sense, but an extension of it.

He had a better mind and a more rigorous temperament than me; he thought logically, and then acted on the conclusion of logical thought. Whereas most of us, I suspect, do the opposite: we make an instinctive decision, then build up an infrastructure of reasoning to justify it. And call the result common sense.

I think people have common sense and can tell what's real, what's right or what's wrong and work it out.

Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons - that's philosophy.

Read less, study less, but think more

Nothing so sharpens the thought process as writing down one's arguments. Weaknesses overlooked in oral discussion become painfully obvious on the written page.

I hope you become comfortable with the use of logic without being deceived into concluding that logic will inevitably lead you to the correct conclusion.