Seneca the Younger Quotes

To be rational is so glorious a thing, that two-legged creatures generally content themselves with the title.

Then you have a big problem, because a human is a thinking animal. If you don't think, you're not really a human.

Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favour of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.

Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent, but in what immediately regards his own preservation or the continuance of his species.

It is intelligence that brings order, not discipline.

Suppose, gentleman, that man is not stupid.

Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.

He that cannot reason is a fool.

The glory of man is that he is a thinking being. It is the nature of man to think and therein he differs from animals

A sane mind should not be guilty of a logical fallacy, yet there are very fine minds incapable of following mathematical demonstrations.

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.

I like to regard myself as someone who's capable of critical thought, that is to say, who can evaluate claims.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason and intellect has intended us to forego their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.

Logical activity is not the whole of intelligence. One can be intelligent without being particularly logical.

Logicians have but ill defined As rational the human mind; Reason, they say, belongs to man, But let them prove it if they can.

Reason is man's faculty for grasping the world by thought, in contradiction to intelligence, which is man's ability to manipulate the world with the help of thought. Reason is man's instrument for arriving at the truth, intelligence is man's instrument for manipulating the world more successfully; the former is essentially human, the latter belongs to the animal part of man.

Power of generalizing gives men so much the superiority in mistake over the dumb animals.

The soul of man is divided into three parts, intelligence, reason, and passion. Intelligence and passion are possessed by other animals, but reason by man alone.

Because reason...is the only thing that makes us men, and distinguishes us from the beasts, I would prefer to believe that it exists, in its entirety, in each of us.

Man is said to be a rational creature; but should it not rather be said, that man is a creature capable of being rational, as we say a parrot is a creature capable of speech?

Let him make use of instinct who cannot make use of reason.

I just happen to believe that people are not stupid.

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.

All men have a reason, but not all men can give a reason.