Richard Francis Burton Quotes

I will follow my logic, no matter where it goes, after it has consulted with my heart. If you ever come to a conclusion without calling the heart in, you will come to a bad conclusion.

Science is the only true guide in life.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

The most part of men, though they have the use of reasoning a little way, as in numbering to some degree; yet it serves them to little use in common life; in which they govern themselves, some better, some worse, according to their differences of experience, quickness of memory, and inclinations to several ends; but specially according to good or evil fortune, and the errors of one another.

Reason has seldom failed us because it has seldom been tried.

If I'm going for advice for anything in my life, I go straight to my father because he has the answers.

My errors will point to thinking men the various roads, and will teach them the great art of treading on the brink of the precipice without falling into it.

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.

I believe without a single shadow of a doubt that it is necessary for young people to learn to make choices. Learning to make right choices is the only way they will survive in an increasingly frightening world.

Intelligence alone does not get us where we need to go or even necessarily where we want to go. For that, the human creature must exercise harder-won capacities of wisdom, and wise action.

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life.

Hear the words of prudence, give heed unto her counsels, and store them in thine heart; her maxims are universal, and all the virtues lean upon her; she is the guide and the mistress of human life.

Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground-floor. But if a man hasn't got plenty of good common sense, the more science he has, the worse for his patient.

I was everything, patriarch, priest, father and judge.

Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right.

The only hope I can see for the future depends on a wiser and braver use of the reason, not a panic flight from it.

As far as I remember, even younger than eight, I have always been guided by reason. Not cold reason, but that which leads to the truth, to the real, and to sane Justice.

In the last analysis sound judgment will prevail.

It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.

One man with a head on his shoulders is worth a dozen without.

First, he must hold rational values, and to do this he must be a thinker.

I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice .... These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I supposed it will be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must study the plain physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible and learn what appears to be wise and right. The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree.

There's a voice inside children that knows right from wrong. I call it listening to your inner Jiminy Cricket. I tell my daughter, 'If you're thinking this is not the best idea, it probably isn't.'

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

I don't think I'm always right, but I would like to empower people to come to sound conclusions using a systematic way of looking at things.