George Bernard Shaw Quotes

In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth. A man would perish of hunger and thirst, if he refused to eat or drink, till he had obtained positive proof that food and drink would be good for him. But in philosophic reflection this is not so. On the contrary, we must take care not to admit as true anything, which is only probable. For when one falsity has been let in, infinite others follow.

Why is it that common sense is seldom common practice?

There is absolutely no common sense, it is common non-sense.

It's against reason," said Filby. "What reason?" said the Time Traveller.

Reasoning is the pastime of my whole household, and all this reasoning has driven out Reason.

People who cannot recognize a palpable absurdity are very much in the way of civilization.

The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.

To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one's thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one's mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality.

Euclid taught me that without assumptions there is no proof. Therefore, in any argument, examine the assumptions.

But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere.

Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one.

When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths or to reject absurdities and palpable contradictions.

Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.

Imagination is a poor matter when it has to part company with understanding.

For no art and no religion is possible until we make allowances, until we manage to keep quiet the enfant terrible of logic that plays havoc with the other faculties.

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

Reasonable, sensible men can always make a reasonable scheme appear such to other reasonable men.

Common sense is often common nonsense. There is much that we have learned from science that is counter-intuitive.

Most of the time, when someone tells you something, and it makes sense, it just makes sense. And that's that. But sometimes it really doesn't make sense.

If someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide that proves they should value evidence. If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument would you invoke to prove they should value logic?

The beauty of science hugely outranks the charms of superstition.

If it doesn't make sense, it's usually not true.

Hast thou reason? I have. Why then dost not thou use it? For if this does its own work, what else dost thou wish?

The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable one. The trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite.

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