Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [181-200] of 403 Reason quotesReason QuotesReason Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe men because they are dead, or contradict them because they are alive. With him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to the author. He may have been a king or serf -- a philosopher or servant, -- but the utterance neither gains nor loses in truth or reason. Its value is absolutely independent of the fame or station of the man who gave it to the world.~ Robert G. Ingersoll Intellectual liberty is the air of the soul, the sunshine of the mind, and without it, the world is a prison, the universe is a dungeon.~ Robert G. Ingersoll The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and his fellow men.~ Robert G. Ingersoll There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments - there are only consequences.~ Robert G. Ingersoll It is incredible that only idiots are absolutely sure of salvation. It is incredible that the more brain you have the less your chance is. There can be no danger in honest thought, and if the world ever advances beyond what it is to-day, it must be led by men who express their real opinions.~ Robert G. Ingersoll It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.~ Eugene Ionesco Did you ever hear anyone say, “That work had better be banned because I might read it and it might be very damaging to me.”~ Joseph Henry Jackson And, finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.~ Thomas Jefferson Error of opinion may be tolerated when reason is left free to combat it.~ Thomas Jefferson Every species of government has its specific principles. Ours perhaps are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, with others derived from natural right and natural reason.~ Thomas Jefferson If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.~ Thomas Jefferson In a republican nation whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance.~ Thomas Jefferson It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use and authority of reason as to administer medication to the dead.~ Thomas Jefferson Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure.~ Thomas Jefferson Let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it.~ Thomas Jefferson Nothing can be more exactly and seriously true than what is there [the very words only of Jesus] stated; that but a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandising their oppressors in Church and State; that the purest system of morals ever before preached to man, has been adulterated and sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves; that rational men not being able to swallow their impious heresies, in order to force them down their throats, they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ.~ Thomas Jefferson Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our god alone. I enquire after no man's and trouble none with mine; nor is it given to us in this life to know whether yours or mine, our friend's or our foe's, are exactly the right.~ Thomas Jefferson Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear... Do not be frightened from this inquiry from any fear of its consequences. If it ends in the belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise...~ Thomas Jefferson Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding, and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties, which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure.~ Thomas Jefferson I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.~ Thomas Jefferson Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print