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Age of Enlightenment9 quotes
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of. — Blaise Pascal · 1662Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. — David Hume · 1739The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity: And whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience. — David Hume · 1748If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning, concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: For it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion. — David Hume · 1748Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own reason! This is the motto of the Enlightenment. — Immanuel Kant · 1784It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. — Blaise Pascal · 1662All 9 quotes →Classical antiquity3 quotes
Reason is God's crowning gift to man. — Sophocles · 442 BCMan is a reasoning animal. — Seneca · 65The 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. — PythagorasColonial America2 quotes
If Passion drives, let Reason hold the Reins. — Benjamin Franklin · 1749The Way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason. — Benjamin Franklin · 1758The Renaissance2 quotes
Sure He that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused. — William Shakespeare · 1616Ask me no reason why I love you, for though
Love use Reason for his precisian, he admits him not for his counselor. — William Shakespeare · 1602Protestant Reformation1 quote
Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but-more frequently than not-struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God. — Martin Luther · 1569