Quotations about Logic

But, logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial effect when taken in too large quantities. ~Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett Dunsany, "Weeds & Moss," My Ireland


Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. ~Ambrose Bierce


Reason means truth and those who are not governed by it take the chance that someday the sunken fact will rip the bottom out of their boat. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.


The vast majority of human beings are not interested in reason or satisfied with what it teaches. ~Aldous Huxley


Logic hasn't wholly dispelled the society of witches and prophets and sorcerers and soothsayers. ~Raymond F. Jones, The Non-Statistical Man


Logic is neither a science nor an art, but a dodge. ~Benjamin Jowett


If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason. ~Samuel Butler


Truly, that reason upon which we plume ourselves, though it may answer for little things, yet for great decisions is hardly surer than a toss-up. ~Charles Sanders Peirce


No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. ~Niels Bohr


Logic is one thing and commonsense another. ~Elbert Hubbard, The Note Book, 1927


Reason: The arithmetic of the emotions. ~Elbert Hubbard, The Roycroft Dictionary


Reason is the shepherd trying to corral life's vast flock of wild irrationalities. ~Paul Eldridge, Maxims for a Modern Man


Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Flight to Arras, 1942, translated from French by Lewis Galantière


A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. ~Rabindranath Tagore


Logic is logic. That's all I say. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, The One-Hoss Shay


He that cannot reason is a fool.
He that will not is a bigot.
He that dare not is a slave.
~Andrew Carnegie


Common sense, however it tries, cannot avoid being surprised from time to time. ~Bertrand Russell


He is a true fugitive who flies from reason. ~Marcus Aurelius


If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle. ~Rita Mae Brown


Metaphysics may be, after all, only the art of being sure of something that is not so, and logic only the art of going wrong with confidence. ~Joseph Wood Krutch, The Modern Temper, 1929 (Thanks, Jeff)


A wise man is not governed by others, nor does he try to govern them; he prefers that reason alone prevail. ~La Bruyère, Characters, 1688


The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it. ~Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670


Logic is a large drawer, containing some useful instruments, and many more that are superfluous. A wise man will look into it for two purposes, to avail himself of those instruments that are really useful, and to admire the ingenuity with which those that are not so, are assorted and arranged. ~Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon