Reason

“There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.”

“I hope to be remembered as a “voice” (like John the Baptist, crying in the wilderness) encouraging people to think, rather than as a personality whose felt status and charisma stopped them thinking.”

“No hay verdades materiales, ni verdades racionales; toda verdad es ambas cosas a la vez o no es nada.”

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

“The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.”

“I think, therefore I am.”

“Doubt asks why and optimism asks why not.”

“An opinion settles nothing unless the truth of the assertion is either self-evident or demonstrated.”

“The real novelty of philosophical thinking lies in seeing new—in the epistemic sense of hitherto unperceived—connections between apparently unconnected conceptual questions or muddles, rather than in creating new concepts.”

“A donde no alcance el telescopio, la razón alcanza.”

“El verdadero filósofo sólo admite en las ciencias naturales aquello a que ni la razón ni la experiencia se atreven a contradecir.”

“We have to exercise not only our common sense, but also our pity and our mercy.”

“For me the ultimate test for belief is do you have grounds for thinking that it’s true?”

“Find something funny and explore it intelligently and honestly.”

“Only a union of rationalism and mysticism will make a philosophy worthy of the one world of the future.”

“Philosophy is action in, by and through experience giving rise to ideas that are constantly tested for acceptance, rejection or improvement. It is philopraxis.”

“For all are by nature of very subtle, lively, clear and most capable understanding.”

“Psychology is occupied with the natural function of Intellection, seeking to discover its laws.”