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noun
Reason  n.  
1.
A thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; a just ground for a conclusion or an action; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation; the efficient cause of an occurrence or a phenomenon; a motive for an action or a determination; proof, more or less decisive, for an opinion or a conclusion; principle; efficient cause; final cause; ground of argument. "I'll give him reasons for it." "The reason of the motion of the balance in a wheel watch is by the motion of the next wheel." "This reason did the ancient fathers render, why the church was called "catholic."" "Virtue and vice are not arbitrary things; but there is a natural and eternal reason for that goodness and virtue, and against vice and wickedness."
2.
The faculty or capacity of the human mind by which it is distinguished from the intelligence of the inferior animals; the higher as distinguished from the lower cognitive faculties, sense, imagination, and memory, and in contrast to the feelings and desires. Reason comprises conception, judgment, reasoning, and the intuitional faculty. Specifically, it is the intuitional faculty, or the faculty of first truths, as distinguished from the understanding, which is called the discursive or ratiocinative faculty. "We have no other faculties of perceiving or knowing anything divine or human, but by our five senses and our reason." "In common and popular discourse, reason denotes that power by which we distinguish truth from falsehood, and right from wrong, and by which we are enabled to combine means for the attainment of particular ends." "Reason is used sometimes to express the whole of those powers which elevate man above the brutes, and constitute his rational nature, more especially, perhaps, his intellectual powers; sometimes to express the power of deduction or argumentation." "By the pure reason I mean the power by which we become possessed of principles." "The sense perceives; the understanding, in its own peculiar operation, conceives; the reason, or rationalized understanding, comprehends."
3.
Due exercise of the reasoning faculty; accordance with, or that which is accordant with and ratified by, the mind rightly exercised; right intellectual judgment; clear and fair deductions from true principles; that which is dictated or supported by the common sense of mankind; right conduct; right; propriety; justice. "I was promised, on a time, To have reason for my rhyme." "But law in a free nation hath been ever public reason; the enacted reason of a parliament, which he denying to enact, denies to govern us by that which ought to be our law; interposing his own private reason, which to us is no law." "The most probable way of bringing France to reason would be by the making an attempt on the Spanish West Indies."
4.
(Math.) Ratio; proportion. (Obs.)
By reason of, by means of; on account of; because of. "Spain is thin sown of people, partly by reason of the sterility of the soil."
In reason,
In all reason, in justice; with rational ground; in a right view. "When anything is proved by as good arguments as a thing of that kind is capable of, we ought not, in reason, to doubt of its existence."
It is reason, it is reasonable; it is right. (Obs.) "Yet it were great reason, that those that have children should have greatest care of future times."
Synonyms: Motive; argument; ground; consideration; principle; sake; account; object; purpose; design. See Motive, Sense.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Reason" Quotes from Famous Books



... him, and they who were familiar with his thoughts and sentiments knew that he was very fond of these signs, and would even demand them imperiously in case anyone thought to dispense with or diminish them. For that reason all the poor population, and everyone who wished to win his special favour, called him "Prince," addressing him as "Nassi." Therefore his passage through the town on all occasions was an important and curious ...
— An Obscure Apostle - A Dramatic Story • Eliza Orzeszko

... usefully for a living, though at the same time aiming after higher things. Thales, the first of the seven sages, Solon, the second founder of Athens, and Hyperates, the mathematician, were all traders. Plato, called the Divine by reason of the excellence of his wisdom, defrayed his travelling expenses in Egypt by the profits derived from the oil which he sold during his journey. Spinoza maintained himself by polishing glasses while he pursued ...
— Self Help • Samuel Smiles

... tell her? You can't make a woman like our Pauline put a man out of her life when she loves him unless you give her a reason that satisfies her. And if you don't give ME a reason that satisfies me how can I give HER a reason that ...
— The Cost • David Graham Phillips

... "Yon's my reason, Mon," says he solemn. "Yon wee white stone. Three bairns and the good wife lay under it. I'm no sae youthful mysel'. And when it's time for me to go I'd be sleepin' peaceful, with none o' your rattlin' trolley cars comin' ...
— On With Torchy • Sewell Ford

... when I spoke to you of the handkerchief and the twelve acorns you blushed, and said you had reason to blush. I see nothing in this kind action you ...
— The Water Goats and Other Troubles • Ellis Parker Butler

... know, has very few relatives. She's the last of an ancient family, and one or two uncles and aunts are all that are left besides herself. Her life has been by no means gay, or even cheerful, and perhaps that was one reason why she was willing ...
— A Castle in Spain - A Novel • James De Mille

... owes its origin to Palamedes who at the siege of Troy, employed it in order that his soldiers should not remain inactive, and not being able to practice actual warfare, they might amuse themselves with mimic conflicts. For which reason Palamedes played it with Thersites, as Homer tells us in the second book of the Iliad, so also did the other heroes of the Grecian armies, as is related by ...
— Chess History and Reminiscences • H. E. Bird

... was Rob Blair, who came back from Spain after his brother Maxwell had been flogged to death. He shot a general near Corunna—him they make a fuss about—he and half a dozen of his mates, and he told me the reason that Allingham keeps so far ahead of his own soldiers is that they are better shots than the French, who do not fire ...
— Patsy • S. R. Crockett

... Fifth of November, The gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason Why gunpowder ...
— Harding's luck • E. [Edith] Nesbit

... with the discovery of any rising Genius among my Countrymen. For this reason I have read over, with great pleasure, the late Miscellany published by Mr. Pope, [1] in which there are many excellent Compositions of that ingenious Gentleman. I have had a pleasure of the same kind, in perusing a Poem that is just publish'd on the Prospect of Peace, and which, I hope, ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... festival of reconciliation at Hatton House, when Lady Hatton received the king and queen in Holborn, and expressly forbade her husband to presume to show himself among her guests. "The expectancy of Sir Edward's rising," says a writer of the period,[6] "is much abated by reason of his lady's liberty,[7] who was brought in great honor to Exeter House by my Lord of Buckingham from Sir William Craven's, whither she had been remanded, presented by his lordship to the king, received gracious usage, reconciled to her daughter by his Majesty, ...
— A Book About Lawyers • John Cordy Jeaffreson

... there was a good reason for bringing us across the sea," said the St. Ulric doll to the mechanical bear and the ...
— Harper's Young People, June 8, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... photograph from me with a cry of horror. For one terrible moment I felt as if my reason was giving way. I don't know what would have happened, or what I should have done next, if my love for Eustace had not taken the uppermost place among the contending emotions that tortured me. That faithful love steadied ...
— The Law and the Lady • Wilkie Collins

... public no reason for exercising his undoubted prerogative by dismissing his servant, Anne had been informed of the truth; and it had been left to her to judge whether an officer who had been guilty of a foul treason was a fit inmate of the palace. Three ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 4 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... swine, that I may sacrifice it for a guest of mine from a far land: and we too will have good cheer therewith, for we have long suffered and toiled by reason of the white-tusked swine, while others devour the fruit of our labour ...
— DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE • S. H. BUTCHER, M.A.

... the general council sitting in the bar of the Crown decreed that the trouble had arisen out of Fuller's spirited refusal to sell some lambs that had tic. Other pronouncements were that she had sassed Fuller because he knew more about sheep than she did—or that Fuller had sassed her for the same reason—that it wasn't Joanna who had dismissed him, but he who had been regretfully obliged to give notice, owing to her meddling—that all the hands at Ansdore were leaving on ...
— Joanna Godden • Sheila Kaye-Smith

... as that worthy minister said in the Tolbooth Kirk the day Robertson wan off; but naebody kens when it will be executed. Gude faith, he had better reason to say sae than he dreamed off, before the play was played out ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... Levesque, in his memoirs of Cardinal Granvelle, gives a reason for the Emperor's resignation, which, as far as I recollect, is not mentioned by any other historian. He says that, the Emperor having ceded the government of the kingdom of Naples and the duchy of Milan to his son upon his marriage with the Queen of England, ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9 • Various

... back I had reason to change my mind. Quite an interesting scene unfolded itself. The boom of the guns rang out sharp and clear. The moon was shining brightly, and at intervals there flashed across the sky the not-far-distant glare of star-shells. In the houses, ...
— How I Filmed the War - A Record of the Extraordinary Experiences of the Man Who - Filmed the Great Somme Battles, etc. • Lieut. Geoffrey H. Malins

... y^e most of you hear, but espetially because ther should any differance at all be conceived betweene us. But seing it faleth out that we cannot conferr togeather, we thinke it meete (though brefly) to show you y^e just cause & reason of our differing from those articles last made by Robart Cushman, without our comission or knowledg. And though he might propound good ends to himselfe, yet it no way justifies his doing it. Our maine ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford

... known, and scientifically proven fact, that all women are not constitutionally or temperamentally alike. Where some respond readily to one mode of treatment others do not. For this reason we have prepared a preparation designed for such instances. This remedy is Dr. Martel's ...
— The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing - A Manual of Ready Reference • Joseph Triemens

... Philistines, not to be allowed the sharpening of our own axes and coulters, but we must repair from all quarters to twenty licensing forges? Had anyone written and divulged erroneous things and scandalous to honest life, misusing and forfeiting the esteem had of his reason among men, if after conviction this only censure were adjudged him that he should never henceforth write but what were first examined by an appointed officer, whose hand should be annexed to pass his credit for him that now he might be safely read; it could not be apprehended less than a disgraceful ...
— Areopagitica - A Speech For The Liberty Of Unlicensed Printing To The - Parliament Of England • John Milton

... no reason why she should decline," she said; and Guy replied: "Respect for her grandfather, in her case, seems to be stronger than respect for a higher power ...
— Aikenside • Mary J. Holmes

... preventing fraud; but if written and apparently genuine, they could usually stand. To-day the deaf are practically everywhere held to be quite capable in this respect, and probably nowhere would a will be set aside for reason of the deafness of the testator alone. Likewise the deaf are now generally held capable of entering ...
— The Deaf - Their Position in Society and the Provision for Their - Education in the United States • Harry Best

... Mr. Pole, in the voice of a man whose reason is outraged. The placidity of Cornelia's reply was not without its effect on him, nevertheless. He had always thought his girls extraordinary girls, and born to be distinguished. "Perhaps she has a lord in view," ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... knew the reason. Times were but little better than they had been in the theatrical business. Many good men and women, too, were out of engagements, and every available part was quickly snapped up. Mr. DeVere had waited ...
— The Moving Picture Girls - First Appearances in Photo Dramas • Laura Lee Hope

... and now towards the left in their gyrations), but they drive them straight forward or by a constant bend towards the right in so connected a circle (i.e. a complete ring), that no one is behind (for the obvious reason, that there is neither beginning nor end to such a ring). Such is on the whole the most satisfactory explanation of this difficult passage, which we can give after a careful examination. A different version was given in the first ...
— Germania and Agricola • Caius Cornelius Tacitus

... "All the more reason for the sentinel to let your sweetheart run home at her quickest step," said Wogan, and above him he heard Clementina come out upon the landing. He crept up the ...
— Clementina • A.E.W. Mason

... ship arrives at Ithaca; where the sailors, as Ulysses is yet sleeping, lay him on the shore with all his treasures. On their return, Neptune changes their ship into a rock. In the meantime Ulysses, awaking, knows not his native Ithaca, by reason of a mist which Pallas had cast around him. He breaks into loud lamentations; till the goddess appearing to him in the form of a shepherd, discovers the country to him, and points out the particular places. He then tells ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer, translated by Alexander Pope

... Congress the classification was originally based upon Lord Bacon's scheme for the division of knowledge into three great classes, according to the faculty of the mind employed in each. 1. History (based upon memory); 2. Philosophy (based upon reason); 3. Poetry (based upon imagination). This scheme was much better adapted to a classification of ideas than of books. Its failure to answer the ends of a practical classification of the library led to radical modifications of the plan, as applied to the books on the shelves, ...
— A Book for All Readers • Ainsworth Rand Spofford

... Elster and Geitel that there is an intimate connection between photo-electric activity and the absorption of light by the substance, and, indeed, that the particular wave-lengths absorbed by the substance are those which are effective in liberating the electrons. Thus we have strong reason for believing that the vigorous photo-electric activity displayed by the special sensitisers must be dependent upon their colour absorption. You will recognise ...
— The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays • J. (John) Joly

... people who don't do whatever they are told; so that's no reason. And I am quite sure that Charley is ...
— The Three Clerks • Anthony Trollope

... lot of the average worker, the reward of the producers of wealth, and that only the producers of wealth are poor? Do you know that, because we die slowly all our lives long, the death-rate among the working-class is far higher than among other classes by reason of overwork, anxiety, poor food, lack of pleasure, bad housing, and all the other ills comprehended in the lot of the wage-worker? In Chicago, for example, in the wards where the well-to-do reside the death-rate is not more than 12 per thousand, ...
— The Common Sense of Socialism - A Series of Letters Addressed to Jonathan Edwards, of Pittsburg • John Spargo

... hand, a King and a Minister who by seven years of loyal co-operation have learnt to trust and depend upon one another, who together have faced danger, who have not shrunk from extreme unpopularity, and who, just for this reason, can now depend on the absolute loyalty of the people. On the other side, the Emperor broken in health, his will shattered by prolonged pain and sickness, trying by the introduction of liberal institutions to free himself from the burden of government and weight of responsibility which he ...
— Bismarck and the Foundation of the German Empire • James Wycliffe Headlam

... great service is to have set forth the cultural problems and tendencies of the Age of Reason in an attractive literary form. His most important imaginative works are prose tales and narrative poems having a Greek, a medieval, or an Oriental setting, but dealing in reality with living issues of his own day. His ...
— An anthology of German literature • Calvin Thomas

... The reason given by Poe, "I have resided there all my life until within the last few years," suggests but slight cause for his love of Richmond, the home of his childhood, the darkening clouds of which, viewed through the softening lens of years, ...
— Literary Hearthstones of Dixie • La Salle Corbell Pickett

... reason," said Max, "and I for one am willing enough to obey him, seeing it's such a little while ...
— Elsie's New Relations • Martha Finley

... Wherefore to Heaven these often prayers for aid? But if, belike, not yet denied to me That, ere my own life end, These sad notes mute shall be, Let not my Lord conceive the wish too free, Yet once, amid sweet flowers, to touch the string, "Reason and right it is that ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch

... it may be said, with some considerable show of reason, that agreeably low and delightfully disgusting characters have already been treated, both copiously and ably, by some eminent writers of the present (and, indeed, of future) ages; though to tread in the footsteps of the immortal FAGIN requires a genius of inordinate stride, ...
— Catherine: A Story • William Makepeace Thackeray

... cause why he should give his surmises respecting what he believed might be the intentions of others to the man whom, of all others—perhaps, not excepting the lawyer—he disliked and hated; and that there could be no reason why he should warn Captain Ussher against danger. Though these things passed through Thady's mind very quickly, still he paused some time, leaning against the corner of ...
— The Macdermots of Ballycloran • Anthony Trollope

... of half a million and the young General Federation of Women's Clubs of 40,000 members. Confessing that her own National American Woman Suffrage Association in comparison was poor in numbers and limited in funds, she added, "I would philosophize on the reason why. It is because women have been taught always to work for something else than their own personal freedom; and the hardest thing in the world is to organize women for the one purpose of securing their political liberty and political equality."[382] Even ...
— Susan B. Anthony - Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian • Alma Lutz

... Ned, as he went home that evening. "Tom did not change his mind until he heard Beecher's name mentioned. Now this shows that Beecher had something to do with it. The only reason Tom doesn't want Beecher to get this idol or find the buried city is because Professor Bumper is after it. And yet the professor is not an old or close friend of Tom's. They met only when Tom went to dig his big tunnel. There must be some ...
— Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders - or, The Underground Search for the Idol of Gold • Victor Appleton

... covered with wood. Between this and Cape San Francisco there are many small points, inclosing as many sandy creeks full of trees of various kinds. Meaning to look out for canoes, we were indifferent what river we came to, so we endeavoured to make for the river of St Jago, by reason of its nearness to the island of Gallo, in which there is much gold, and where was good anchorage for our ships. We passed Cape St Francisco, whence to the north the land along the sea is full of trees of vast ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... animals and hiding from enemies. There he was, slipping from trunk to trunk, and gazing round him as though he expected each instant to discover the assegai of an ambushed foe or to hear the footfall of some savage beast of prey. Absolutely there was no reason why he should behave in this fashion; he was simply indulging his natural instincts where he thought nobody would observe him. Life at Mooifontein was altogether too tame and civilised for Jantje's taste, and he needed periodical recreations of this sort. Like a civilised child he longed ...
— Jess • H. Rider Haggard

... little importance, I should imagine," interrupted Braddock Washington coldly. "My slaves did not keep coal in their bathtubs. They had orders to bathe every day, and they did. If they hadn't I might have ordered a sulphuric acid shampoo. I discontinued the baths for quite another reason. Several of them caught cold and died. Water is not good for certain ...
— Tales of the Jazz Age • F. Scott Fitzgerald

... would offer his only beloved Son as a great sacrifice that mankind might be redeemed from death and have an opportunity to live. Abraham did not, as indeed he could not, understand God's purposes, for the reason that Jehovah did not reveal them to him; but he knew that God had here made a covenant with him and bound it with his oath; and that by these two certain and unchangeable things, his word and his oath, ...
— The Harp of God • J. F. Rutherford

... their perticuler demands, which was according to mens principles, of getting what they could; allthough y^e one will not shew any accounte, and y^e other a very unfaire and unjust one; and both of them discouraged me from sending y^e partners my accounte, M^r. Beachamp espetially. Their reason, I have cause to conceive, was, y^t allthough I doe not, nor ever intended to, wrong y^e partners or y^e bussines, yet, if I gave no accounte, I might be esteemed as guiltie as they, in some degree at least; and they might seeme to be y^e more free from taxation in not delivering their accounts, ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford

... was slowly recovering, but still very weak. He did not, after having turned the corner, get well so fast as his medical minister judged he ought, and the reason was plain to Lizzy, dimly perceptible to his wife: he was ill at ease. A man may have more mind and more conscience, and more discomfort in both or either, than his neighbors give him credit for. They may be in the right about him up to a certain point in ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 20, August 1877 • Various

... was a boy, ten or twelve years ago, when I was at the University. There was absolutely no reason for his doing ...
— Vain Fortune • George Moore

... women and children were found in a garden. The town was systematically set on fire by hand grenades. Another witness saw a little girl of seven, one of whose legs was broken and the other injured by a bayonet. We have no reason to believe that the civilian population of Dinant gave any provocation, or that any other defense can be put forward to justify the treatment inflicted ...
— History of the World War - An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War • Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish

... Arrangements were made for the whole family to spend the summer in two adjoining cottages at a lovely seaside resort on the New England coast, Mrs. Dinsmore to be mistress of one house, Violet of the other, while the captain could be with her, which he had reason to expect would be ...
— Grandmother Elsie • Martha Finley

... cheap? They hate saving their master's money. I tried this experiment with great success the other day. Finding we consumed a vast deal of soap, I sat down in my thinking chair, and took the soap question into consideration, and I found reason to suspect we were using a very expensive article, where a much cheaper one would serve the purpose better. I ordered half a dozen pounds of both sorts, but took the precaution of changing the papers on which the prices were marked ...
— Enquire Within Upon Everything - The Great Victorian Domestic Standby • Anonymous

... in the last degree futile to dread an exam. "What else," she would demand in forceful manner—"what else are you working for? For what other reason are you here?" But her arguments, though unanswerable, continued to be entirely unconvincing to Darsie and other ...
— A College Girl • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... many happy years in this school, first as pupil and then as teacher, and it has been a very dear home to me. Now I am going away from it forever, and though the future looks very enticing, and I have every reason to believe that it will be happy, still I cannot help feeling sad at the thought of leaving the old life behind. These are serious confidences for me to burden you with, Toinette, but you have crept into a very ...
— Caps and Capers - A Story of Boarding-School Life • Gabrielle E. Jackson

... meaning no compliment, which the Kabyle fits to all Europeans alike. In vain the Frenchman, writhing with intellectual repugnance, explains that he is not a Christian—that he is a Voltairean, a creature of reason, an illumine. The Kabyle continues to call him a Roumi, which will bear to be translated Romanist, being imitated from the word Rome and applied to all Catholics. These same tribes doubtless called Saint Augustine a Roumi, and he returned the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - April, 1873, Vol. XI, No. 25. • Various

... that. Did I, boy? But we are too close and if we are too close there's got to be a reason for it. If we stay too close too long, O.K. Then we're plunging into the sun. ...
— A Place in the Sun • C.H. Thames

... and mournful regretful recollections which rendered her languid and tearful. This was noticed both by Miss Benson and Sally, and as each had keen sympathies, and felt depressed when they saw any one near them depressed, and as each, without much reasoning on the cause or reason for such depression, felt irritated at the uncomfortable state into which they themselves were thrown, they both resolved to speak to Ruth ...
— Ruth • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... The reason I call the town Albany is because that is not its name, and I may as well say here that as I write about actual incidents I don't propose to "lay myself liable" by giving the name of any town or any dealer. If I call him Smith it will naturally follow that ...
— A Man of Samples • Wm. H. Maher

... Cooke, were Borrow's friends. He had differences at times, but he was loyal to them and they were loyal to him as good authors and good publishers ought to be. With all his irritability Borrow had the sense to see that there was substantial reason in their declining to issue his translations. That, although at the end there were long intervals of silence, the publishers and their author remained friends is shown by letters written to his daughter after ...
— George Borrow and His Circle - Wherein May Be Found Many Hitherto Unpublished Letters Of - Borrow And His Friends • Clement King Shorter

... serious," Jack protested. "Positively. You go ahead and announce that owing to an attack of croup, or any other reason, Prof. Robison will not be able to appear, but that Prof. Click has kindly consented to substitute, and we will ...
— The Young Railroaders - Tales of Adventure and Ingenuity • Francis Lovell Coombs

... his breath. If they could follow the footsteps—and there was no reason in the world to hope that they could not!—they would be bound to pass within a foot or two of his hiding-place. And, as he realized, they would, when they were past him, find the marks of his feet returning. They ...
— Facing the German Foe • Colonel James Fiske

... chilling again, "I thought I did. I observe he is very much afraid of me, and there seems to be no other reason." ...
— Malbone - An Oldport Romance • Thomas Wentworth Higginson

... was natural, disbelieved, and many also gave credit to, and when she had brought forth a man-child, several, not unimportant persons, took an interest in its rearing and bringing up. The name given the boy was Silenus, for some reason or other. Lysander, taking this for the groundwork, frames and devises the rest himself, making use of not a few, nor these insignificant champions of his story, who brought the report of the child's birth into credit without any suspicion. Another report, also, ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... opened his eyes without moving, and from where he lay could see a man busy at something opposite him. As the figure turned and straightened, he knew it for the man with the broken nose. The boy was instantly on the alert, for he had every reason to distrust Daggs. Without making a sound he worked nearer to the edge of the bunk and pulled the cover up to hide all but his eyes. The pirate hauled his chest out farther into the middle of the floor, where more ...
— The Black Buccaneer • Stephen W. Meader

... we have over the past four years, to build America's military strength and that of our allies and friends. Neither the Soviet Union nor any other nation will have reason to question our will to sustain the strongest and most flexible ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... Leslie! of course I do; and for that reason am I paying my court to the more substantial part of the breakfast. Come, Blessington, my dear fellow, you have quite lost your appetite, and we may have sharp work before we get back. Follow my example: throw that nasty blood-thickening sassafras away, and lay a foundation ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson

... Siddhartha, "that's not the reason why. Kamaswami is just as smart as I, and still has no refuge in himself. Others have it, who are small children with respect to their mind. Most people, Kamala, are like a falling leaf, which is blown and is turning around through the air, ...
— Siddhartha • Herman Hesse

... "I had reason," he insisted doggedly. "Life had played a trick on me once, and I made up my mind not to build on anybody again, until I was sure of them." Then, without looking at her, he said, as if following out some line of thought, "I hope you have come to feel ...
— The Iron Woman • Margaret Deland

... misconduct. But his dismissal is very serious matter to him personally, and not to be thought of on the ground of passion or caprice. Marriage is a simple business, but divorce is a very different thing. The world wants to know the reason of it; the law demands its justification. It was a great blow to Mr. Motley, a cause of indignation to those who were interested in him, a surprise and a mystery to the ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... the wind sweeping through branches and bush. Casey Ryan was never frightened in his life. But he was Irish born—and there's something in Irish blood that will not out; something that goes beyond reason into the ...
— The Trail of the White Mule • B. M. Bower

... anything about people at all!" she cried. "Can't you realize? He doesn't reason about things like you; you can't appeal ...
— Love's Pilgrimage • Upton Sinclair

... no doubt?" Wally shook hands with the Centipede runner, who stared at him, refused to recognize his knowing wink, and turned away. "You think pretty well of yourself, don't you?" suggested Gallagher unpleasantly, and Speed laughed. There was no reason why he should not laugh. Either way ...
— Going Some • Rex Beach

... inflammation of the gland tissue within twenty-four hours. He thinks that in ordinary conditions the septic germ gains access by propagating itself through the milk, filling the milk canal and oozing from the external orifice. He points to this as a reason why dry cows escape the malady, though mingling freely with the sufferers, and why such dry cows do not suffer from inflammation of the gland tissue when attacked with foot-and-mouth disease. In this ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

... Heaven hath killed them to everything below Himself and His Son, then Christ will down on any terms in the world. And, indeed, this is the very reason why sinners, when they hear of Christ, yet will not close in with Him; there is something that they can take content in besides Him. The prodigal, so long as he could content himself with the husks that the swine did eat, so long he did keep him away from his father's house; but when he ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... had not sufficiently readjusted herself to the new state to banish it to the floor above, where it belonged with some ugly, solid brass andirons. In the same way, faithful Mr. Hitchcock had seen no good reason why he should degrade the huge steel engraving of the Aurora, which hung prominently at the foot of the stairs, in spite of its light oak frame, which was in shocking contrast with the mahogany panels of the walls. Flanking ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... have tarried somewhat the longer, uncle, partly because I was loth to come over-soon, lest my soon-coming might have happed to have made you wake too soon. But I tarried especially for the reason that I was delayed by someone who showed me a letter, dated at Constantinople, by which it appeareth that the great Turk prepareth a marvellous mighty army. And yet whither he will go with it, that can there yet no man tell. But I fear in good faith, uncle, ...
— Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation - With Modifications To Obsolete Language By Monica Stevens • Thomas More

... attraction. And now there is not an impediment. We two against the world! we are one. Let me confess to an old foible—perfectly youthful, and you will ascribe it to youth: once I desired to absorb. I mistrusted; that was the reason: I perceive it. You teach me the difference of an alliance with a lady of intellect. The pride I have in you, Laetitia, definitely cures me of that insane passion—call it an insatiable hunger. I recognize it as a ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... to America another woman altogether." Mr. Veath, of course, did not understand the strange smile that flitted over his companion's face as he uttered the last remark. "I'm glad I met you, Veath; we'll get along famously, I'm sure. There's no reason why we shouldn't make the voyage a jolly one. I think we'd better get ready for luncheon," said ...
— Nedra • George Barr McCutcheon

... place, this forcing of men who have been up all night to stand on their feet for hours longer, is as cruel as it is needless. We were weak, famished, and exhausted from our night's hardship and lack of sleep, and yet there we stood, and stood, and stood, without rhyme or reason. ...
— The People of the Abyss • Jack London

... magazines are always howling that women won't marry," cried he, with a fresh sense of grievance; "now, two of my girls have married, that's enough; there was no reason for me to expect any more of them would! There isn't one d—— bit of ...
— Stories of a Western Town • Octave Thanet

... was, towards the end of 1841, to the sheep station of my old friend Sam Jackson, situated on the Deep Creek, seventeen miles northward from Melbourne. There I first tasted damper and saw the novelties of squatting life. Samuel, and his brother William, nicknamed for some reason "The General," were of the very earliest from "over the straits," William having been one of the party organized and sent over in August, 1835, by Fawkner. Sam followed soon after, and they "took up" this station on ...
— Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne & Victoria • William Westgarth

... slaves to be murdered in his presence, and their heads cut off and stuck upon poles as a warning to the others. The sentence of the Court of Appeal, presided over by a brother planter, and entirely composed of planters, reverses the sentence, without assigning any reason for its decision, beyond the mere allegations of the accused party. Such was criminal justice in the days ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 186, May 21, 1853 • Various

... either the eye or the mind to compass the whole mass of falling water; you cannot measure, cannot estimate its enormous volume; and this is the reason, perhaps, why travellers often express themselves disappointed by it. But fix your eye upon one portion—one falling and heaving wave out of the millions, as they turn over the edge of the rocks; watch, I say, this fragment for a few minutes, its regular ...
— Diary in America, Series One • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

... evil!" answered Lord Marnell, wrathfully. "They hold, as I hear, that the blessed Sacrament of the Altar is in no wise the true body of Christ, but only a piece of bread blessed by the priest, and to be eaten in memory of His death; for the which reason also they would allow the lay folk to drink Christ's blood. Moreover, they say that the blessed angels and God's saints be not to be worshipped, but only to be held in reverence and kindly memory. Also, they give to ...
— Mistress Margery • Emily Sarah Holt

... all should be careful that the ministry of the ordinances they attend upon be such as is warranted in the word. If none can warrantably preach except they be sent, we cannot warrantably attend on the ministry of any but those who we have reason to believe have Christ's call and mission. And if it be an objection against a pastor of a congregation, that he is imposed upon the flock without their choice, it is no less an objection against a preacher, if he be not admitted to the ...
— The Divine Right of Church Government • Sundry Ministers Of Christ Within The City Of London

... causes of their survival. Overlaying the countless originating causes of moral ideals are two main preservation—causes, two constant factors which retain certain of the innumerable impulses for one reason or other momentarily dominant. These are of extreme significance for a comprehension of the function of morality ...
— Problems of Conduct • Durant Drake

... doesn't do to wash the pavement," I returned, now trying to put a little reason into her head, "when it is so cold that water will freeze as soon as it touches the ground. The bricks become as slippery as glass, and people can't walk on ...
— Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper • T. S. Arthur

... drifting into vanities, congregating in absurdities, planning shortsightedly, plotting dementedly; whenever they are at variance with their professions, and violate the unwritten but perceptible laws binding them in consideration one to another; whenever they offend sound reason, fair justice; are false in humility or mined with conceit, individually or in the bulk—the Spirit overhead will look humanly malign and cast an oblique light on them, followed by volleys of silvery laughter. That is the ...
— Masters of the English Novel - A Study Of Principles And Personalities • Richard Burton

... be no doubt of the pre-existing misrule, but at the same time it is impossible to travel through Cyprus without the painful conviction that the modern Cypriote is a reckless tree-destroyer, and that destruction is more natural to his character than the propagation of timber. There is no reason for the neglect of olive-planting, but I observed an absence of such cultivation which must have prevailed during several centuries, even during the Venetian rule. It is difficult to determine the age of an olive-tree, which is almost imperishable; it is one of those remarkable examples ...
— Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879 • Sir Samuel W. Baker

... time in my life I see them, father—I see you weep; my heart can scarcely bear the weight of these tears—and yet I go! You have reason to weep, for I bring neither joy nor glory on your head—and yet I go! A feeling stronger than the desire of glory, stronger than the love of my country, inspires my soul; and it is a proof of the strength of my faith that I see your tears, my father—and ...
— The Continental Classics, Volume XVIII., Mystery Tales • Various

... hopes will be disappointed, my boy, for the simple reason that my travels have been in Florida, Mexico, Central America, Peru, and Brazil, with a short stay of a few months ...
— Nat the Naturalist - A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas • G. Manville Fenn

... the cherry orchard was sold we all were excited and we suffered, and then, when the question was solved once and for all, we all calmed down, and even became cheerful. I'm a bank official now, and a financier... red in the middle; and you, Luba, for some reason or other, look better, there's no ...
— Plays by Chekhov, Second Series • Anton Chekhov

... We go to sigh; that o'er, to sleep in rest. Here More forsakes all mirth; good reason why; The fool of flesh must with her frail life die. No eye salute my trunk with a sad tear: Our birth to heaven should be thus, void ...
— Sir Thomas More • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]

... left his little cash-box in my charge. He had no reason to imagine that I was the fittest custodian of the considerable sums he kept in it for use on the way. He would certainly have felt safer with it in the hands of Kishori, his attendant. So I can only suppose he wanted ...
— My Reminiscences • Rabindranath Tagore

... difficulties. They have a queer way of causing losses to the enemy. They make good trenches, in which they wait patiently; they carefully measure the ranges for their rifle fire, and they open a truly hellish fire on the unsuspecting cavalry. This was the reason that ...
— The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol 1, Issue 4, January 23, 1915 • Various

... mammalia. Besides its milk secreting function, the breasts constitute a strong erogenous zone; they are a point of strong attraction for the male sex, many men being more attracted by well-developed breasts than by a pretty face. There is a good biological reason for this. Well developed breasts indicate that the other sexual organs are well developed and that the woman will make a satisfactory wife and satisfactory mother. Considering then the importance of the breasts in attracting a husband ...
— Woman - Her Sex and Love Life • William J. Robinson

... travellers experience who journey with their eyes open. It is true, I ascertain nothing visibly; but, thank God! I possess most exquisitely the other senses, which it has pleased Providence to leave me endowed with; and I have reason to believe that my deficiency of sight is to a considerable degree compensated, by a greater abundance of the power of imagination which presents me with facility to form ideal pictures from the description of others, ...
— A Voyage Round the World, Vol. I (of ?) • James Holman

... reason that among these boys, all younger than himself, and with whom he had always mingled on such familiar terms, he showed but few, and those not often, of the distressing symptoms which bespoke his shattered nerves. Among them he found refuge and was ...
— Tom Slade at Black Lake • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... honest fellow now living in Wintenberg comfortably and at his ease by reason that his wagon chanced to come lumbering along with three or four stout lads in it at the moment when Rupert was meditating a second and murderous blow. Seeing the group of us, the good carrier and his lads leapt down and rushed ...
— Rupert of Hentzau - From The Memoirs of Fritz Von Tarlenheim: The Sequel to - The Prisoner of Zenda • Anthony Hope

... some days before the time stamped on the Heidelberg postmark. He spoke always of leaving very soon; but though he said many loving and tender things, he was silent as to his own doings. She supposed he was occupied with the important matter he described as the "other reason," and so in the two or three short notes she wrote him she abstained from ...
— Doctor Claudius, A True Story • F. Marion Crawford

... The reason why Servia was not allowed to submit was Russia's remark, quoted above, that she would not "allow" Austria to become the predominant power in the Balkans. It was, therefore, Russia's task to prevent Servia from accepting ...
— The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915 - What Americans Say to Europe • Various

... for eternal life through the atoning blood of the Saviour, whose part it had been to purchase our redemption from God's wrath by his death on Calvary. Of other matters more technical: of how the love that God of necessity has for His own infinitely perfect being is the reason and the measure of the hatred he has for sin. Above all did he teach the little boy how to pray for the grace of effectual calling, in order that, being persuaded of his sin and misery, he might thereafter partake of justification, adoption, sanctification, and those ...
— The Seeker • Harry Leon Wilson



Words linked to "Reason" :   saneness, Age of Reason, generalise, ground, syllogize, gather, cause, understanding, deduce, explanation, find, conclude, generalize, ratiocinate, sanity, reasoner, why, wherefore, reasonableness, rationality, reason out, re-argue, indication, mental faculty, speculate, derive, cipher, present, cerebrate, lay out, infer, rational motive, cogitate, rationalise away, deduct, figure, extrapolate, argue, rationalize away, categorise, justification, cypher, calculate, reasoning, support, fact, categorize, contraindication, represent, compute, account, think



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