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Reason   /rˈizən/   Listen
Reason

noun
1.
A rational motive for a belief or action.  Synonym: ground.  "The grounds for their declaration"
2.
An explanation of the cause of some phenomenon.
3.
The capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination.  Synonyms: intellect, understanding.
4.
The state of having good sense and sound judgment.  Synonyms: rationality, reasonableness.  "He had to rely less on reason than on rousing their emotions"
5.
A justification for something existing or happening.  Synonyms: cause, grounds.  "They had good reason to rejoice"
6.
A fact that logically justifies some premise or conclusion.



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"Reason" Quotes from Famous Books



... refused admittance, "his lordship being at his studies:" upon which the peasant retired, muttering, with great indignation, "that he hoped they should ever have another bishop who had not finished his studies before he came among them;" but our author's "being at his studies," was never a reason with him for refusing to see any one. It was often unpleasant to observe how much his good-humor, in this respect, ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler

... reader, expect a dissertation on the manner in which the wourali poison operates on the system: a treatise has been already written on the subject, and, after all, there is probably still reason to doubt. It is supposed to affect the nervous system, and thus destroy the vital functions; it is also said to be perfectly harmless provided it does not touch the blood. However, this is certain: when ...
— Wanderings In South America • Charles Waterton

... just— But how can finite measure infinite? Reason! alas, it does not know itself! Yet man, vain man, would, with this, short-lined plummet, Fathom the vast abyss of heavenly justice. Whatever is, is in its causes just, Since all things are by fate. But purblind ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 6 (of 18) - Limberham; Oedipus; Troilus and Cressida; The Spanish Friar • John Dryden

... of the winter, however, it seemed appropriate to the Court to launch forth an expedition against some of the unsubdued towns, perhaps on account of the mortal languishment of Jeanne herself, perhaps for some other reason of its own. The first necessity was to collect the necessary forces, and for this reason Jeanne came to Bourges, where she was lodged in one of the great houses of the city, that of Raynard de Bouligny, conseiller de roi, ...
— Jeanne d'Arc - Her Life And Death • Mrs.(Margaret) Oliphant

... had told the vicomte that he desired to revenge himself upon Count Vellini. The other reason he had for giving this party he said nothing of, and yet it was the one which did honor to his heart. Under the pretence of surprising the count, he had asked his numerous friends to loan him their pictures, and had hung them in splendid style. Of his own works he only exhibited ...
— The Son of Monte-Cristo, Volume II (of 2) • Alexandre Dumas pere

... of the same day Dr. Beckler followed his example, giving as his reason that he did not like the manner in which Burke spoke to Landells, and that he did not consider the party safe without him to manage the camels. Burke did not, however, ...
— The Red True Story Book • Various

... from a certain Dr. Bailey, a clergyman of this city, who had published a Hebrew Grammar. The doctor was the most unworldly and guileless of men. Amongst his orthodox brethren he was reputed a "Methodist;" and not without reason; for some of his Low- Church views he pushed into practical extravagances that looked like fanaticism, or even like insanity. Lady Carbery wished naturally to testify her gratitude for his services by various splendid presents: but nothing would the good doctor accept, unless ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... For this reason, as well as for others; for the sake of my race as well as the truth of history; I am proud and glad to welcome this account of his adventure from a man who has not only honored the race of which he is a member, but has proven again that courage, fidelity, and ability are honored and ...
— A Negro Explorer at the North Pole • Matthew A. Henson

... is to be in the right, and a fight in which the main thing is to win. The explanation just sketched is a justification of England's policy, an attempt to show that in the main she had right on her side. That is only part of the reason why she had allies. The other part is that she was strong ...
— Britain at Bay • Spenser Wilkinson

... [he writes on September 22, 1830] that I must write to you when, as to-day, I am unable to collect my thoughts. When I reflect on myself I get into a sad mood, and am in danger of losing my reason. When I am lost in my thoughts—which is often the case with me—horses could trample upon me, and yesterday this nearly happened in the street without my noticing it. Struck in the church by a glance of my ideal, I ran in a moment ...
— Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician - Volume 1-2, Complete • Frederick Niecks

... again, "The Wilcoxes"—Thomas Wilcox, wholesale grocer, was the chief prop of St Andrew's—"were sitting just in front of us. We overtook them going home, and Wilcox explained how much they liked the music. 'Glad to see you,' I said. 'Glad to see you for any reason,'" Mr Murchison's eye twinkled. "But they had a great deal to say about 'the music.'" It was not an effusive form of felicitation; the minister would have liked it less if it had been, felt less justified, perhaps, in remembering about the range on that particular morning. As it was, ...
— The Imperialist • (a.k.a. Mrs. Everard Cotes) Sara Jeannette Duncan

... is a luxury, it is a privilege, it is an indulgence for those who are at their ease. But we are all of us made to shun disgrace, as we are made to shrink from pain and poverty and disease. It is an instinct; and under the direction of reason, instinct is always in the right. I live in an inverted order. They who ought to have succeeded me are gone before me. They who should have been to me as posterity are in the place of ancestors. I owe to the dearest relation (which ever must ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. V. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... reason with her, and spoke of the old Chinaman, and of the Major-general-field-sergeant-commander Billy-goat's legs; but she sobbed so bitterly, and kissed her little chimney-sweep till he was obliged to do all she asked, foolish as it was. And so, ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen

... there must be some provision in nature for this purpose, as well as for that of rendering the air fit for sustaining flame; for without it the whole mass of the atmosphere would, in time, become unfit for the purpose of animal life; and yet there is no reason to think that it is, at present, at all less fit for respiration than it has ever been. I flatter myself, however, that I have hit upon two of the methods employed by nature for this great purpose. How many others there may be, ...
— Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air • Joseph Priestley

... not of those who connected the "Thing" with the lady of the chateau. Although Ruth Fielding had reason to believe that the police authorities trusted the Countess Marchand and were sure of her loyalty, many of the peasants about the chateau believed that the werwolf was the unfortunate ...
— Ruth Fielding at the War Front - or, The Hunt for the Lost Soldier • Alice B. Emerson

... John, who had grown to be quite a good cook, perhaps by reason of his natural inclination for good things to eat. "I'll make a stew of them with some of that bear meat and some of Skookie's bulbs here. I'll bet we'll have the finest meal to-night we have ever had on the island." And so they all agreed. Late that night ...
— The Young Alaskans • Emerson Hough

... mentally for a grand effort. He held equivalent rank to that of a Galactic admiral, and it was held for one reason only, because of his real work and its importance. He was a super-psychologist, a trend-analyzer, a salesman, a promoter, a viewer, an expert on alien symbology and the spearhead of the most ruthless ...
— Join Our Gang? • Sterling E. Lanier

... as insignificant; and as men of science carefully investigate the secrets of nature, so I hold it to be the duty, ay, the very vocation of a prince, to acquaint himself with the dispositions and intentions of all parties. I have reason to fear an outbreak. The king has long acted according to certain principles; he finds that they do not lead to a prosperous issue; what more probable than that he should seek it ...
— Egmont - A Tragedy In Five Acts • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

... going to cry, this time, and it seemed to him that these domestic whirlwinds furnished ample reason for it. ...
— Country Neighbors • Alice Brown

... For this reason, among others, Bunyan disliked the Liturgy. He thought the doctrine of it false, and he objected to a Liturgy on principle. He has a sermon on Prayer, in which he insists that to be worth anything prayer must be the expression of an inward feeling; ...
— Bunyan • James Anthony Froude

... The reason was that he had not fastened it very firmly; but then he did not expect he would be so long in the tree, nor did he think the current of the water would have ...
— The Island House - A Tale for the Young Folks • F. M. Holmes

... there was other news that day to allay his terrors: the Justices, at Truro had been informed of the event and the accusation that was made; but they had refused point-blank to take action in the matter. The reason of it was that one of them was that same Master Anthony Baine who had witnessed the affront offered Sir Oliver. He declared that whatever had happened to Master Godolphin as a consequence was no more than he deserved, no more than he had brought ...
— The Sea-Hawk • Raphael Sabatini

... represented a coalition of the moderate Left and the Right.[573] The coalition, however, proved ill-advised, and when, July 27, 1887, Depretis died he left behind him a government which represented rather a fusion of the moderate and radical wings of the Left. By reason of the disintegrated condition of parties Depretis had been able to override habitually the fundamental principles of parliamentarism and to maintain through many years a government which lived from hand to mouth on petty manoeuvers. The franchise, it is true, had been ...
— The Governments of Europe • Frederic Austin Ogg

... for a man of talents plus "the mathematics." But the calculating power alone should seem to be the least human of qualities, and to have the smallest amount of reason in it; since a machine can be made to do the work of three or four calculators, and better than any one of them. Sometimes I have been troubled that I had not a deeper intuitive apprehension of the relations of numbers. But the triumph of the ciphering hand-organ ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various

... to show that the prophetic document, as we have it, is composite, though there can seldom be any manner of certainty about the ultimate analysis into its J and E constituents. There is reason to believe that most of the isolated notices of the struggle with the Canaanites scattered throughout xiii.-xxii. and repeated in Judges i. are from J, while ch. xxiv., with its interest in Shechem and Joseph, and its simple but significant statement, "They presented themselves before ...
— Introduction to the Old Testament • John Edgar McFadyen

... rock, they have a superstitious tradition, that while some natives were one day feasting under it, some of the company whistling, it happened to fall from a great height, and crushed the whole party under its weight. For this reason they make it an invariable rule never ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 • David Collins

... great, O Sovereign Lord, Came evil from thy forming hand, That Reason, yea, and Virtue stand ...
— The Heavenly Father - Lectures on Modern Atheism • Ernest Naville

... stew-dish, to be heated with spirits of wine: cover close up, light the lamp, and keep gently simmering, and occasionally stirring, until the flesh has imbibed the greater part of the liquid. When you have reason to suppose it is completely saturated, pour in a small quantity of salad oil, stir all once more well together, 'put out the light, and then!'—serve it round instantly; for it is scarcely necessary to say, that a devil should not only be hot in ...
— The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual • William Kitchiner

... him "Mr. Smellingscheck", and treated him with a peculiar kind of deference, the reason for which they themselves were doubtless unable to explain or even understand. The haggard woman who made the beds called him "Mr. Smell-'is-check". Poor fellow! I didn't think, by the look of him, that he'd smelt his cheque, or anyone ...
— On the Track • Henry Lawson

... went, probably for no other reason than to obey the general expectation. His mood was taciturn; his face grim and sneering. Let Wolverstone arrive, as presently he would, and all this hero-worship would ...
— Captain Blood • Rafael Sabatini

... yaller Nigger gal, An' I'll tell you de reason why: Her neck's drawed out so stringy an' long, I'se afeared she 'ould ...
— Negro Folk Rhymes - Wise and Otherwise: With a Study • Thomas W. Talley

... so to speak, the hand refuses to record what the head hears and sees, what the reason must judge. To witness how one of the greatest events in the development of mankind, how the deadly struggle between right and crime, between good and evil, how the blood and sweat of such a people ...
— Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863 • Adam Gurowski

... and the new hope arose to sustain us for farther effort. We removed the saddles and placed them on a rock, and after a few moments hesitation, moments in which were crowded torrents of wild ideas, and desperate thoughts, that were enough to drive reason from its throne, we left the poor animals to their fate and moved along. Just as we were passing out of sight the poor creatures neighed pitifully after us, and one who has never heard the last despairing, pleading neigh of a horse left to die can form no idea of its almost human appeal. ...
— Death Valley in '49 • William Lewis Manly

... half," said Dotty, "there's no reason you should pay anything, Doll. You weren't in on this game. And here's another thing, I'm going to buy a new doll for that little girl. You see it's the same as if ...
— Two Little Women • Carolyn Wells

... ecclesiastical and civil reforms. That the reign of Antichrist is begun is the fundamental doctrine of the Raskol, and particularly of the Bezpopovstchin. In the light of this new dogma all the contradictions of the latter are explained and justified. This is the reason for the extinction of the priesthood, of marriage and of the family. Wherefore—many ask—wherefore continue the race when the archangel's trump is about to ...
— Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88 • Various

... protested that it was not their desire to have the charter cancelled. They were not blind to the usefulness of the Exchange if it were properly managed and all they asked was that this organization be compelled to do what was right. The reason the Exchange had admitted the Grain Growers' Grain Company, the farmers claimed, was so that they could have it under discipline, being afraid of a combination of farmers in the interests of the producer. The farmers had lost confidence ...
— Deep Furrows • Hopkins Moorhouse

... or efficiency, there can be in metempsychosis itself to reach this end is not apparent. That the soul should ultimately reach beatitude rather than absolute, irremedial, degradation through this process is merely assumed, and that without adequate foundation in reason. ...
— India's Problem Krishna or Christ • John P. Jones

... not prevent him, later on, from attaching himself to the court of the Conqueror's son. He is generally described as having been jester to Henry I., and it has been assumed that the nature of his engagement involved a course of life calling for repentance and a pilgrimage. But whatever the reason may have been, he apparently went to Rome in 1120, though the journey at that particular juncture was a very unsafe proceeding. He may, perhaps, have joined himself to the train of Pope Calixtus II., who had just been elected at Cluny, in succession to the fugitive ...
— Memorials of Old London - Volume I • Various

... a cloudy circle, which continually appears in the air, and by reason of the whiteness of its colors is called the galaxy, or the milky way. Some of the Pythagoreans say that, when Phaeton set the world on fire, a star falling from its own place in its circular passage through the region caused an inflammation. Others say that originally it was the ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch

... There I abode for seven years continually, and watered with my tears the imperishable raiment that Calypso gave me. But when the eighth year came round in his course, then at last she urged and bade me to be gone, by reason of a message from Zeus, or it may be that her own mind was turned. So she sent me forth on a well-bound raft, and gave me plenteous store, bread and sweet wine, and she clad me in imperishable raiment, and sent forth a warm and gentle wind to blow. For ten days and ...
— DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE • S. H. BUTCHER, M.A.

... Italians know them not; and what I tell you now in Tergou you shall sell here in Florence. Note my brother Jan's pictures: time, which fades all other paintings, leaves his colours bright as the day they left the easel. The reason is, he did nothing blindly, in a hurry. He trusted to no hireling to grind his colours; he did it himself, or saw it done. His panel was prepared and prepared again—I will show you how—a year before he laid his colour on. Most of them are quite content ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade

... those little Mayflower lads Were thankful to be living— A splendid reason, after ...
— Zodiac Town - The Rhymes of Amos and Ann • Nancy Byrd Turner

... rather a talkative young lady. Her bosom friend, having missed her for some time, called to find out the reason. ...
— More Toasts • Marion Dix Mosher

... been warned that many of the reef fish were uneatable, and that the yellow ones were actively poisonous. We were quite proud of our Joseph's-coat-like catch, but our henchman, the negro lad Arthur, assured us that every fish we had caught was poisonous. We had reason later to doubt this assertion, as we saw him walking home with a splendid parti-coloured string of fish, probably chuckling ...
— Here, There And Everywhere • Lord Frederic Hamilton

... but that's no reason for letting Rex off." Her voice took on a little of the pretty bantering tone she used to her parents. She was beginning to feel such a happy confidence ...
— In the Quarter • Robert W. Chambers

... pumpkins are not generally grown in this country as an article of food for the poorer classes, and more is the pity, for they require but little trouble to rear, and yield an abundance of nutritious and cooling food, at a small cost; the chief reason for the short supply is, I imagine, the want of knowledge for turning the pumpkin to good account as an article of food. I am now about to supply easy instruction to convey that knowledge to whomsoever may stand ...
— A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes • Charles Elme Francatelli

... happened between them, and that she could not tell why Anna Pavlovna seemed displeased with her. Kitty answered perfectly truly. She did not know the reason Anna Pavlovna had changed to her, but she guessed it. She guessed at something which she could not tell her mother, which she did not put into words to herself. It was one of those things which one knows but which one can ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy

... no real reason, I suppose," the girl answered, smiling, "except that life is so very easy for me that I have to invent some woes. I should be better for a few reverses." And then she went on in a lower voice, and turning her head away, "In our family there is no woman older than I am to whom I ...
— Soldiers of Fortune • Richard Harding Davis

... man is one of those blind forces that so often lead to shipwreck. The mob-mind differs from the mind of reason. To tell them apart is like distinguishing mushrooms from toadstools. They look alike, but one means health and the other is poison. Life has taught me the difference between a movement and a mob. A movement is guided by logic, law and personal responsibility. A mob is guided by passion ...
— The Iron Puddler • James J. Davis

... reason, it did register us," agreed the Eagle Man. He paused, and then his voice rang out. "Let me tell you all something that the inventor of that machine did, some miracle he brought to pass I should have thought impossible. He awakened ...
— Suzanna Stirs the Fire • Emily Calvin Blake

... possible that the forgetting of this simple fact in the planning of material for adolescent pupils is one chief reason for the tragic loss of interest in the Sunday school which so often occurs at ...
— How to Teach Religion - Principles and Methods • George Herbert Betts

... reason to suspect the sincerity of Eachard, or to doubt that he was, in his own words, an honest and hearty wisher that 'the best of the clergy might for ever continue, as they are, rich and learned, and that the rest ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe

... or for any other duty required of it. With these instructions the provost returned to the Hotel de Ville, where he spent great part of the night in preparing the necessary orders, which were issued "very early the next morning." There is reason for believing that these measures were simply precautions in case the Huguenots should resist and a bloody struggle should have to be fought in the streets of their capital. The municipality certainly took no part in the earlier massacres, whatever they may ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1-20 • Various

... window of the coach the voice of one inquiring the reason of the halt, and there might have been seen through the upper portion of the vehicle's door the face of the owner of the carriage. He seemed a man of imposing presence, with face open and handsome, and an eye bright, bold and full ...
— The Mississippi Bubble • Emerson Hough

... vividly that he always remembered the judge as he appeared to him at that minute. Certainly there were but few men like him in the country, and none in his own town. Of a commanding personality by reason of his height, his features were of a cast to express his mental attributes and enforce attention, and the incongruity between his dominating figure and the apprehensions which he displayed in these multiplied and extraordinary arrangements for ...
— Dark Hollow • Anna Katharine Green

... sweeter air, where they can flourish? God's spiritual gifts cannot grow in smoke and dirt and a polluted atmosphere. And if a professing Christian man lives his life on the low levels he will have very few of the heavenly gifts coming down to him there. And that is the reason—the reason above all others—why, with such a large provision made for all possible necessities and longings of all sorts, people who call themselves Christians go up and down the world feeble and poor, and ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John • Alexander Maclaren

... mother, I have found you at last, but I can't make it real; my head is so strange. What if I should be crazy?' and she started suddenly. 'What if that dreadful taint should be in my blood, or what if I should die just as I have found my mother! Oh, Heaven, don't let me die; don't let me lose my reason, and I will try to do right; only show me what ...
— Tracy Park • Mary Jane Holmes

... understanding, reciprocated. She was very haughty. Owen had plans of forcing her to leave after Butler's death, but he finally asked himself what was the use. Mrs. Butler, who did not want to leave the old home, was very fond of Aileen, so therein lay a reason for letting her remain. Besides, any move to force her out would have entailed an explanation to her mother, which was not deemed advisable. Owen himself was interested in Caroline Mollenhauer, whom he hoped some day to marry—as much for her prospective wealth as for any other reason, ...
— The Financier • Theodore Dreiser

... judgment of the Secretary of Commerce further possession and operation by him of any plant, facility, or other property is no longer necessary or expedient in the interest of national defense, and the Secretary has reason to believe that effective future operation is assured, he shall return the possession and operation of such plant, facility, or other property to the company in possession and control thereof at the time possession was ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin

... For some reason Frederick experienced great relief at this, and was bracing himself to meet the fire of questions which his statement must necessarily call forth, when the sound of approaching steps drew the attention of both towards a party of men coming ...
— Agatha Webb • Anna Katharine Green

... that in this respect Jack had little reason to complain; for though the Squire, in the outset, may not have been very particular as to his choice, and it was said once or twice gave an ushership to an old exciseman, on account of his skill in mensuration of fluids, he had latterly become very particular, and would not hear of ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXIX. - March, 1843, Vol. LIII. • Various

... the town nearest to this treasure. But though he had a certain knowledge of the place where the lamp was, he was not permitted to take it himself, nor to enter the .subterraneous place, but must receive it from the hands of another person. For this reason he had addressed himself to Alla ad Deen, whom he looked upon as a young lad whose life was of no consequence, and fit to serve his purpose, resolving, as soon as he should get the lamp into his hands, to sacrifice ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 3 • Anon.

... train up his reason on bridge and riot on afternoon tea, And at dinner, all wineless and proper, a dress-suited guest he may be; But when the mild cheese has been passed, and the chocolate mint drops are few, And the coffee comes in and he hankers, What is a ...
— Memories and Anecdotes • Kate Sanborn

... on thee," says Fraech. "The first day I found the ring in front of the outer court, and I knew it was a lovely gem. It is for that reason I put it up industriously in my purse. I heard, the day I went to the water, the maiden who had lost it a-looking for it. I said to her: 'What reward shall I have at thy hands for the finding of it?' She said to me that she would give a year's love ...
— Heroic Romances of Ireland Volumes 1 and 2 Combined • A. H. Leahy

... the murderess of his cousin, whose death he had vowed to avenge. But of course it was so—he saw many things now. The anxiety to get the letters; the dread of publicity expressed to Peppermore; the mystery spread over many things and actions; now this affair with Mallett—there was no reason to doubt Krevin Crood's accusation. The fragments of the puzzle had ...
— In the Mayor's Parlour • J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher

... wounded, or whether there be anything in the smell, I know not, but I have heard many sportsmen allude to the fact. A favourite elephant I had would stand anything but a bear and a pig. Few horses will approach a bear, and this is one difficulty in spearing them; and for this reason I think bear dancers should be prohibited in towns. Calcutta used to swarm with them at one time. It always makes me angry when I see these men going about with the poor brutes, whose teeth and claws are often drawn, and a cruel ...
— Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon • Robert A. Sterndale

... in consequence of this present opening for peace, or not, we are not told. But we have reason to suppose that Wales was in comparative tranquillity through the following (p. 121) winter[122] and spring. The rebel chief, however, again very shortly carried the sword and flame with increased horrors through his devoted native land. We read of no battle or ...
— Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1 - Memoirs of Henry the Fifth • J. Endell Tyler

... party, which was thus roused, was the principal reason why the agitation for the suspension of the Constitution in Cape Colony was started and pursued so vigorously in spite of the small chance it had to succeed. His support of this agitation may be called the death-bed effort ...
— Cecil Rhodes - Man and Empire-Maker • Princess Catherine Radziwill

... can only account for them on the ground that, if a victory had been won, an official account from government should have been here before this; and that it is solely on this account that these rumours have got about. He said there was no reason for supposing that this silence meant disaster. A complete victory might have been won; and yet the messenger with the despatches might have been captured, and killed, by the parties of tribesmen hanging behind ...
— With Kitchener in the Soudan - A Story of Atbara and Omdurman • G. A. Henty

... one o'clock at night, but this did not prevent our being up again at four and off at half-past seven. At half-past nine in the evening we drove into Framheim, after covering sixty-two miles that day. Our reason for driving that distance was not to set up any record for the Barrier, but to get home, if possible, before the Fram sailed, and thus have an opportunity of once more shaking hands with our comrades ...
— The South Pole, Volumes 1 and 2 • Roald Amundsen

... ever. But the Boy went on, telling how the Shaman had cured Ol' Chief, and that turned out to be a surprisingly popular story. Peetka wouldn't interrupt it, even to curse the Leader for getting up and stretching himself. When the dog—feeling that for some reason discipline was relaxed—dared to leave his cramped quarters, and come out into the little open space between the white men and the close-packed assembly, the Boy forced himself to go straight on with his story as if he had not observed ...
— The Magnetic North • Elizabeth Robins (C. E. Raimond)

... rat is found in out-houses in the cinnamon gardens at Colombo. I have no reason to think it to be the young of the former species (M. decumanus); the teeth were well developed; the darker colour and long tail will easily distinguish the species from other Colombo rats" (Kellaart). ...
— Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon • Robert A. Sterndale

... something about satisfaction, in a verbal answer to a note of the poor Prussian: this was stated at table to Gropius, who laughed, but could eat no dinner afterwards. The rivals were not reconciled when I left Greece. I have reason to remember their squabble, for they wanted to make me ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2 • George Gordon Byron

... broken sound of this sobbing still haunted his ears. "Methought," he says, "that it was my own childish soul which thus broke out in the weeping of my son." As for him, with the whole effort of his reason struggling against his heart, he only wanted to think of the glory which the saint had just entered into. His companions felt likewise. Evodius caught up a psalter, and before Monnica's body, not yet cold, he began to chant ...
— Saint Augustin • Louis Bertrand

... I; and for that reason, I am in favor of going to New York by steamer and railroad from here. I have three weeks more to spare, and if you wish to go up to St. Paul's or Pittsburg, I am entirely willing to go with you, ...
— Up the River - or, Yachting on the Mississippi • Oliver Optic

... me about how he was suspected of the poisoning, and how he wanted to clear his name. The reason I appointed the lane near the farm house was because I intended to go with him to Mr. Appleby and explain everything. I never thought it would storm so, but it was too late to get word to Tom, so I ...
— Tom Fairfield's Pluck and Luck • Allen Chapman

... himself to dogmatism; he would have entrenched his position in darkness, and have hidden his own vulnerable points. But coming down to base reasons, he lets in light, and one sees where to plant the blows. Now, the worshipful reason of modern France for disturbing the old received spelling, is—that Jean Hordal, a descendant of La Pucelle's brother, spelled the name Darc, in 1612. But what of that? Beside the chances that M. ...
— Miscellaneous Essays • Thomas de Quincey

... man could have answered such a direct question easily, and in this case it was especially hard for the Kentuckian, who was torn between his ungovernable desire and that decision which cold reason had thrust upon him. He wanted to say, "Yes, I'll marry her to-morrow," but something bade him pause before he sacrificed upon this altar of a youthful love his life, his hopes, his ambitions. Had he not wrestled with himself for months in thinking it all out, until ...
— The Barrier • Rex Beach

... of February, I resolved to employ some hours in studying the fishes of the Archipelago; but for some reason or other the panels remained hermetically sealed. Upon taking the course of the Nautilus, I found that we were going towards Candia, the ancient Isle of Crete. At the time I embarked on the Abraham Lincoln, the whole of this island had risen in insurrection against the despotism ...
— Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea • Jules Verne

... come back to the grievance—in the first place, I did not think that you had voted for that law; in the second place, if I had thought so, I should never have thought that you had done it without some sufficient reason. Your position makes whatever you do noticeable; furthermore, envy puts some of your acts in a worse light than the facts warrant. If you do not hear these rumors I do not know what to say. So far as I am concerned, if I ever hear them I defend you as I know that I am always defended ...
— The Common People of Ancient Rome - Studies of Roman Life and Literature • Frank Frost Abbott

... reasons, if they were necessary," continued the attorney-general; "for instance, that he corresponds less confidentially with the executive of the United States, than with the opposers and libellers of his administration; and that there is too much reason to believe he is furthering the views of a faction in America, more than the peace and happiness of ...
— Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. • Benson J. Lossing

... a word to say concerning Cattell's[1] investigations of the time required for apprehension. The better a man knows the language the more rapidly can he repeat and read its words. It is for this reason that we believe that foreigners speak more rapidly than we. Cattell finds this so indubitable, that he wants to use speed as a test in the examinations ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden

... asked me if we made it of roots. I explained to him the manner in which it grew. I hurried the departure of the Indians. the Chief addressed them several times before they would move they seemed very reluctant to accompany me. I at length asked the reason and he told me that some foolish persons among them had suggested the idea that we were in league with the Pahkees and had come on in order to decoy them into an ambuscade where their enimies were waiting to receive them. ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... applying for an assistant, he named you personally to the general manager of the bank and gave as a reason a long-standing friendship?" ...
— The Rider of Waroona • Firth Scott

... nights when there is no church service there is feasting and dancing. The native dance is a very simple affair, entirely without any objectionable feature, and one cannot see any reason in the world for attempting to suppress it. A man and a woman get out in the middle of the floor and dance opposite one another without touching at all. The moccasined toes of an expert man in this dance move ...
— Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled - A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska • Hudson Stuck

... don't resemble the monkey with the meal-tub. His master thrashed him when he caught him at the theft, and showed him his hands covered with meal, that he might understand the reason of his punishment. Monkey, after the next theft, took care to wash his hands, and when his master came to punish him, extended them to show how clean they were. His master smiled, and immediately brought him a looking-glass—his face and whiskers were powdered with meal: and there you have ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 348 • Various

... important reason was furnished by the war, of which this was the origin. The city of L'Aquila, though subject to the kingdom of Naples, was in a manner free; and the Count di Montorio possessed great influence over it. The duke of Calabria was upon the ...
— History Of Florence And Of The Affairs Of Italy - From The Earliest Times To The Death Of Lorenzo The Magnificent • Niccolo Machiavelli

... greater distance. It is to be remarked, that Mr Woodbury's report to Congress states from one hundred to one hundred and twenty persons as having been killed. Judge Hall, in the report of the committee, estimates it at one hundred and fifty; but there is reason to believe that the loss on this occasion, as well as in many others, was greater than even in the report of the committee. The fact is, it is almost impossible to state the loss on these occasions; the only data to go upon are the books ...
— Diary in America, Series Two • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

... 'What possible reason could he have for treating Robert with those airs?' said Rose indignantly, ready enough in girl fashion to defend her belongings against the outer world. 'He ought to be only too glad to have the opportunity of knowing him and making friends ...
— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... that of Agramante's allies and their insignia in the "Orlando Innamorato." In many instances the device, as Drayton says, represents the escutcheon of some town within the county; in others he seems to have been indebted to his imagination, though endeavouring not unsuccessfully to adduce some reason for ...
— The Battaile of Agincourt • Michael Drayton

... good reason, monsieur. It is not two hours since one has escaped death—and that for the second time in a single day—by the slenderest margin, and thanks solely to this ...
— Alias The Lone Wolf • Louis Joseph Vance

... can always depend upon me to help you out, Braden,—that is, within reason," said the other, watching him narrowly out ...
— From the Housetops • George Barr McCutcheon

... granny that it is wicked to kill robins; but he who should attribute the belief to the old granny's refined sympathy with all sentient existence, would be making one of the blunders which are always committed by those who reason a priori about historical matters without following the historical method. At an earlier date the superstition existed in the shape of a belief that the killing of a robin portends some calamity; in a still earlier form the calamity is specified as death; and again, still earlier, ...
— Myths and Myth-Makers - Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology • John Fiske

... The reason given for making this demand on me is, that my testimony is wanted in the interests of truth. As the widow of a clergyman of the Church of England (reduced by misfortune to the necessity of accepting a situation), I have been taught to place ...
— The Woman in White • Wilkie Collins

... inevitable, we may as well sit down and reason it out. Is it so dreadful to grow old? Does old age need its apologies and its defenders? Is it a benefit or a calamity? Why should it be odious and ridiculous? An old tree is picturesque, an old castle venerable, an old cathedral inspires awe—why ...
— Brave Men and Women - Their Struggles, Failures, And Triumphs • O.E. Fuller

... however, greatly to my disappointment, to start for some days; but I found that in that part of the world things are not to be done in a hurry, and if I attempted it I should exemplify the proverb, "The greater haste the worse speed." I had no reason, indeed, to regret my stay with Mr Fordyce, as I learned much more about the country than I should otherwise probably have done. He also lent me a horse, and made me ride out every morning for two or three ...
— My First Voyage to Southern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston

... by M. Fould, Minister of Finance, upon the introduction of a bill making an appropriation for the purchase of 455 saccharometers, which had become necessary by reason of the late law ordering that from and after the 1st of January, 1852, the beet sugars were to be taxed according to their saccharine richness. The Minister declared that at that date there would be in active operation in France 334 sugar factories ...
— The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom • P. L. Simmonds

... defy you. The new world permits no crazy nonna to rule a family. That is my privilege. If you persist, it is you who shall go to the pit. If you have reason, you shall remain in your garden in peace. Come, Tato; we ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad • Edith Van Dyne

... know—what reason have you for thinking that he was aware that there was such a person?" I ask, with ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton

... by peace and not war that they could alone flourish. Their boundaries were all plainly established by that treaty, and there was no sound pretence why one tribe should pass over on the lands of another. If he did pass, there was no reason at all why he should carry a hatchet in his hand or a war eagle's feather in ...
— Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers • Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

... had all the horror of a spectral appeal, and such was the state of my mind that imagination might quickly have worked the apparition, had it lingered, into an instrument for the unsettling of my reason. ...
— The Frozen Pirate • W. Clark Russell

... the object of all lawgivers and moralists to repress and subjugate is flattered and caressed; whatever is profitable is right; and already the slave-trade, as yielding a greater return on the capital invested than any other traffic, is lauded as the highest achievement of human reason and justice. Mr. Hammond has proclaimed the accession of King Cotton, but he seems to have forgotten that history is not without examples of kings who have lost their crowns through the folly and false security of their ministers. It is ...
— The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V - Political Essays • James Russell Lowell

... you reckon he went and told it? I know; he just couldn't keep it—he is so much in love. Oh, Dolly, tell 'em about it. Here you are keeping it so close, while he is sticking it into a paper for everybody to read. I never could see any reason for you to be so awful secret, anyway. It has been ...
— The Desired Woman • Will N. Harben

... of an admiral's removing his flag, and retiring from the action while his own ship is engaged, however consonant to reason., we do not remember to have seen practised upon any occasion, except in one instance, at Carthagena, where sir Chaloner Ogle quitted his own ship, when she was ordered to stand in and cannonade the fort of Boca-Chica. In this present attack, all the sea-commanders behaved ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... creatures, whom he has put into their posts during the seven years of his vizierate; not one of those functionaries dare offer an obstacle to the elevation of his benefactor. Ibrahim Pacha, Beylerbey of Buda, keeps him in suspense by reason of the influence that his fame gives him over the army and over Hungary; he must be won over before all else, as well as the chief officers of the janizaries and the spahis. Ibrahim shall be made King of Hungary. The different provinces ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 12 • Editor-In-Chief Rossiter Johnson

... desirable to grant peerages for life only. Such a proceeding would, he was convinced, by no means disincline others in different circumstances to accept hereditary titles, nor indispose the ministry to confer them. Nor did he see any reason for fearing that the practice of creating life peerages would be more likely to be abused for the purpose of increasing the power of the minister than the ...
— The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860 • Charles Duke Yonge

... do not pretend, as he [M. de Luc] does in his theory, to describe the beginning of things. I take things such as I find them at present; and from these I reason with regard to that ...
— Discourses - Biological and Geological Essays • Thomas H. Huxley

... reason, Madam, Being the fountain-head of life and death Whence, like a mighty river, justice flows, Without thy presence justice is dried up And fails of purpose: thou ...
— The Duchess of Padua • Oscar Wilde

... make a single four-pound loaf. Capital, as represented by consumable commodities, is the product of labor applied to land, or the natural fruits of the land itself. The land does not become either more or less productive by reason of the transfer from one person to another; it is the withdrawal of ...
— Landholding In England • Joseph Fisher

... to war have reason on their side; and the churches of both parties resound with prayers, and appeals to Divine Justice, for the success of their arms. Frederic, on this occasion, had recourse to them with regret, of which I was ...
— The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck - Vol. 1 (of 2) • Baron Trenck

... with her to the extent of letting the shawls he had knocked from her hold lie between them till she began to pick them up herself. Then he joined her and in the relief of their common occupation they contrived to possess each other of the reason of their presence on, the same boat. She had sorrowed over Mrs. March's sad state, and he had grieved to hear that her father was going home because he was not at all well, before they found the general stretched ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... your prating, For these are but grammatical laments, Feminine arguments: and they move me, As some in pulpits move their auditory, More with their exclamation than sense Of reason, ...
— The White Devil • John Webster

... and coat quickly and ran to join her father. He was sitting as if thinking, his head resting in his hands. She understood the struggle between love and reason in his soul, and her upright little soul suffered with his. Bending gently beside him she murmured, "Do not be unhappy, papa. You know that I can never suffer as long as I have you two. If I am quite mistaken, if life doesn't ...
— The Idol of Paris • Sarah Bernhardt

... (1) the only two coherent fragments found in the notebook which Brooke used in the last month of his life; a little song, written, I think on his travels; and a poem, dating probably from 1912, which for some reason he left unrevised; (2) a few "lighter" poems which I dare say he would have printed on their merits if he had published a volume in which they would not have been out of key. Two of these, the "Letter to a Live Poet" and "The Little Dog's Day," were written for Westminster ...
— The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke • Rupert Brooke

... weapon and his own aim, on somebody or something. That black spider which lived so securely in the domicil of Mr. Calvert would have stood no chance in any apartment of the widow Hinkley. Even the "pacificator" would have been employed for its extermination, if, for no other reason, because of the fancied resemblance which it had always worn to Brother Stevens—a resemblance which occurred to him, perhaps, in consequence of the supposed similarity between the arts of the libertine and those for the entrapping of ...
— Charlemont • W. Gilmore Simms

... not until nearly a month later that Ralph made an opportunity to call upon Sir Thomas More. Cromwell had given him to understand that there was no immediate reason for haste; his own time was tolerably occupied, and he thought it as well not to make a show of over-great hurry. He wrote to Sir Thomas, explaining that he wished to see him on a matter connected with his brother Christopher, and received a courteous reply begging him to come to dinner ...
— The King's Achievement • Robert Hugh Benson

... as will be noticed in the four articles (which are in part a compilation of phrases from the Upanishads) the personality of Brahm[a] is not insisted on for the outer church. For this reason, although the inner church doubtless understands It as He, yet this neuter should be preserved in the translation. The articles are so drawn up as to enable any deist to subscribe (without Vedantic belief as a condition of acceptance) ...
— The Religions of India - Handbooks On The History Of Religions, Volume 1, Edited By Morris Jastrow • Edward Washburn Hopkins

... home on an evening when rain seemed threatening. This was probably his reason for wearing a cloak,—a protection seldom needed, except at night and in bad weather. It was against his usual habit that he had drawn his cloak high about his shoulders, so that his face was half-concealed, and this made it the more difficult for one ...
— Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & Protectorate • Charles M. Skinner

... of in the Bible as a sleep, for the reason that God intends in his due time to awaken all of the dead and give them an opportunity of life. The Bible abounds in the expressions referring to the dead as asleep. A few of these expressions are: "David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David". ...
— The Harp of God • J. F. Rutherford

... a certain nonsense tale which a friend used to tell with such effect that her hearers became helpless with laughter, but which for some reason never seemed funny to me. I could not laugh at it. But my friend constantly urged me to use it, quoting her own success. At last, with much curiosity and some trepidation, I included it in a programme before people with whom I was so closely in sympathy ...
— How to Tell Stories to Children - And Some Stories to Tell • Sara Cone Bryant

... distribution of its offices, and in the civil rights of its inhabitants generally. These rights having been denied by the whites to the freeborn mulattoes, with every possible manifestation of contempt and dislike, an effort had been made to wring from the whites by force what they would not grant to reason; and an ill-principled and ill-managed revolt had taken place, in the preceding October, headed by Vincent Oge and his brother, sons of the proprietress of a coffee plantation, a few miles from Cap Francais. These young men were executed, under circumstances of great barbarity. Their sufferings ...
— The Hour and the Man - An Historical Romance • Harriet Martineau

... parallel courses for Trinidad, but about 8 p.m. both ships turned sharply round and doubled on their tracks, proceeding on a south-easterly course at full speed. We learnt the reason for this the next day. German raiders had previously coaled and hidden at Trinidad; but Brazil was now in the war, so that hole was stopped, and the Wolf had intercepted a wireless from the Commander ...
— Five Months on a German Raider - Being the Adventures of an Englishman Captured by the 'Wolf' • Frederic George Trayes

... and the French returned it as warmly with Cannon, Mortars, and continual showers of musket balls; but by 11 o'clock we had beat them all from their guns.' A French diarist of the same day says that the fire from the walls was stopped on purpose, chiefly to save powder; while the same reason is assigned for the British order to cease fire exactly one ...
— The Great Fortress - A Chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760 • William Wood

... is no reason to fear the overthrow of the British Empire in India, because there are seventy-five thousand white troops in the peninsula, and they are fully able to keep ...
— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 38, July 29, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

... anxiety was needless, for she wrote me, with as much surprise as pleasure, two months later, that for some reason Mr. McCullough had not answered the letter, and that she was very happy; she had persuaded Hector to go ...
— In the Arena - Stories of Political Life • Booth Tarkington



Words linked to "Reason" :   think, support, induce, speculate, syllogize, indication, justification, rationalise away, generalise, expostulate, score, categorise, saneness, re-argue, deduce, find, present, represent, compute, why, cypher, cipher, syllogise, extrapolate, occasion, feel, figure, reckon, theorize, work out, sanity, wherefore, categorize, cerebrate, account, mental faculty, fend for, rationalize away, fact, deduct, gather, cogitate, derive, generalize, defend, ratiocinate, rational motive, module, explanation, infer, faculty, contraindication, calculate, lay out



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