We recognize the spiritual, divine source of our lives on the one hand with reason, on the other with love.
A wise person is characterized by three things: first, he follows his own advice; second, he never acts unjustly; and third, he patiently bears the faults of those around him.
Great thoughts flow from the heart.
— Vauvenargues
All our moral feelings are so inwoven with our intellectual powers, that we cannot affect the one without in some degree addressing the other. A great intellect, in the absence of moral feeling, is a source of great ills.
— John Ruskin
Study everything. Believe only that which agrees with reason.
Reason and intellect are two completely different properties. There are many highly intelligent people who are devoid of reason. Intelligence is the ability to understand and think about the conditions of worldly life; reason is the divine essence of the soul, which reveals to it its relationship to the world and to God. Not only is reason not the same thing as intellect, it is contrary to it: reason liberates the human being from the temptations and deceptions that intellect burdens him with. This is the main activity of reason; by destroying temptations, reason liberates the essence of the human soul—love—and gives it the opportunity to manifest itself.
People typically make a distinction between reason and conscience, saying that good deeds are more important than powerful contemplation. But by dividing the inseparably connected forces of the soul this way we cripple our nature. Take away the thoughts of virtue, and what is left? Without the power of thought, that which we call conscience degenerates into dreaming, exaggeration and justification of evil. The most cruel deeds in the world had been committed in the name of conscience. People hated and killed each other in the name of conscience.
— Channing
A rational human being cannot be evil. A good human being is always rational. Grow the goodness within you by exercising reason, and reason by exercising love.
