Friedrich Engels
Philosopher, Political Theorist
"All that is real in human history becomes irrational in the process of time."
Irrational quotes
Irrational
67 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Vladimir Nabokov
Novelist
"Poetry involves the mysteries of the irrational perceived through rational words."
Sri Aurobindo
Philosopher, Poet, Politician
"To hope for a true change of human life without a change of human nature is an irrational and unspiritual proposition."
Erich Fromm
Psychologist, Philosopher
"Power on the one side, fear on the other, are always the buttresses on which irrational authority is built."
George Santayana
Philosopher, Poet
"We should have to abandon our vested illusions, our irrational religions and patriotisms."
Explore further
Topics related to Irrational
Browse quotes that often appear alongside irrational — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Irrational quotes (page 1 of 4)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Its very variety, subtlety, and utterly irrational, idiomatic complexity makes it possible to say things in English which simply cannot be said in any other language."
Read quote
9 likes
"My position is that we should not succumb to irrational belief."
Read quote
8 likes
"An exotic and irrational entertainment, which has been always combated, and always has prevailed."
Read quote
7 likes
"The irrational in the human has something about it altogether repulsive and terrible, as we see in the maniac, the miser, the drunkard or the ape."
Read quote
7 likes
"Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same. Pointless and yet necessary, that's hard for a puritan to understand."
Read quote
7 likes
"To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable."
Read quote
6 likes
"If the world is irrational, we can never know it -- either it or its irrationality."
Read quote
6 likes
"Through humour, we see in what seems rational, the irrational; in what seems important, the unimportant"
Read quote
6 likes
"Science can never grapple with the irrational. That is why it has no future before it, in this world."
Read quote
6 likes
"I hope I haven't given you the impression that I consider kissing intrinsically irrational."
Read quote
5 likes
"Neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims."
Read quote
3 likes
"The wind shifts like this: Like a human without illusions, Who still feels irrational things within her."
Read quote
3 likes
"We expect others to act rationally even though we are irrational."
Read quote
3 likes
"It's the irrational things that interest me."
Read quote
3 likes