Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Reason
If there were reason for these miseries,
Then into limits could I bind my woes:——
Wilt thou have a reason for this coil?
Shakespeare.—Titus Andronicus, Act III. Scene 1. (On the mutilation of his daughter Lavinia by Demetrius and Chiron.)
While reason drew the plan, the heart inform’d
The moral page, and fancy lent it grace.
Thomson.—Liberty, Part IV.
I have no other but a woman’s reason:
I think him so, because I think him so.
Shakespeare.—Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I. Scene 2. (Lucetta to Julia.)
Give you a reason on compulsion! If reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion.
Shakespeare.—King Henry IV., Part I. Act II. Scene 4. (Falstaff to Poins and Prince Henry.)
Reason raise o’er instinct as you can;
In this ’tis God directs, in that ’tis man.
Pope.—Essay on Man, Epi. III. Line 97.
Who taught the nations of the field and wood
To shun their poison, and to choose their food?
Pope.—Essay on Man, Epi. III. Line 99.
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field.
Pope.—Essay on Man, Epi. III. Line 174.
His reasons are two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have found them they are not worth the search.
Shakespeare.—Merchant of Venice, Act I. Scene 1. (Bassanio to Antonio.)