No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.
Interpretation
Rational discussions fail with those unwilling to reason.
This quote by Karl Popper suggests that logical and rational arguments can only affect those who are open to reason. If a person is determined to reject rational thinking, no amount of logical persuasion will change their mind, highlighting the importance of openness in discussions and debates.
In practice
During a debate on controversial issues, you can use this quote to emphasize the importance of an open mind.
The growth of our knowledge is the result of a process closely resembling what Darwin called 'natural selection'; that is, the natural selection of hypotheses: our knowledge consists, at every moment, of those hypotheses which have shown their (comparative) fitness by surviving so far in their struggle for existence, a competitive struggle which eliminates those hypotheses which are unfit.
If you can't say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.
No particular theory may ever be regarded as absolutely certain.... No scientific theory is sacrosanct.
The belief in a political Utopia is especially dangerous. This is possibly connected with the fact that the search for a better world, like the investigation of our environment, is (if I am correct) one of the oldest and most important of all the instincts.
A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others - not by simply taking over another's opinions, but by gladly allowing others to criticize his ideas and by gladly criticizing the ideas of others
Thus science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths; neither with the collection of observations, nor with the invention of experiments, but with the critical discussion of myths, and of magical techniques and practices.
Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console.
Perhaps itβs that you canβt go back in time, but you can return to the scenes of a love, of a crime, of happiness, and of a fatal decision; the places are what remain, are what you can possess, are what is immortal. They become the tangible landscape of memory, the places that made you, and in some way you too become them. They are what you can possess and in the end what possesses you.
Don't see yourself as a body of clay; See yourself as a mirror reflecting the divine beauty.
He, however, who begins with Metaphysics, will not only become confused in matters of religion, but will fall into complete infidelity.
The nature of man is such that people consider themselves put under an obligation as much by the benefits they confer as by those they receive.
Each act is virgin, even the repeated ones.
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