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Alfred North Whitehead Quotes - Page 12

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The consequences of a plethora of half-digested theoretical knowledge are deplorable.

The consequences of a plethora of half-digested theoretical knowledge are deplorable.

Alfred North Whitehead
Half, Theoretical, Consequence
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

Learning preserves the errors of the past, as well as its wisdom. For this reason, dictionaries are public dangers, although they are necessities.

Alfred North Whitehead
Past, Errors, Language
Alfred North Whitehead (2014). “Science and Philosophy”, p.57, Open Road Media

What the learned world tends to offer is one second-hand scrap of information illustrating ideas derived from another second-hand scrap of information. The second-handedness of the learned world is the secret of its mediocrity.

Alfred North Whitehead
Hands, Ideas, Secret
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.51, Simon and Schuster

Nature is probably quite indifferent to the aesthetic preferences of mathematicians.

Alfred North Whitehead
Preference, Mathematician, Indifferent

Many a scientist has patiently designed experiments for the purpose of substantiating his belief that animal operations are motivated by no purposes. He has perhaps spent his spare time in writing articles to prove that human beings are as other animals so that 'purpose' is a category irrelevant for the explanation of their bodily activities, his own activities included. Scientists animated by the purpose of proving that they are purposeless constitute an interesting subject for study.

Alfred North Whitehead
Writing, Animal, Interesting

In its solitariness the spirit asks, What, in the way of value, is the attainment of life? And it can find no such value till it has merged its individual claim with that of the objective universe. Religion is world-loyalty.

Alfred North Whitehead
Loyalty, World, Way
Alfred North Whitehead (2011). “Religion in the Making”, p.49, Cambridge University Press

Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts. It is a way of illuminating the facts.

Alfred North Whitehead
Imagination, Way, Facts
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.93, Simon and Schuster

It is natural to think that an abstract science cannot be of much importance in affairs of human life, because it has omitted from its consideration everything of real interest.

Alfred North Whitehead
Real, Thinking, Affair
Alfred North Whitehead (1958). “An Introduction to Mathematics”, p.3, New York : Oxford University Press, 1958 [c1948]

The main importance of Francis Bacon's influence does not lie in any peculiar theory of inductive reasoning which he happened to express, but in the revolt against second-hand information of which he was a leader.

Alfred North Whitehead
Lying, Hands, Leader
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.51, Simon and Schuster

The point about zero is that we do not need to use it in the operations of daily life. No one goes out to buy zero fish. It is in a way the most civilised of all the cardinals, and its use is only forced on us by the needs of cultivated modes of thought.

Alfred North Whitehead
Zero, Needs, Use
Alfred North Whitehead (1958). “An Introduction to Mathematics”, p.43, New York : Oxford University Press, 1958 [c1948]

But you can catch yourself entertaining habitually certain ideas and setting others aside; and that, I think, is where our personal destinies are largely decided.

Alfred North Whitehead
Destiny, Thinking, Fog
Alfred North Whitehead (1954). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”

The many become one and are increased by one.

Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead (2009). “Mencari Tuhan Sepanjang Zaman: Dari Agama-Kesukuan Hingga Agama-Universal”, p.93, Mizan Pustaka

The point of mathematics is that in it we have always got rid of the particular instance, and even of any particular sorts of entities. So that for example, no mathematical truths apply merely to fish, or merely to stones, or merely to colours. So long as you are dealing with pure mathematics, you are in the realm of complete and absolute abstraction. . . . Mathematics is thought moving in the sphere of complete abstraction from any particular instance of what it is talking about.

Alfred North Whitehead
Moving, Science, Talking
1925 Science And the Modern World.

Nature, even in the act of satisfying anticipation, often provides a surprise.

Alfred North Whitehead
Nature, Anticipation, Surprise
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.126, Simon and Schuster

I will not go so far as to say that to construct a history of thought without profound study of the mathematical ideas of successive epochs is like omitting Hamlet from the play which is named after him. That would be claiming too much. But it is certainly analogous to cutting out the part of Ophelia. This simile is singularly exact. For Ophelia is quite essential to the play, she is very charming . . . and a little mad.

Alfred North Whitehead
Success, Cutting, Math
Alfred North Whitehead (1997). “Science and the Modern World”, p.20, Simon and Schuster

You may not divide the seamless coat of learning.

Alfred North Whitehead
Coats, May, Divides
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

A man really writes for an audience of about ten persons. Of course if others like it, that is clear gain. But if those ten are satisfied, he is content.

Alfred North Whitehead
Writing, Men, Gains
Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.64, David R. Godine Publisher

Shakespeare wrote better poetry for not knowing too much; Milton, I think, knew too much finally for the good of his poetry.

Alfred North Whitehead
Thinking, Knowing, Too Much
Statement on November 11, 1947. "Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead". Book by Alfred North Whitehead. Chapter 43,, 1954.

The English never abolish anything. They put it in cold storage.

Alfred North Whitehead
Cold, Storage, Abolish
Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.305, David R. Godine Publisher

A culture is in its finest flower before it begins to analyze itself.

Alfred North Whitehead
Flower, Culture, Finest
Alfred North Whitehead (1954). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”

In every age of well-marked transition, there is the pattern of habitual dumb practice and emotion which is passing and there is oncoming a new complex of habit.

Alfred North Whitehead
Change, Practice, Dumb
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

Our habitual experience is a complex of failure and success in the enterprise of interpretation. If we desire a record of uninterpreted experience, we must ask a stone to record its autobiography.

Alfred North Whitehead
Desire, Records, Stones
Alfred North Whitehead (2010). “Process and Reality”, p.15, Simon and Schuster

Youth is life as yet unblemished by much tragedy, but hardly by TV.

Alfred North Whitehead
Tragedy, Tvs, Youth

We think in generalities, but we live in detail. To make the past live, we must perceive it in detail in addition to thinking of it in generalities.

Alfred North Whitehead
Past, Thinking, Details
Alfred North Whitehead (2014). “Science and Philosophy”, p.20, Open Road Media

Vigorous societies harbor a certain extravagance of objectives, so that men wander beyond the safe provision of personal gratifications.

Alfred North Whitehead
Men, Extravagance, Safe
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.288, Simon and Schuster

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