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Alfred North Whitehead Quotes - Page 5

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Routine is the god of every social system; it is the seventh heaven of business, the essential component in the success of every factory, the ideal of every statesman. The social machine should run like clockwork.

Routine is the god of every social system; it is the seventh heaven of business, the essential component in the success of every factory, the ideal of every statesman. The social machine should run like clockwork.

Alfred North Whitehead
Running, Heaven, Essentials
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.90, Simon and Schuster

No religion can be considered in abstraction from its followers, or even from its various types of followers.

Alfred North Whitehead
Religion, Followers, Type
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.18, Simon and Schuster

The human body is an instrument for the production of art in the life of the human soul.

Alfred North Whitehead
Art, Soul, Body
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.271, Simon and Schuster

It is a safe rule to apply that, when a mathematical or philosophical author writes with a misty profundity, he is talking nonsense.

Alfred North Whitehead
Philosophical, Writing, Talking
1911 Introduction to Mathematics.

Philosophy is the product of wonder.

Alfred North Whitehead
Philosophy, Wonder, Products
Alfred North Whitehead (2012). “Nature and Life”, p.5, Cambridge University Press

Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame; obtained with labour, for mankind employed, and then, when most you share it, best enjoyed.

Alfred North Whitehead
Wisdom, Ambition, Virtue

Nobody has a right to speak more clearly than he thinks.

Alfred North Whitehead
Thinking, Speech, Speak

The importance of an individual thinker owes something to chance. For it depends upon the fate of his ideas in the minds of his successors.

Alfred North Whitehead
Fate, Ideas, Mind
Alfred North Whitehead (1997). “Science and the Modern World”, p.28, Simon and Schuster

Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science.

Alfred North Whitehead
Doe, Faces, Spirit
Alfred North Whitehead (1997). “Science and the Modern World”, p.189, Simon and Schuster

Scientists animated by the purpose of proving that they are purposeless constitute an interesting subject for study.

Alfred North Whitehead
Interesting, Purpose, Study
Alfred North Whitehead (2014). “Whitehead's The Function of Reason”, p.9, Agora Publications, Inc.

The future belongs to those who can rise above the confines of the earth.

Alfred North Whitehead
Earth, Rise Above

Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.

Alfred North Whitehead
Art, Self, Secret
"Les Amis du Cinéma" by Alfred North Whitehead, (Paris, October 1, 1952); as quotes in "Telling It Like It Is" by Paul Bowden, (p. 182), 2011.

I am also greatly indebted to Bergson, William James, and John Dewey. One of my preoccupations has been to rescue their type of thought from the charge of anti-intellectualism, which rightly or wrongly has been associated with it.

Alfred North Whitehead
Preoccupation, Type, Rescue
Alfred North Whitehead (2010). “Process and Reality”, p.12, Simon and Schuster

Every really new idea looks crazy at first.

Alfred North Whitehead
Inspirational, Courage, Crazy

An open mind is all very well in its way, but it ought not to be so open that there is no keeping anything in or out of it.

Alfred North Whitehead
Mind, Way, Wells

Nature gets credit which should in truth be reserved for ourselves: the rose for its scent, the nightingale for its song; and the sun for its radiance. The poets are entirely mistaken. They should address their lyrics to themselves and should turn them into odes of self congratulation on the excellence of the human mind.

Alfred North Whitehead
Song, Nature, Congratulations
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD (1925). “SCIENCE AND THE MODERN WORLD”

Human life is driven forward by its dim apprehension of notions too general for its existing language.

Alfred North Whitehead
Progress, Evolution, Language
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.24, Simon and Schuster

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervor, live for it, and if need be, die for it.

Alfred North Whitehead
Courage, Travel, Adventure
"Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead" by Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price, Ch. 12, (p. 100), 1954.

The only justification in the use of force is to reduce the amount of force necessary to be used.

Alfred North Whitehead
Power, Use, Force
Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.87, David R. Godine Publisher

It does not matter what men say in words, so long as their activities are controlled by settled instincts. The words may ultimately destroy the instincts; but until this has occurred, words do not count.

Alfred North Whitehead
Men, Long, May
Alfred North Whitehead (1997). “Science and the Modern World”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

No reason can be given for the nature of God, because that nature is the ground of rationality.

Alfred North Whitehead
God, Reason, Given
Alfred North Whitehead (1997). “Science and the Modern World”, p.178, Simon and Schuster

Religion is what a person does in his solitariness.

Alfred North Whitehead
Inspirational, Life, Religion

The mentality of mankind and the language of mankind created each other. If we like to assume the rise of language as a given fact, then it is not going too far to say that the souls of men are the gift from language to mankind. The account of the sixth day should be written: He gave them speech, and they became souls.

Alfred North Whitehead
Men, Soul, Speech
"Modes of Thought". Book by Alfred North Whitehead, 1938.

The pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit.

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

It is not paradox to say that in our most theoretical moods we may be nearest to our most practical applications.

Alfred North Whitehead
May, Paradox, Mood
Alfred North Whitehead (1958). “An Introduction to Mathematics”, p.71, New York : Oxford University Press, 1958 [c1948]

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