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Alfred North Whitehead Quotes - Page 7

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One main factor in the upward trend of animal life has been the power of wandering.

One main factor in the upward trend of animal life has been the power of wandering.

Alfred North Whitehead
Nature, Travel, Animal
Alfred North Whitehead (1997). “Science and the Modern World”, p.207, Simon and Schuster

As society is now constituted, a literal adherence to the moral precepts scattered throughout the Gospels would mean sudden death.

Alfred North Whitehead
Mean, Religion, Adherence
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.15, Simon and Schuster

Intolerance is the besetting sin of moral fervour.

Alfred North Whitehead
Moral, Sin, Intolerance
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.50, Simon and Schuster

Peace is self-control at its widest-at the width where the "self" has been lost, and interest has been transferred to coordinations wider than personality.

Alfred North Whitehead
Peace, Self, Personality
Alfred North Whitehead (1966). “Adventure of ideas”

Education should turn out the pupil with something he knows well and something he can do well.

Alfred North Whitehead
Inspirational, Education, Teacher
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.48, Simon and Schuster

The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.

Alfred North Whitehead
Math, Development, May
Science and the ModernWorld ch. 2 (1925)

Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness. Thus religion is solitariness; and if you are never solitary, you are never religious.

Alfred North Whitehead
Religious, Doe, Individual
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD (1954). “RELIGION IN THE MAKING”

The antithesis between a technical and a liberal education is fallacious. There can be no adequate technical education which is not liberal, and no liberal education which is not technical.

Alfred North Whitehead
Education, Adequate, Antithesis
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.48, Simon and Schuster

Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanism of the Universe.

Alfred North Whitehead
Life, Math, Offensive
Adventures of Ideas (1933) pt. 1, ch. 5

The progress of Science consists in observing interconnections and in showing with a patient ingenuity that the events of this ever-shifting world are but examples of a few general relations, called laws. To see what is general in what is particular, and what is permanent in what is transitory, is the aim of scientific thought.

Alfred North Whitehead
Art, Science, Law
Alfred North Whitehead (1939). “An introduction to mathematics”

The learned tradition is not concerned with truth, but with the learned adjustment of learned statements of antecedent learned people.

Alfred North Whitehead
People, Tradition, Concerned

In the history of the world the prize has not gone to those species which specialized in methods of violence, or even in defensive armor. In fact, nature began with producing animals encased in hard shells for defense against the ill of life. But smaller animals, without external armor, warm-blooded, sensitive, alert, have cleared those monsters off the face of the earth.

Alfred North Whitehead
Animal, World, Earth

It belongs to the self-respect of intellect to pursue every tangle of thought to its final unravelment.

Alfred North Whitehead
Self, Finals, Intellect
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD (1925). “SCIENCE AND THE MODERN WORLD”

Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise

Alfred North Whitehead
Exercise, Genius, Intellectual Curiosity
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.45, Simon and Schuster

Religion increasingly is tending to degenerate into a decent formula wherewith to embellish a comfortable life.

Alfred North Whitehead
Life, Religion, Degenerates

Speech is human nature itself, with none of the artificiality of written language.

Alfred North Whitehead
Speech, Language, Human Nature
Alfred North Whitehead (1968). “Modes of Thought”, p.37, Simon and Schuster

There is only one subject matter for education, and that is Life in all its manifestations

Alfred North Whitehead
Matter, Subject Matter, Manifestation
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.6, Simon and Schuster

Education with inert ideas is not only useless; it is above all things harmful.

Alfred North Whitehead
Education, Ideas, Useless
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.1, Simon and Schuster

It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.

Alfred North Whitehead
Learning, Science, Mind
1925 Science and the Modern World.

Science repudiates philosophy. In other words, it has never cared to justify its truth or explain its meaning.

Alfred North Whitehead
Philosophy, Science, Evidence

Rationalism is an adventure in the clarification of thought.

Alfred North Whitehead
Adventure, Clarification, Rationalism
Alfred North Whitehead (2010). “Process and Reality”, p.9, Simon and Schuster

It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true. This statement is almost a tautology. For the energy of operation of a proposition in an occasion of experience is its interest and is its importance. But of course a true proposition is more apt to be interesting than a false one.

Alfred North Whitehead
Math, Interesting, Important
'Adventures of Ideas' (1933) pt. 4, ch. 16

The true method of discovery is like the flight of an aeroplane. It starts from the ground of particular observation; it makes a flight in the thin air of imaginative generalization; and it again lands for renewed observation rendered acute by rational interpretation.

Alfred North Whitehead
Airplane, Science, Discovery
Alfred North Whitehead (2010). “Process and Reality”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

Above all things we must be aware of what I will call 'inert ideas' - that is to say, ideas that are merely received into the mind without being utilized, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations.

Alfred North Whitehead
Ideas, Mind, Combination

Learning is often spoken of as if we are watching the open pages of all the books which we have ever read, and then, when occasion arises, we select the right page to read aloud to the universe.

Alfred North Whitehead
Book, Pages, Select
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.27, Simon and Schuster

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