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Alfred North Whitehead Quotes - Page 3

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The ultimate metaphysical ground is the creative advance into novelty.

The ultimate metaphysical ground is the creative advance into novelty.

Alfred North Whitehead
Creative, Novelty, Metaphysical
Alfred North Whitehead (1969). “Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology; Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28”, New York : Macmillan

Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.

Alfred North Whitehead
Wisdom, Math, Science
"The Organization of Thought" (1917)

There is no more common error than to assume that, because prolonged and accurate mathematical calculations have been made, the application of the result to some fact of nature is absolutely certain.

Alfred North Whitehead
Math, Errors, Facts
Alfred North Whitehead (1958). “An Introduction to Mathematics”, p.16, New York : Oxford University Press, 1958 [c1948]

The oneness of the universe, and the oneness of each element of the universe, repeat themselves to the crack of doom in the creative advance from creature to creature, each creature including in itself the whole of history and exemplifying the self-identity of things and their mutual diversities.

Alfred North Whitehead
Self, Oneness, Diversity
Alfred North Whitehead (2010). “Process and Reality”, p.228, Simon and Schuster

There is a tradition of opposition between adherents of induction and of deduction. In my view it would be just as sensible for the two ends of a worm to quarrel.

Alfred North Whitehead
Math, Science, Views
Alfred North Whitehead (1929). “The Aims of Education & Other Essays”

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.

Alfred North Whitehead
Plato, Philosophical, Knowledge
Process and Reality pt. 2, ch. 1 (1929)

Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of life is to grasp as much as we can out of that infinitude.

Alfred North Whitehead
Life, Math, Mind
Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.160, David R. Godine Publisher

There is no greater hindrance to the progress of thought than an attitude of irritated party-spirit.

Alfred North Whitehead
Attitude, Party, Progress
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.119, Simon and Schuster

Each human being is a more complex structure than any social system to which he belongs.

Alfred North Whitehead
Individual, Social, Structure
Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.113, David R. Godine Publisher

The essence of Christianity is the appeal to the life of Christ as a revelation of the nature of God and of God's agency in the world. The record is fragmentary, inconsistent, and uncertain. . . . But there can be no doubt as to what elements in the record have evoked a response from all that is best in human nature. The Mother, the Child, and the bare manger: the lowly man, homeless and self-forgetful, with his message of peace, love, and sympathy: the suffering, the agony, the tender words as life ebbed, the final despair: and the whole with the authority of supreme victory.

Alfred North Whitehead
Life, Mother, Peace
1938 Adventures of Ideas.

I am sure that one secret of a successful teacher is that he has formulated quite clearly in his mind what the pupil has got to know in precise fashion. He will then cease from half-hearted attempts to worry his pupils with memorizing a lot of irrelevant stuff of inferior importance.

Alfred North Whitehead
Teacher, Fashion, Teaching
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.36, Simon and Schuster

Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt degeneration: it is inherent in the very texture of human life.

Alfred North Whitehead
Life, Symbolism, Fancy
Alfred North Whitehead (1985). “Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect”, p.61, Fordham Univ Press

Without adventure civilization is in full decay.

Alfred North Whitehead
Travel, Adventure, Civilization
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.279, Simon and Schuster

Philosophy asks the simple question: What is it all about?

Alfred North Whitehead
Philosophy, Simple, Asks
Alfred North Whitehead (2014). “Science and Philosophy”, p.81, Open Road Media

The merely well-informed man is the most useless bore on God's earth.

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

Art flourishes where there is a sense of adventure.

Alfred North Whitehead
Art, Travel, Adventure

In a sense, knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows, for details are swallowed up in principles. The details for knowledge which are important, will be picked up ad hoc in each avocation of life, but the habit of the active utilization of well-understood principles is the final possession of WISDOM.

Alfred North Whitehead
Important, Principles, Details
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Aims of Education”, p.37, Simon and Schuster

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Idea's won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervour, live for it, and, if need be, die for it. Their inheritors receive the idea, perhaps now strong and successful, but without inheriting the fervour; so the idea settles down to a comfortable middle age, turns senile, and dies.

Alfred North Whitehead
Strong, Adventure, Science
Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.98, David R. Godine Publisher

It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.

Alfred North Whitehead
Book, Math, Thinking
An Introduction to Mathematics ch. 5 (1911)

Great art is more than a transient refreshment. It is something which adds to the permanent richness of the soul's self-attainment. It justifies itself both by its immediate enjoyment, and also by its discipline of the inmost being. Its discipline is not distinct from enjoyment but by reason of it. It transforms the soul into the permanent realization of values extending beyond its former self.

Alfred North Whitehead
Art, Writing, Self
Alfred North Whitehead (1997). “Science and the Modern World”, p.202, Simon and Schuster

In the study of ideas, it is necessary to remember that insistence on hard-headed clarity issues from sentimental feeling, as it were a mist, cloaking the perplexities of fact. Insistence on clarity at all costs is based on sheer superstition as to the mode in which human intelligence functions. Our reasonings grasp at straws for premises and float on gossamers for deductions.

Alfred North Whitehead
Math, Ideas, Issues
Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.72, Simon and Schuster

Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise. "Necessity is the mother of invention" is a silly proverb. "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges" is much closer to the truth. The basis of growth of modern invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity.

Alfred North Whitehead
Mother, Silly, Exercise

The aims of scientific thought are to see the general in the particular and the eternal in the transitory.

Alfred North Whitehead
Science, Aim, Particular

No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idealistic motives, and idealism in our time has been shoved aside, and we are paying the penalty for it.

Alfred North Whitehead
Doe, Penalties, Periods
Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.272, David R. Godine Publisher

Religion is the reaction of human nature to its search for God.

Alfred North Whitehead
Religion, Human Nature, Reactions
Alfred North Whitehead (1997). “Science and the Modern World”, p.191, Simon and Schuster

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