Quotes by Ideas The 'silly question' is the first intimation of some totally novel development. Alfred North Whitehead creativitysillyideas Almost all new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced. Alfred North Whitehead innovationscienceideas Above all things we must be aware of what I will call 'inert ideas' Alfred North Whitehead combinationmindideas Fundamental progress has to do with the reinterpretation of basic ideas. Alfred North Whitehead progressmotivationideas With the sense of sight, the idea communicates the emotion, whereas, with sound, the emotion communicates the idea, which is more direct and therefore more powerful. Alfred North Whitehead powerfulsightideas A philosopher of imposing stature doesn't think in a vacuum. Even his most abstract ideas are, to some extent, conditioned by what is or is not known in the time when he lives. Alfred North Whitehead vacuumsideasthinking Some of the finest moral intuitions come to quite humble people. The visiting of lofty ideas doesn't depend on formal schooling. Alfred North Whitehead humbleinspirationalideas 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 fatemindideas In modern times the belief that the ultimate explanation of all things was to be found in Newtonian mechanics was an adumbration of the truth that all science, as it grows towards perfection, becomes mathematical in its ideas. Alfred North Whitehead perfectionmathideas 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 issuesmathideas Now in creative thought common sense is a bad master. Its sole criterion for judgement is that the new ideas shall look like the old ones. In other words it can only work by suppressing originality. Alfred North Whitehead common-sensecreativityideas The result of teaching small parts of a large number of subjects is the passive reception of disconnected ideas, not illumed with any spark of vitality. Alfred North Whitehead teachingnumbersideas In a living civilization there is always an element of unrest, for sensitiveness to ideas means curiosity, adventure, change. Civilized order survives on its merits and is transformed by its power of recognizing its imperfections. Alfred North Whitehead adventuremeanideas The ideas of Freud were popularized by people who only imperfectly understood them, who were incapable of the great effort required to grasp them in their relationship to larger truths, and who therefore assigned to them a prominence out of all proportion to their true importance. Alfred North Whitehead effortpeopleideas 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 secrethandsideas From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought. Alfred North Whitehead birthactionideas If you have had your attention directed to the novelties in thought in your own lifetime, you will have observed that almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced, and almost any idea which jogs you out of your current abstractions may be better than nothing. Alfred North Whitehead mayattentionideas Some have an idea that the reason we in this country discard things so readily is because we have so much. The facts are exactly opposite-the reason we have so much is simply because we discard things so readily. We replace the old in return for something that will serve us better. Alfred P. Sloan oppositescountryideas If in heroic conduct, whether of warriors, philosophers or scientists, we see what is of essential nature, then we know that all heroism groups itself around a supreme value. This has always been the idea of honour, spiritual and mental. But the idea of honour, like its corporeal representatives, was involved in a war of soul and spirit against the values represented by alien races or the offspring of racial chaos. Alfred Rosenberg spiritualwarideas For a solo work I need a definite idea. For the present I have none. Alfred Schnittke soloideasneeds«2425262728293031323334»
