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 More Quotes by Alfred North Whitehead More Quotes From Alfred North Whitehead Error is the price we pay for progress. Alfred North Whitehead progress errors pay Our reasonings grasp at straws for premises and float on gossamers for deductions. Alfred North Whitehead straws reasoning premises 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 speech soul men You cannot evade quantity. You may fly to poetry and music, and quantity and number will face you in your rhythms and your octaves. Alfred North Whitehead poetry-and-music may numbers Knowledge keeps no better than fish. Alfred North Whitehead fishes In a sense, knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows: for details are swallowed up in principles. Alfred North Whitehead details principles knowledge 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 fog destiny thinking There are no whole truths: all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays to the devil. Alfred North Whitehead truth inspirational science 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 use needs Do not teach too many subjects and what you teach, teach thoroughly. Alfred North Whitehead teach subjects Seek simplicity, then distrust. Alfred North Whitehead distrust simplicity Art heightens the sense of humanity. It gives an elation to feeling which is supernatural...A million sunsets will not spur us on towards civilization. It requires Art to evoke into consciousness the finite perfections which lie ready for human achievement. Alfred North Whitehead sunset lying art The vigor of civilized societies is preserved by the widespread sense that high aims are worth-while. Alfred North Whitehead civilized-society aim vigor Vigorous societies harbor a certain extravagance of objectives, so that men wander beyond the safe provision of personal gratifications. Alfred North Whitehead extravagance safe men The purpose of education is not to fill a vessel but to kindle a flame. Alfred North Whitehead kindles flames purpose There will be some fundamental assumptions which adherents of all the variant systems within the epoch unconsciously presuppose. Such assumptions appear so obvious that people do not know what they are assuming because no other way of putting things has ever occurred to them. With these assumptions a certain limited number of types of philosophic systems are possible, and this group of systems constitutes the philosophy of the epoch. Alfred North Whitehead numbers philosophy people 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 penalties periods doe 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 details past thinking The vastest knowledge of today cannot transcend the buddhi of the Rishis in ancient India; and science in its most advanced stage now is closer to Vedanta than ever before. Alfred North Whitehead ancient india today Seek simplicity but distrust it. Alfred North Whitehead distrust simplicity
