Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are cavalry charges in a battle - they are limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments.

Alfred North Whitehead

The misconception which has haunted philosophic literature throughout the centuries is the notion of 'independent existence.' There is no such mode of existence; every entity is to be understood in terms of the way it is interwoven with the rest of the universe.

Alfred North Whitehead

independent literature way

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.

Alfred North Whitehead

change inspirational art

Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.

Alfred North Whitehead

stupidity political ignorance

No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.

Alfred North Whitehead

wise thank-you inspirational

If a dog jumps into your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.

Alfred North Whitehead

cat dog animal

Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.

Alfred North Whitehead

done wonder philosophy

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

mother peace life

Knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows.

Alfred North Whitehead

shrinks grows wisdom

There are no whole truths: All truths are half-truths.

Alfred North Whitehead

half truth lying

Everyone is a philosopher. Not everyone is good at it.

Alfred North Whitehead

philosopher

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

math book thinking

The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imaginations.

Alfred North Whitehead

experience tragedy imagination

How the past perishes is how the future becomes.

Alfred North Whitehead

past

The absolute pacifist is a bad citizen; times come when force must be used to uphold right, justice and ideals.

Alfred North Whitehead

force citizens justice

From the very beginning of his education, the child should experience the joy of discovery.

Alfred North Whitehead

music education children

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

important math interesting

Religion is the last refuge of human savagery.

Alfred North Whitehead

atheism lasts religion

God is in the world, or nowhere, creating continually in us and around us. Insofar as man partakes of this creative process does he partake of the divine, of God, and that participation is his immortality.

Alfred North Whitehead

creating creativity men

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

mind math life

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

virtue ambition wisdom