It is the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties. Alfred North Whitehead More Quotes by Alfred North Whitehead More Quotes From Alfred North Whitehead Whenever a text-book is written of real educational worth, you may be quite certain that some reviewer will say that it will be difficult to teach from it. Of course it will be difficult to teach from it. It it were easy, the book ought to be burned. Alfred North Whitehead realeducationbook The fact of the religious vision, and its history of persistent expansion, is our one ground for optimism. Apart from it, human life is a flash of occasional enjoyments lighting up a mass of pain and misery, a bagatelle of transient experience. Alfred North Whitehead optimismpainreligious Religion is the reaction of human nature to its search for God. Alfred North Whitehead reactionshuman-naturereligion A man really writes for an audience of about ten persons. Of course if others like it, that is clear gain. But if those ten are satisfied, he is content. Alfred North Whitehead gainswritingmen Without adventure all civilization is full of decay. Adventure rarely reaches its predetermined end. Columbus never reached China. Alfred North Whitehead decayadventurecivilization Error itself may be happy chance. Alfred North Whitehead errorschancemay The difference between ancients and moderns is that the ancients asked what have we experienced, and moderns asked what can we experience. Alfred North Whitehead experiencedifferences No reason can be given for the nature of God, because that nature is the ground of rationality. Alfred North Whitehead givengodreason Governments are best classified by considering who are the 'somebodies' they are in fact endeavouring to satisfy. Alfred North Whitehead consideringgovernmentfacts The world is shocked, or amused, by the sight of saintly old people hindering in the name of morality the removal of obvious brutalities from a legal system. Alfred North Whitehead namessightpeople There is no greater hindrance to the progress of thought than an attitude of irritated party-spirit. Alfred North Whitehead progresspartyattitude No religion can be considered in abstraction from its followers, or even from its various types of followers. Alfred North Whitehead typefollowersreligion The race that does not value trained intelligence is doomed. Alfred North Whitehead intelligenceracedoe War can protect; it cannot create. Alfred North Whitehead protectmathwar Without deductive logic science would be entirely useless. It is merely a barren game to ascend from the particular to the general, unless afterwards we can reverse the process and descend from the general to the particular, ascending and descending like angels on Jacob's ladder. Alfred North Whitehead angelgamesscience It is the business of the future to be dangerous. Alfred North Whitehead futurebusinessdanger The many become one and are increased by one. Alfred North Whitehead Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts. It is a way of illuminating the facts. Alfred North Whitehead imaginationfactsway The whole of mathematics consists in the organization of a series of aids to the imagination in the process of reasoning. Alfred North Whitehead organizationimaginationmath The point of mathematics is that in it we have always got rid of the particular instance, and even of any particular sorts of entities. So that for example, no mathematical truths apply merely to fish, or merely to stones, or merely to colours. So long as you are dealing with pure mathematics, you are in the realm of complete and absolute abstraction. . . . Mathematics is thought moving in the sphere of complete abstraction from any particular instance of what it is talking about. Alfred North Whitehead talkingsciencemoving
