What we perceive as the present is the vivid fringe of memory tinged with anticipation. Alfred North Whitehead More Quotes by Alfred North Whitehead More Quotes From Alfred North Whitehead 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 errorsmathfacts Science repudiates philosophy. In other words, it has never cared to justify its truth or explain its meaning. Alfred North Whitehead evidencephilosophyscience I always feel that I have two duties to perform with a parting guest: one, to see that he doesn't forget anything that is his; the other, to see that he doesn't take anything that is mine. Alfred North Whitehead house-guestsforgettwo It must be admitted that there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have been unstable ages. Alfred North Whitehead degreesagecivilization The paradox is now fully established that the utmost abstractions are the true weapons with which to control our thought of concrete fact. Alfred North Whitehead weaponsdiscoveryfacts No Roman ever died in contemplation over a geometrical diagram. Alfred North Whitehead diagramscontemplationmath 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 The future belongs to those who can rise above the confines of the earth. Alfred North Whitehead earthrise-above 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 It is a safe rule to apply that, when a mathematical or philosophical author writes with a misty profundity, he is talking nonsense. Alfred North Whitehead philosophicalwritingtalking In every age of well-marked transition, there is the pattern of habitual dumb practice and emotion which is passing and there is oncoming a new complex of habit. Alfred North Whitehead dumbchangepractice A great society is a society in which its men of business think greatly of their functions. Alfred North Whitehead societymenthinking 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 the conditions of modern life the rule is absolute, the race which does not value trained intelligence is doomed. Not all your heroism, not all your social charm, not all your wit, not all your victories on land or at sea, can move back the finger of fate. To-day we maintain ourselves. To-morrow science will have moved forward yet one more step, and there will be no appeal from the judgment which will then be pronounced on the uneducated. Alfred North Whitehead educationsciencemoving The worth of men consists in their liability to persuasion. They can persuade and can be persuaded by the disclosure of alternatives, the better and the worse. Civilization is the maintenance of social order, by its own inherent persuasiveness as embodying the nobler alternative. The recourse to force, however, unavoidable, is a disclosure of the failure of civilization, either in the general society or in a remnant of individuals. Thus in a live civilization there is always an element of unrest. Alfred North Whitehead adventuremenmean The vigour of civilised societies is preserved by the widespread sense that high aims are worth while. Vigorous societies harbour a certain extravagance of objectives, so that men wander beyond the safe provision of personal gratifications. All strong interests easily become impersonal, the love of a good job well done. There is a sense of harmony about such an accomplishment, the Peace brought by something worth while. Such personal gratification arises from aim beyond personality. Alfred North Whitehead strongjobsmen Other nations of different habits are not enemies: they are godsends. Men require of their neighbours something sufficiently akin to be understood, something sufficiently different to provoke attention, and something great enough to command admiration. We must not expect, however, all the virtues. Alfred North Whitehead differentmenenemy Nature gets credit which should in truth be reserved for ourselves: the rose for its scent, the nightingale for its song; and the sun for its radiance. The poets are entirely mistaken. They should address their lyrics to themselves and should turn them into odes of self congratulation on the excellence of the human mind. Alfred North Whitehead congratulationsnaturesong Peace is self-control at its widest-at the width where the "self" has been lost, and interest has been transferred to coordinations wider than personality. Alfred North Whitehead personalityselfpeace 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
