Alfred North Whitehead Quotes - Page 5

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• Religion is the reaction of human nature to its search for God.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Religion, Human Nature, Reactions

  Alfred North Whitehead (1997). “Science and the Modern World”, p.191, Simon and Schuster

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• Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise. "Necessity is the mother of invention" is a silly proverb. "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges" is much closer to the truth. The basis of growth of modern invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Mother, Silly, Exercise

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• The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Plato, Philosophical, Knowledge

  Process and Reality pt. 2, ch. 1 (1929)

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• Ninety percent of our lives is governed by emotion. Our brains merely register and act upon what is telegraphed to them by our bodily experience. Intellect is to emotion as our clothes are to our bodies; we could not very well have civilized life without clothes, but we would be in a poor way if we had only clothes without bodies.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Clothes, Brain, Would Be

  "Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead" by Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price, Ch. 29, 1954.

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• Aristotle discovered all the half-truths which were necessary to the creation of science.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Science, Half, Creation

  Alfred North Whitehead (1954). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”

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• Routine is the god of every social system; it is the seventh heaven of business, the essential component in the success of every factory, the ideal of every statesman. The social machine should run like clockwork.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Running, Heaven, Essentials

  Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.90, Simon and Schuster

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• Without adventure civilization is in full decay.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Travel, Adventure, Civilization

  Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.279, Simon and Schuster

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• Philosophy is the product of wonder.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Philosophy, Wonder, Products

  Alfred North Whitehead (2012). “Nature and Life”, p.5, Cambridge University Press

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• It does not matter what men say in words, so long as their activities are controlled by settled instincts. The words may ultimately destroy the instincts; but until this has occurred, words do not count.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Men, Long, May

  Alfred North Whitehead (1997). “Science and the Modern World”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Sight, Names, People

  Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.290, Simon and Schuster

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• Human life is driven forward by its dim apprehension of notions too general for its existing language.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Progress, Evolution, Language

  Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.24, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Men, Soul, Speech

  "Modes of Thought". Book by Alfred North Whitehead, 1938.

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• ...the only simplicity to be trusted is the simplicity to be found on the far side of complexity.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Simplicity, Sides, Found

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• The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanation of complex facts. We are apt to fall into the error of thinking that the facts are simple because simplicity is the goal of our quest. The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be ``Seek simplicity and distrust it.''

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Fall, Science, Simple

  Alfred North Whitehead (1964). “The Concept of Nature: Tarner Lectures”, p.163, Cambridge University Press

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• The motive of success is not enough.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Success, Enough, Motive

  Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.98, Simon and Schuster

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• Learning preserves the errors of the past as well as its wisdom.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Learning, Past, Errors

  Alfred North Whitehead (2014). “Science and Philosophy”, p.57, Open Road Media

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• Life is complex in its expression, involving more than percipience, namely desire, emotion, will, and feeling.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Expression, Feelings, Desire

  Alfred North Whitehead (1925). “An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge”

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• The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Simplicity, Philosopher, Motto

  Alfred North Whitehead (2015). “The Concept of Nature: Tarner Lectures”, p.104, Cambridge University Press

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• It is the business of future to be dangerous.... The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Future, Civilization, Progress

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• There is a tradition of opposition between adherents of induction and of deduction. In my view it would be just as sensible for the two ends of a worm to quarrel.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Math, Science, Views

  Alfred North Whitehead (1929). “The Aims of Education & Other Essays”

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• Thus the negative perception is the triumph of consciousness.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Perception, Triumph, Negative

  Russell L. Kleinbach, Karl Marx, Alfred North Whitehead (1982). “Marx via process: Whitehead's potential contribution to Marxian social theory”

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• Speech is human nature itself, with none of the artificiality of written language.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Speech, Language, Human Nature

  Alfred North Whitehead (1968). “Modes of Thought”, p.37, Simon and Schuster

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• Seek simplicity, and distrust it.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Creativity, Science, Simplicity

  The Concept of Nature ch. 7 (1920)

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• You think the world is what it looks like in fine weather at noon day; I think it is what it seems like in the early morning when one first wakes from deep sleep.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Morning, Sleep, Thinking

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• It belongs to the self-respect of intellect to pursue every tangle of thought to its final unravelment.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Self, Finals, Intellect

  ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD (1925). “SCIENCE AND THE MODERN WORLD”

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