"Algebra is the intellectual instrument which has been created for rendering clear the quantitative aspects of the world."
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Alfred North Whitehead quotes (page 3 of 17)
326 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"It is in literature that the concrete outlook of humanity receives its expression."
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"In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat, but in the evolution of real knowledge it marks the first step in progress toward a victory."
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"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."
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"Thus the negative perception is the triumph of consciousness."
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"The antithesis between a technical and a liberal education is fallacious. There can be no adequate technical education which is not liberal, and no liberal education which is not technical."
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"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."
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"Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science."
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"The absolute pacifist is a bad citizen; times come when force must be used to uphold right, justice and ideals."
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"I would be a billionaire if I was looking to be a selfish boss. That's not me."
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"Philosophy is the product of wonder."
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"Great art is more than a transient refreshment. It is something which adds to the permanent richness of the soul's self-attainment. It justifies itself both by its immediate enjoyment, and also by its discipline of the inmost being. Its discipline is not distinct from enjoyment but by reason of it. It transforms the soul into the permanent realization of values extending beyond its former self."
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"Every really new idea looks crazy at first."
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"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."
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"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."
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"Education should turn out the pupil with something he knows well and something he can do well."
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"Seek simplicity, and distrust it."
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"Human life is driven forward by its dim apprehension of notions too general for its existing language."
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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."
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"The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit."
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