Alfred North Whitehead Quotes

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Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.

Alfred North Whitehead (Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, 1954)

The poet, the artist, the sleuth - whoever sharpens our perception tends to be antisocial... he cannot go along with currents and trends.

Alfred North Whitehead

If a dog jumps in 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 (Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, 1954)

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.

Alfred North Whitehead

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them.

Alfred North Whitehead (Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, 1954)

Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.

Alfred North Whitehead

Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct from ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended.

Alfred North Whitehead (Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, 1954)

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

Alfred North Whitehead

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.

Alfred North Whitehead

Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science. Its principles may be eternal, but the expression of those principles requires continual development.

Alfred North Whitehead (Science and the Modern World, 1926)

No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idealistic motives, and idealism in our time has been shoved aside, and we are paying the penalty for it.

Alfred North Whitehead (Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, 1954)

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 (Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, 1954)

It is rigid dogma that destroys truth; and, please notice, my emphasis is not on the dogma, but on the rigidity. When men say of any question, 'This is all there is to be known or said of the subject; investigation ends here,' that is death. 

Alfred North Whitehead (Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, 1954)

The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations 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 (The Concept of Nature, 1926)

Religion is the vision of something which stands beyond, behind and within the passing flux of immediate things; something which is real, and yet waiting to be realized; something which is a remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present facts; something that gives meaning to all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension; something whose possession is the final good, and yet is beyond all reach; something which is the ultimate ideal, and the hopeless quest.

Alfred North Whitehead (Science and the Modern World, 1925)

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Alfred North Whitehead Biography

Born: February 15, 1861
Died: December 30, 1947

Alfred North Whitehead was an English mathematician and philosopher.
He is most commonly known as the co-author of
Principa Mathematica.

Notable Works

An Introduction to Mathematics (1911)
Science and the Modern World (1925)
The Aims of Education (1929)
Process and Reality (1929)
Adventures of Ideas (1933)
Dialogues (1954)