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Alfred North Whitehead Quotes


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.

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

It is in literature that the concrete outlook of humanity receives its expression.

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.

It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.

It takes an extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious.

Knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows.

Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanism of the Universe.

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

No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.

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.

Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.

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.

Periods of tranquility are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up.

Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.

Philosophy is the product of wonder.

Religion is the last refuge of human savagery.

Seek simplicity but distrust it.

Simple solutions seldom are. It takes a very unusual mind to undertake analysis of the obvious.

Speak out in acts; the time for words has passed, and only deeds will suffice.