Quotessence
Home / Authors / Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead

Alfred North Whitehead Quotes

Mathematician

Filter quotes by topic

AllScienceMathematicsHumansMathematicalMathIdeasDoeMenWorldFacts

Famous Alfred North Whitehead Quotes

“In the history of the world the prize has not gone to those species which specialized in methods of violence, or even in defensive armor. In fact, nature began with producing animals encased in hard shells for defense against the ill of life. But smaller animals, without external armor, warm-blooded, sensitive, alert, have cleared those monsters off the face of the earth.”

WorldHardFactsEarthFacesAnimalGoneViolenceMethodSpeciesIllWarmDefenseMonstersSensitivePrizeShellsWorld HistoryArmor
Author:Alfred North Whitehead
Create image

“In England if something goes wrong--say, if one finds a skunk in the garden--he writes to the family solicitor, who proceeds to take the proper measures; whereas in America, you telephone the fire department. Each satisfies a characteristic need; in the English, love of order and legalistic procedure; and here in America, what you like is something vivid, and red, and swift.”

IfsNeedsWritingAmericaOrderUnited StatesFireRedGardenEnglandCharacteristicsDepartmentTelephonesVividProceduresSolicitorsFire DepartmentEnglish Love
Book:Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead
Create image

“Our rate of progress is such that an individual human being, of ordinary length of life, will be called on to face novel situations which find no parallel in his past. The fixed person, for the fixed duties, who, in older societies was such a godsend, in the future will be a public danger.”

HumansPersonsPastFacesIndividualHuman BeingsSituationNovelProgressDangerDutyOrdinaryRateFixedLengthParallelsLength Of Life
Book:Science and the Modern World
Create image

“The Universe is vast. Nothing is more curious than the self-satisfied dogmatism with which mankind at each period of its history cherishes the delusion of the finality of existing modes of knowledge. Skeptics and believers are alike. At this moment scientists and skeptics are the leading dogmatists. Advance in detail is admitted; fundamental novelty is barred. This dogmatic common sense is the death of philosophic adventure.”

SelfMomentsUniverseCommonMankindAdventurePeriodsScientistFundamentalsDetailsBelieverSatisfiedCommon SenseCuriousDelusionCherishNoveltySkepticDogmaticPhilosophicFinalityDogmatism
Author:Alfred North Whitehead
Create image

“Every intellectual revolution which has ever stirred humanity into greatness has been a passionate protest against inert ideas. Then, alas, with pathetic ignorance of human psychology, it has proceeded by some educational scheme to bind humanity afresh with inert ideas of its own fashioning.”

HumansHas BeensIdeasHumanityPsychologyGreatnessIgnoranceRevolutionIntellectualPassionateEducationalProtestSchemesAlasPathetic
Book:Aims of Education
Create image

“For successful education there must always be a certain freshness in the knowledge dealt with. It must be either new in itself or invested with some novelty of application to the new world of new times. Knowledge does not keep any better than fish. You may be dealing with knowledge of the old species, with some old truth; but somehow it must come to the students, as it were, just drawn out of the sea and with the freshness of its immediate importance.”

WorldMayDoeCertainSuccessfulSeaStudentsImportanceSpeciesFishesApplicationNew WorldNoveltyFreshness
Author:Alfred North Whitehead
Create image