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Alfred North Whitehead

Alfred North Whitehead Quotes

Mathematician

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Famous Alfred North Whitehead Quotes

“I am sure that one secret of a successful teacher is that he has formulated quite clearly in his mind what the pupil has got to know in precise fashion. He will then cease from half-hearted attempts to worry his pupils with memorizing a lot of irrelevant stuff of inferior importance.”

KnowsMindStuffSecretHalfWorrySuccessfulTeacherTeachingFashionImportanceCeaseInferiorsPreciseIrrelevantHeartedPupilsMemorizingHalf Hearted
Book:Aims of Education
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“I regret that it has been necessary for me in this lecture to administer a large dose of four-dimensional geometry. I do not apologize, because I am really not responsible for the fact that nature in its most fundamental aspect is four-dimensional. Things are what they are.”

Has BeensFactsNatureFourRegretAspectResponsibleFundamentalsApologizingLecturesGeometryDoseI Regret
Book:The Concept of Nature: Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November, 1919
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“Many a scientist has patiently designed experiments for the purpose of substantiating his belief that animal operations are motivated by no purposes. He has perhaps spent his spare time in writing articles to prove that human beings are as other animals so that 'purpose' is a category irrelevant for the explanation of their bodily activities, his own activities included. Scientists animated by the purpose of proving that they are purposeless constitute an interesting subject for study.”

WritingHumansPurposeBeliefHuman BeingsAnimalInterestingStudySubjectsActivityProveScientistExperimentsOperationsExplanationMotivatedCategoriesArticlesSparesIrrelevantAnimatedSpare Time
Author:Alfred North Whitehead
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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.”

PeopleThinkingShouldImportantBookNumbersCasesHabitCivilizationSpeechOppositesMathematicsMathMathematicalOperationsCopiesPreciseExtendingTruism
Author:Alfred North Whitehead
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“I will not go so far as to say that to construct a history of thought without profound study of the mathematical ideas of successive epochs is like omitting Hamlet from the play which is named after him. That would be claiming too much. But it is certainly analogous to cutting out the part of Ophelia. This simile is singularly exact. For Ophelia is quite essential to the play, she is very charming . . . and a little mad.”

LittlesIdeasPlayWould BeSuccessStudyToo MuchCuttingEssentialsMathematicsMadHistoricalProfoundMathMathematicalCharmingConstructsSimileOpheliaOmitting
Book:Science and the Modern World
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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.”

ScienceMotherGrowthProgressModernConditionsGeniusExerciseActivityIntellectualBasesCuriosityIntellectSillyInventionVigorousDodgeIntellectual CuriosityNecessity Is The Mother Of Invention
Author:Alfred North Whitehead
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“The point of mathematics is that in it we have always got rid of the particular instance, and even of any particular sorts of entities. So that for example, no mathematical truths apply merely to fish, or merely to stones, or merely to colours. So long as you are dealing with pure mathematics, you are in the realm of complete and absolute abstraction. . . . Mathematics is thought moving in the sphere of complete abstraction from any particular instance of what it is talking about.”

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Author:Alfred North Whitehead
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