Home / Topics / Absolutes Quotes

Absolutes Quotes

Browse 2628 quotes about Absolutes.

Absolutes Quotes

“The spectral density of black body radiation ... represents something absolute, and since the search for the absolutes has always appeared to me to be the highest form of research, I applied myself vigorously to its solution.”

Body Form Science Black Highest Solutions Research Absolutes Radiation Biographies Density

Author:Max Planck

“Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.”

“the solution to racism lies in our ability to see its ubiquity but not to concede its inevitability. It lies in the collective and institutional power to make change, at least as much as with the individual will to change. It also lies in the absolute moral imperative to break the childish, deadly circularity of centuries of blindness to the shimmering brilliance of our common, ordinary humanity.”

Source: Seeing a Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race

“Liberalism regards all absolutes with profound skepticism, including both moral imperatives and final solutions... Insistence upon any particular solution is the mark of an ideologue.”

“Among the illusions which have invested our civilization is an absolute belief that the solutions to our problems must be a more determined application of rationally organized expertise... The reality is that our problems are largely the product of that application.”

Problem Reality Belief Risk Products Civilization Solutions Illusion Absolutes Management Determined Organized Application Expertise Risk Management

Author:Voltaire

“There is no need to search for global solutions, apart from an absolute necessity to destroy the idea that such things exist.”

Needs Ideas Solutions Absolutes

Book:Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West

Source: Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West

“The pragmatist turns away from abstraction and insufficiency, from verbal solutions, from bad a priori reasons, from fixed principles, closed systems, and pretended absolutes and origins. He turns toward concreteness and adequacy, towards facts, towards action, and towards power.”

Reason Facts Action Turns Principles Solutions Absolutes Fixed Abstraction Insufficiency Adequacy Pragmatists

Author:William James

“We godless lack that certainty, and we know the world is a complex place that requires compromise and is not ruled by a moral force - virtue is subject to negotiation, and is found in working together with others to find mutually satisfactory solutions. Good is not absolute, it is an emergent property that arises from successful networks of individuals. It is also something that is measured by evidence: we look at the good that people do, not the promises that they make and never keep, or the lies that dovetail nicely into dogma. Competence is a virtue. Intent is meaningless without action.”

“The mystery of life is certainly the most persistent problem ever placed before the thought of man. There is no doubt that from the time humanity began to think it has occupied itself with the problem of its origin and its future which undoubtedly is the problem of life. The inability of science to solve it is absolute. This would be truly frightening were it not for faith.”

Thinking Men Problem Would Be Science Life Is Faith Humanity Doubt Mystery Solutions Absolutes Solve No Doubt Frightening Inability Persistent Mystery Of Life

Author:Guglielmo Marconi

“As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.”