Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead OM FRSwas an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found application to a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, theology, education, physics, biology, economics, and psychology, among other areas...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMathematician
Date of Birth15 February 1861
Alfred North Whitehead quotes about
past thinking details
We think in generalities, but we live in detail. To make the past live, we must perceive it in detail in addition to thinking of it in generalities.
past errors language
Learning preserves the errors of the past, as well as its wisdom. For this reason, dictionaries are public dangers, although they are necessities.
past use-it-or-lose-it use-of-knowledge
The only use of knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present.
real adventure past
A race preserves its vigor so long as it harbors a real contrast between what has been and what may be; and so long as it is nerved by the vigor to adventure beyond the safeties of the past. Without adventure civilization is in full decay.
adventure past civilization
Without adventure civilization is in full decay. ... The great fact [is] that in their day the great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past.
past holy-ground use
The only use of a knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. The present contains all that there is. It is holy ground; for it is the past, and it is the future.
adventure past greatness
The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past.
life past emotion
Life is the enjoyment of emotion, derived from the past and aimed at the future.
past length-of-life progress
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.
past
How the past perishes is how the future becomes.
learning past errors
Learning preserves the errors of the past as well as its wisdom.
brutal courage firm force rather resolve true virtue vulgar
True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes. Rather the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
analysis common-sense mind seldom simple solutions takes undertake unusual
Simple solutions seldom are. It takes a very unusual mind to undertake analysis of the obvious.
bother familiar mankind mind requires undertake unusual
Familiar things happen, and mankind does not bother about them. It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.