Alfred North Whitehead quote: "I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning, or destroyed it altogether."

Civilizations can only be understood by those who are civilized.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

If a dog jumps into your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it ...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

It takes an extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them. Wh...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibili...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat, but in the evolution of real knowledge it ...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

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

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

No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idea...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

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

Almost all new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Art flourishes where there is a sense of adventure.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

When you're average, you're just as close to the bottom as you are the top.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

In the conditions of modern life the rule is absolute, the race which does not value trained intelli...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

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

Periods of tranquillity are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Ideas won't keep, something must be done about them.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

There are no whole truths. All truths are half truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths th...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. Life refuse...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Commemoration of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099 Apart from God every activity is merely a pas...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The power of God is the worship He inspires. That religion is strong which in its ritual and its mod...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it i...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. Life refu...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

But you can catch yourself entertaining habitually certain ideas and setting others aside; and tha...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without t...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. Life refuse...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes. Rather the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat: but in the evolution of real knowledge, it...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Speech is human nature itself, with none of the artificiality of written language.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Spoken language is merely a series of squeaks.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations of complex facts. We are apt to fall into th...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Nature gets credit which should in truth be reserved for ourselves: the rose for its scent, the nigh...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Every philosophy is tinged with the coloring of some secret imaginative background, which never emer...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Philosophy is the product of wonder.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Common sense is genius in homespun.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The worth of men consists in their liability to persuasion. . . . Civilisation is the maintenance of...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The vigour of civilised societies is preserved by the widespread sense that high aims are worth whil...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

There are two principles inherent in the very nature of things, recurring in some particular embodim...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Necessity is the mother of invention is a silly proverb. Necessity is the mother of futile dodges is...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

An enormous part of our mature experience cannot not be expressed in words.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

In every age of well-marked transition, there is the pattern of habitual dumb practice and emotion w...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

But you can catch yourself entertaining habitually certain ideas and setting others aside; and that,...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Other nations of different habits are not enemies: they are godsends. Men require of their neighbour...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Familiar things happen, and mankind does not bother about them. It requires a very unusual mind to u...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Without adventure civilization is in full decay.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out o...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Seek simplicity but distrust it.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanisms of the universe.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The absolute pacifist is a bad citizen; times come when force must be used to uphold right, justice ...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

It is the first step in sociological wisdom, to recognize that the major advances in civilisation ar...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The future belongs to those who can rise above the confines of the earth.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without t...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pa...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Religion carries two sorts of people in two entirely opposite directions: the mild and gentle people...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Life is complex in its expression, involving more than percipience, namely desire, emotion, will, an...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Human life is driven forward by its dim apprehension of notions too general for its existing languag...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct form ability, which is capacity to act wisely on ...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibili...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The ideas of

What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, ...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

I will not go so far as to say that to construct a history of thought without profound study of the ...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Through and through the world is infested with quantity. To talk sense is to talk quantities, It is ...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The only use of a knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. The present contains all tha...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim
Wisdom the source of virtue, and of fame,
Obtained with ...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them. When t...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without t...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

We think in generalities, but we live in detail.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

There are no whole truths; all truths are half- truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths t...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The poet, the artist, the sleuth - whoever sharpens our perception tends to be antisocial... he cann...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

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

A clash of doctrines is not a disaster--it is an opportunity.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

One main factor in the upward trend of animal life has been the power of wandering.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

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

I would be a billionaire if I was looking to be a selfish boss. That's not me.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat, but in the evolution of real knowledge it ...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

We think in generalities, but we live in detail
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The task of a university is the creation of the future, so far as rational thought and civilized mod...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like a...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment... We are told that by its aid the sta...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

I have always noticed that deeply and truly religious persons are fond of a joke, and I am suspiciou...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

So far as the mere imparting of information is concerned, no university has had any justification fo...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame; obtained with labou...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Actors are loved because they are unoriginal. Actors stick to their script. The unoriginal man is lo...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

When you're average, you're just as close to the bottom as you are the top.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

It is in literature that the concrete outlook of humanity receives its expression
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

There is a self-satisfied dogmatism with which mankind at each period of its history cherishes the d...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Every really new idea looks crazy at first.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Fools act on imagination without knowledge, pedants act on knowledge without imagination
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Speech is human nature itself, with none of the artificiality of written language
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, Seek simplicity and distrust i...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Without adventure civilization is in full decay
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

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

Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt egerneration: it is inherent in the very texture of human...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Education which is not modern share the fate of all organic things which are kept too long
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Life is the enjoyment of emotion, derived from the past and aimed at the future
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Religion is the reaction of human nature to its search for God
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Seek simplicity but distrust it
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Education with inert ideas is not only useless; it is above all things harmful.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The "silly" question is the first intimation of some totally new development
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

"Necessity is the mother of invention" is a silly proverb. "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out o...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Religion is the last refuge of human savagery
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Fundamental progress has to do with the reinterpretation of basic ideas.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, ...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Almost all new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame; obtained with l...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

My criticism of

Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Religion is the last refuge of human savagery.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

It must be admitted that there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. B...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The solution which I am urging is to eradicate the fatal disconnection of subjects which kills the v...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Rightness of limitation is essential for growth of reality.

Unlimited possibility and abs...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

We think in generalities, but we live in detail. To make the past live, we must perceive it in detai...
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Science is a river with two sources, the practical source and the theoretical source.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

The only use of a knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. The present contains all th...
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, ...
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

Speech is human nature itself, with none of the artificiality of written language
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

Religion is the reaction of human nature to its search for God
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a...
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

So far as the mere imparting of information is concerned, no university has had any justification fo...
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

Without adventure civilization is in full decay
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

It is the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equi...
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

What we perceive as the present is the vivid fringe of memory tinged with anticipation.
ALFRED WHITEHEAD

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
WHITEHEAD

The spirit of Dunkirk is something everyone grew up learning about. After Dunkirk, everyone came tog...
FIONN WHITEHEAD

You make yourself do the physical aspects for a Christopher Nolan film!
FIONN WHITEHEAD

I'm not really a green juice kind of guy. I like feeling downtrodden and worthless when I walk a...
FIONN WHITEHEAD

I like to think I'm fairly grounded, and I have friends who will very happily tell me if I'm...
FIONN WHITEHEAD

'HIM' is much more of a British, coming-of-age series, while 'Stranger Things' is ve...
FIONN WHITEHEAD

I don't really think much about how I would have fared in the Second World War. It's a topic...
FIONN WHITEHEAD

I think you can overthink dealing with fame. To an extent, you've got to put yourself out there,...
FIONN WHITEHEAD

My 'Dunkirk' co-star Harry Styles deals with some crazy fan stuff, but he's a very down-...
FIONN WHITEHEAD

There's a restaurant I go to whenever I can called The Richmond Cafe. It's a little Thai res...
FIONN WHITEHEAD

I knew it was called 'Dunkirk,' Christopher Nolan was directing it, and it was a war film. T...
FIONN WHITEHEAD

Crossing a single street transformed the way people talked, determined the size and condition of the...
COLSON WHITEHEAD

You swallow hard when you discover that the old coffee shop is now a chain pharmacy, that the place ...
COLSON WHITEHEAD

The only time "early bloomer" has ever been applied to me is vis-a-vis my premature apprehension of ...
COLSON WHITEHEAD

On a 60-mile stretch of road from Mutlaa, Kuwait, to Basra, Iraq, a convoy of more than 2,000 vehicl...
JOHN WHITEHEAD

Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom the source of virtue, and of fame, obtained with lab...
WILLIAM WHITEHEAD

Seek simplicity but distrust it.
A.N. WHITEHEAD

He really had good skills. I thought about how to bring him along slowly, yet capitalize on those sk...
BILL WHITEHEAD

It's kind of grandfatherly talk, but Neal is a very good boy. He doesn't want a lot of attention. Ye...
BILL WHITEHEAD

One of the things that is really unique about Neal is that, although he stretched out so fast and ev...
BILL WHITEHEAD

I never had to break up a fight or worry about someone getting upset with somebody else because some...
BILL WHITEHEAD

The strength of their team is absolutely to dribble penetrate. When a team allows them to dribble pe...
BILL WHITEHEAD

Northridge typically was quicker to loose stuff and was more alive than us. They played well and tha...
BILL WHITEHEAD

Just on paper, without seeing him play you would know he's a good player. When you watch him play, i...
BILL WHITEHEAD

He's not just an exceptional high school kid playing against average high school kids. He's an excep...
BILL WHITEHEAD

Sometimes we adults think that they're working and he's really just kind of playing. He's just doing...
BILL WHITEHEAD

With how good our league is, we still might be able to get a bye in the first round of the state tou...
BILL WHITEHEAD

I was an infantry officer in the Army from 1969 to 1971. Men in my platoon who had served time in Vi...
JOHN WHITEHEAD

It's an eye-opener for people to see how vulnerable they are.
CARL WHITEHEAD

But one of the things to note is in the FBI, we not only need to have that capability, we have to ha...
CARL WHITEHEAD

The threats we face are more diverse than ever.
CARL WHITEHEAD

That will really help with information sharing and investigations.
CARL WHITEHEAD

It's been a long time coming, and I think this will be a very positive thing for us and for the comm...
CARL WHITEHEAD

Unfortunately in Florida, we have our share of those types of cases where children are victims of th...
CARL WHITEHEAD

This is unfortunately a serious problem. It is a pervasive problem.
CARL WHITEHEAD

As time went on, we learned to arm ourselves in our different ways. Some of us with real guns, some ...
COLSON WHITEHEAD

It was because of [Bishop's] abilities to get out and move the puck up the ice.
TIM WHITEHEAD

It is failure that guides evolution; perfection provides no incentive for improvement, and nothing i...
COLSON WHITEHEAD

Ultimately, the teams will help us to develop a truly compelling design for the World Trade Center s...
JOHN WHITEHEAD

Under the English legal system you are innocent until you are shown to be Irish.
TED WHITEHEAD

A firefly blinked into existence, drew half a word in the air. Then gone. A black bug secret in the ...
COLSON WHITEHEAD

memory has a palette and broad brush.
COLSON WHITEHEAD

in the slow motion that is the speed of humiliation.
COLSON WHITEHEAD

Two people, two hands, and two songs, in this case "Big Shot" and "Bette Davis Eyes." The lyrics of ...
COLSON WHITEHEAD

Life! What Inscrutable Card Shall Ye Throw Next Upon the Soft Felt of Our Days?
COLSON WHITEHEAD

He told me three weeks ago not to send anything else.
PAUL WHITEHEAD

Yet we still have no idea what happened or where it even started, not even a description of a suspec...
KIMBERLEY WHITEHEAD

Older cars had those old vacuum windshield wiper systems, and when they went bad it was almost impos...
ROBBY WHITEHEAD

Tonight came down to the last whistle and we are fortunate to have advanced. We had our hands full t...
TIM WHITEHEAD

We didn't want to cry wolf. But I don't think the public generally realizes the predicament we're in...
RONALD WHITEHEAD

I can't blame modern technology for my predilection for distraction, not after all the hours I've sp...
COLSON WHITEHEAD

He might have been the best player among both teams. He is so strong on the puck. He's great at keep...
TIM WHITEHEAD

And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. The white race believes--believes with all...
COLSON WHITEHEAD

There will be no redemption because the men who run this place do not want redemption. They want to ...
COLSON WHITEHEAD

I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning, or destroyed it altogether.

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Alfred North Whitehead

I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning, or destroyed it altogether.

Alfred North Whitehead

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