Alfred North Whitehead

“A man really writes for an audience of about ten persons. Of course if others like it, that is clear gain. But if those ten are satisfied, he is content.”

“The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.”

“Philosophy begins in wonder. And at the end when philosophic thought has done its best the wonder remains.”

“The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations of complex facts. We are apt to fall into the error of thinking that the facts are simple because simplicity is the goal of our quest....”

“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”

“Religion carries two sorts of people in two entirely opposite directions: the mild and gentle people it carries towards mercy and justice; the persecuting people it carries into fiendish sad...”

“Religion is what an individual does with his solitariness.”

“The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment... We are told that by its aid the stars are weighed and the billions of molecules in a drop of water are counted. Yet, like the...”

“The ideas of Freud were popularized by people who only imperfectly understood them, who were incapable of the great effort required to grasp them in their relationship to larger truths, and...”

“In the conditions of modern life the rule is absolute, the race which does not value trained intelligence is doomed.”

“The foundation of reverence is this perception, that the present holds within itself the complete sum of existence, backwards and forwards, that whole amplitude of time, which is eternity.”

“A student should not be taught more than he can think about.”

“Get your knowledge quickly and then use it. If you can use it you will retain it.”

“No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.”

“What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like and immorality is what they dislike.”

“Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct from ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended.”

“Human life is driven forward by its dim apprehension of notions too general for its existing language.”

“Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.”

“I would be a billionaire if I was looking to be a selfish boss. That's not me.”

“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”