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Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them.

Alfred North Whitehead

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Alfred North Whitehead
Age: 86 †
Born: 1861
Born: February 15
Died: 1947
Died: December 30
Mathematician
Philosopher
Physicist
Theologian
Writer
Ramsgate
Kent
Important
Advances
Thinking
Operations
Perform
Civilization
Number
Numbers
Technology
Truism
Without
Extending

More quotes by Alfred North Whitehead

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No science can be more secure than the unconscious metaphysics which tacitly it presupposes.
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Nature gets credit which should in truth be reserved for ourselves: the rose for its scent, the nightingale for its song and the sun for its radiance. The poets are entirely mistaken. They should address their lyrics to themselves and should turn them into odes of self congratulation on the excellence of the human mind.
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Everyone is a philosopher. Not everyone is good at it.
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The fixed person for the fixed duties who in older societies was such a godsend, in future will be a public danger.
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When success turns a man's head he faces failure
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It must be admitted that there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have been unstable ages.
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The term many presupposes the term one , and the term one presupposes the term many.
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Vigorous societies harbor a certain extravagance of objectives, so that men wander beyond the safe provision of personal gratifications.
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Scientists animated by the purpose of proving that they are purposeless constitute an interesting subject for study.
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It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true. This statement is almost a tautology. For the energy of operation of a proposition in an occasion of experience is its interest and is its importance. But of course a true proposition is more apt to be interesting than a false one.
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Fundamental progress has to do with the reinterpretation of basic ideas.
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People make the mistake of talking about 'natural laws.' There are no natural laws. There are only temporary habits of nature.
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The physical doctrine of the atom has got into a state which is strongly suggestive of the epicycles of astronomy before Copernicus .
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Identification of rhythm as the casual counterpart of life wherever there is some life, only perceptible to us when the analogies are sufficiently close.
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Learning preserves the errors of the past as well as its wisdom.
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Vedanta is the most impressive metaphysics the human mind has conceived.
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In every age of well-marked transition, there is the pattern of habitual dumb practice and emotion which is passing and there is oncoming a new complex of habit.
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Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.
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Learning is often spoken of as if we are watching the open pages of all the books which we have ever read, and then, when occasion arises, we select the right page to read aloud to the universe.
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Some philosophers fail to distinguish propositions from judgements ... But in the real world it is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true. The importance of truth is that it adds to interest.
Alfred North Whitehead