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Seek simplicity but distrust it.

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
Distrust
Simplicity
Seek

More quotes by Alfred North Whitehead

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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.
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It is natural to think that an abstract science cannot be of much importance in affairs of human life, because it has omitted from its consideration everything of real interest.
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Algebra reverses the relative importance of the factors in ordinary language.
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The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature.
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We must not expect simple answers to far-reaching questions. However far our gaze penetrates, there are always heights beyond which block our vision.
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Every organism requires an environment of friends, partly to shield it from violent changes, and partly to supply it with its wants.
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Fertilization of the soul is the reason for the necessity of art.
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Youth is life as yet unblemished by much tragedy, but hardly by TV.
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The defense of morals is the battle-cry which best rallies stupidity against change.
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Now in creative thought common sense is a bad master. Its sole criterion for judgement is that the new ideas shall look like the old ones. In other words it can only work by suppressing originality.
Alfred North Whitehead
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Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.
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Problems are only opportunities in disquise.
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When success turns a man's head he faces failure
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Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.
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Great people plant trees they'll never sit under.
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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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Some of the finest moral intuitions come to quite humble people. The visiting of lofty ideas doesn't depend on formal schooling.
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The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past.
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When you're average, you're just as close to the bottom as you are the top.
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The motive of success is not enough.
Alfred North Whitehead