Quote

The mentality of mankind and the language of mankind created each other. If we like to assume the rise of language as a given fact, then it is not going too far to say that the souls of men are the gift from language to mankind. The account of the sixth day should be written: He gave them speech, and they became souls.

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
Facts
Created
Assume
Soul
Gave
Account
Going
Speech
Assuming
Men
Mankind
Souls
Like
Written
Accounts
Fact
Rise
Language
Gift
Sixth
Given
Became
Mentality

More quotes by Alfred North Whitehead

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No reason can be given for the nature of God, because that nature is the ground of rationality.
Alfred North Whitehead
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But harmony is limitation. Thus rightness of limitation is essential for growth of reality. Unlimited possibility and abstract creativity can procure nothing.
Alfred North Whitehead
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The English never abolish anything. They put it in cold storage.
Alfred North Whitehead
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The only use of knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present.
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One main factor in the upward trend of animal life has been the power of wandering.
Alfred North Whitehead
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In a living civilization there is always an element of unrest, for sensitiveness to ideas means curiosity, adventure, change. Civilized order survives on its merits and is transformed by its power of recognizing its imperfections.
Alfred North Whitehead
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War can protect it cannot create.
Alfred North Whitehead
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Our reasonings grasp at straws for premises and float on gossamers for deductions.
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[In many circumstances,] the most important thing about a proposition is not that it be true, but that it be interesting.
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The paradox is now fully established that the utmost abstractions are the true weapons with which to control our thought of concrete fact.
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The difference between ancients and moderns is that the ancients asked what have we experienced, and moderns asked what can we experience.
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It is not paradox to say that in our most theoretical moods we may be nearest to our most practical applications.
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With the sense of sight, the idea communicates the emotion, whereas, with sound, the emotion communicates the idea, which is more direct and therefore more powerful.
Alfred North Whitehead
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The absolute pacifist is a bad citizen times come when force must be used to uphold right, justice and ideals.
Alfred North Whitehead
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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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In a sense, knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows: for details are swallowed up in principles.
Alfred North Whitehead
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Life is the enjoyment of emotion, derived from the past and aimed at the future.
Alfred North Whitehead
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The only justification in the use of force is to reduce the amount of force necessary to be used.
Alfred North Whitehead
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You may not divide the seamless coat of learning.
Alfred North Whitehead
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There are no whole truths: all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays to the devil.
Alfred North Whitehead