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Rationalism is an adventure in the clarification of thought.

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
Clarification
Rationalism
Adventure
Thought

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Without adventure civilization is in full decay.
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Shakespeare wrote better poetry for not knowing too much Milton, I think, knew too much finally for the good of his poetry.
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The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.
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It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.
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Knowledge keeps no better than fish.
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If you have had your attention directed to the novelties in thought in your own lifetime, you will have observed that almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced, and almost any idea which jogs you out of your current abstractions may be better than nothing.
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Art flourishes where there is a sense of adventure.
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Mathematics as a science, commenced when first someone, probably a Greek, proved propositions about any things or about some things, without specifications of definite particular things.
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The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.
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Learning preserves the errors of the past, as well as its wisdom. For this reason, dictionaries are public dangers, although they are necessities.
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The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment.
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The vigor of civilized societies is preserved by the widespread sense that high aims are worth-while.
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I have always noticed that deeply and truly religious persons are fond of a joke, and I am suspicious of those who aren't.
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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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From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought.
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Vigorous societies harbour a certain extravagance of objectives.
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No reason can be given for the nature of God, because that nature is the ground of rationality.
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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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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.
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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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