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Philosophy is the self-correction by consciousness of its own initial excess of subjectivity.

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
Excess
Consciousness
Philosophy
Self
Correction
Subjectivity
Corrections
Initial
Initials

More quotes by Alfred North Whitehead

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The 'silly question' is the first intimation of some totally novel development.
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The chief danger to philosophy is narrowness in the selection of evidence.
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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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The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanation of complex facts... Seek simplicity and distrust it.
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No religion can be considered in abstraction from its followers, or even from its various types of followers.
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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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The task of a university is the creation of the future, so far as rational thought and civilized modes of appreciation can affect the issue.
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It does not matter what men say in words, so long as their activities are controlled by settled instincts. The words may ultimately destroy the instincts but until this has occurred, words do not count.
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Intolerance is the besetting sin of moral fervour.
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In this modern world, the celibacy of the medieval learned class has been replaced by a celibacy of the intellect which is divorced from the concrete contemplation of the complete facts.
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No man of science wants merely to know. He acquires knowledge to appease his passion for discovery. He does not discover in order to know, he knows in order to discover.
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Above all things we must be aware of what I will call 'inert ideas' - that is to say, ideas that are merely received into the mind without being utilized, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations.
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Life is the enjoyment of emotion, derived from the past and aimed at the future.
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Religion is what a person does in his solitariness.
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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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In a sense, knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows, for details are swallowed up in principles. The details for knowledge which are important, will be picked up ad hoc in each avocation of life, but the habit of the active utilization of well-understood principles is the final possession of WISDOM.
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Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise
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Algebra is the intellectual instrument which has been created for rendering clear the quantitative aspects of the world.
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We think in generalities, but we live in detail.
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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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