No Roman ever died in contemplation over a geometrical diagram. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
On the ostensible exactitude of certain branches of human knowledge, including mathematics. The exactness is a fake. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
Mathematics, in its widest significance, is the development of all types of formal, necessary, deductive reasoning. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
Nature is probably quite indifferent to the aesthetic preferences of mathematicians. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
Algebra is the intellectual instrument which has been created for rendering clear the quantitative aspects of the world. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
The whole of mathematics consists in the organization of a series of aids to the imagination in the process of reasoning. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
Algebra reverses the relative importance of the factors in ordinary language. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
“The certainty of mathematics depends on its complete abstract generality.” — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
The pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
There is no more common error than to assume that, because prolonged and accurate mathematical calculations have been made, the application of… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
"One and one make two" assumes that the changes in the shift of circumstance are unimportant. But it is impossible for us… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
There is a tradition of opposition between adherents of induction and of deduction. In my view it would be just as sensible… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
Mathematics as a science, commenced when first someone, probably a Greek, proved propositions about "any" things or about "some" things, without specifications… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
So far as the mere imparting of information is concerned, no university has had any justification for existence since the popularization of… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
In modern times the belief that the ultimate explanation of all things was to be found in Newtonian mechanics was an adumbration… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
Order is not sufficient. What is required, is something much more complex. It is order entering upon novelty; so that the massiveness… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
The point of mathematics is that in it we have always got rid of the particular instance, and even of any particular… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
I regret that it has been necessary for me in this lecture to administer a large dose of four-dimensional geometry. I do… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
Algebra reverses the relative importance of the factors in ordinary language. It is essentially a written language, and it endeavors to exemplify… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
We think of the number "five" as applying to appropriate groups of any entities whatsoever - to five fishes, five children, five… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment. . . . We are told that by its aid the stars… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
In the study of ideas, it is necessary to remember that insistence on hard-headed clarity issues from sentimental feeling, as it were… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true. This statement is almost a tautology. For the… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
I will not go so far as to say that to construct a history of thought without profound study of the mathematical… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share Image
For successful education there must always be a certain freshness in the knowledge dealt with. It must be either new in itself or invested… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
The pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
Without adventure all civilization is full of decay. Adventure rarely reaches its predetermined end. Columbus never reached China. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
Aristotle discovered all the half-truths which were necessary to the creation of science. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
On the ostensible exactitude of certain branches of human knowledge, including mathematics. The exactness is a fake. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
It is this union of passionate interest in the detailed facts with equal devotion to abstract generalisation which forms the novelty in our present… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of infinitude we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
The future belongs to those who can rise above the confines of the earth. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
Do not teach too many subjects and what you teach, teach thoroughly. — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are cavalry charges in… — Alfred North Whitehead Copy Share
