Science Quotes by Alfred North Whitehead

“A science that hesitates to forget its founders is lost.”

— Alfred North Whitehead

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.

— Alfred North Whitehead

A science which hesitates to forget its founders is lost.

— Alfred North Whitehead

A man of science doesn't discover in order to know, he wants to know in order to discover.

— Alfred North Whitehead

Aristotle discovered all the half-truths which were necessary to the creation of science.

— Alfred North Whitehead

The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanation of complex facts... Seek simplicity and distrust it.

— Alfred North Whitehead

The aims of scientific thought are to see the general in the particular and the eternal in the transitory.

— Alfred North Whitehead

No science can be more secure than the unconscious metaphysics which tacitly it presupposes.

— Alfred North Whitehead

Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science.

— Alfred North Whitehead

It is the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equips the…

— Alfred North Whitehead

The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.

— Alfred North Whitehead

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

Without adventure civilization is in full decay. ... The great fact [is] that in their day the great achievements of the past…

— Alfred North Whitehead

Whenever a text-book is written of real educational worth, you may be quite certain that some reviewer will say that it will…

— Alfred North Whitehead

No man of science wants merely to know. He acquires knowledge to appease his passion for discovery. He does not discover in…

— Alfred North Whitehead

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

Faith in the possibility of science, generated antecedently to the development of modern scientific theory, is an unconscious derivative from medieval theology.

— Alfred North Whitehead

The worst that happened to men of science was that Galileo suffered an honorable detention and a mild reproof, before dying peacefully…

— Alfred North Whitehead

It is natural to think that an abstract science cannot be of much importance in affairs of human life, because it has…

— Alfred North Whitehead

“The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations of complex facts. We are apt to fall into the error of…

— Alfred North Whitehead

Many a scientist has patiently designed experiments for the purpose of substantiating his belief that animal operations are motivated by no purposes.…

— Alfred North Whitehead

The true method of discovery is like the flight of an aeroplane. It starts from the ground of particular observation; it makes…

— Alfred North Whitehead

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

Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise. "Necessity is the mother of invention" is a silly…

— Alfred North Whitehead

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Idea's won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its…

— Alfred North Whitehead

The Universe is vast. Nothing is more curious than the self-satisfied dogmatism with which mankind at each period of its history cherishes…

— Alfred North Whitehead

In the conditions of modern life the rule is absolute, the race which does not value trained intelligence is doomed. Not all…

— Alfred North Whitehead

“The truth is that science started its modern career by taking over ideas derived from the weakest side of the philosophies of…

— Alfred North Whitehead

It is impossible not to feel stirred at the thought of the emotions of man at certain historic moments of adventure and…

— Alfred North Whitehead

Science repudiates philosophy. In other words, it has never cared to justify its truth or explain its meaning.

— Alfred North Whitehead

In the conditions of modern life the rule is absolute, the race which does not value trained intelligence is doomed.

— Alfred North Whitehead

Scientists animated by the purpose of proving that they are purposeless constitute an interesting subject for study.

— Alfred North Whitehead

To see what is general in what is particular, and what is permanent in what is transitory, is the aim of scientific…

— Alfred North Whitehead

To come very near to a true theory, and to grasp its precise application, are two different things, as the history of…

— Alfred North Whitehead

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

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

Systems, scientific or philosophic, come and go. Each method of limited understanding is at length exhausted. In its prime each system is…

— Alfred North Whitehead

Without deductive logic science would be entirely useless. It is merely a barren game to ascend from the particular to the general,…

— Alfred North Whitehead

The progress of Science consists in observing interconnections and in showing with a patient ingenuity that the events of this ever-shifting world…

— Alfred North Whitehead

The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment. . . . We are told that by its aid the stars…

— Alfred North Whitehead