--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: To have an idea of a thing is not just to…" description: "\"To have an idea of a thing is not just to get certain sensations from it. It is to be able to respond to the thing in view of its place in an inclusive..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e52/john-dewey-545_able_to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-t_1848048.jpg" --- # To have an idea of a thing is not just to get certain… ![“To have an idea of a thing is not just to get certain sensations from it. It is to be able to respond to the thing in view of its place in an inclusive scheme of action; it is to foresee the drift and probable consequence of the action of the thing upon us and of our action upon it.” quote by John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e52/john-dewey-545_able_to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-t_1848048.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e52/john-dewey-545_able_to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-t_1848048.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e52/john-dewey-545_able_to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-t_1848048.jpg) > “To have an idea of a thing is not just to get certain sensations from it. It is to be able to respond to the thing in view of its place in an inclusive scheme of action; it is to foresee the drift and probable consequence of the action of the thing upon us and of our action upon it.” [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Understanding an idea means anticipating its effects and responding within a broader context. **In simple terms:** Know ideas to act wisely. Key Takeaway Consider consequences before acting. Themes knowledge context anticipation Mood analytical thoughtful Type philosophical pragmatic When to use this quote - decision making - policy planning - education design Key Concepts philosophy of pragmatism systems thinking Questions to Reflect On - How can we improve our predictive abilities? - What role does intuition play in anticipating outcomes? A Different Perspective Complex systems may be unpredictable despite foresight. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Action](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/action/) [Consequence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/consequence/) [Idea](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/idea/) [Ideas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ideas/) [Schemes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/schemes/) [Sensations](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sensations/) ## Related quotes > [So, little by little, time brings out each several thing into view, and reason raises it up into the shores of light.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucretius/so-little-by-little-time-brings-out-each-several-thing-into-view-and/) [Lucretius](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucretius/) > [“It all starts with a tiny, stupid idea, then one thing leads to another, and suddenly, you find something amazing: yourself.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richie-norton/it-all-starts-with-a-tiny-stupid-idea-then-one-thing-leads-to-another/) [Richie Norton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richie-norton/) > [Ideas are of themselves extraordinarily valuable, but an idea is just an idea. Almost anyone can think up an idea. The thing that counts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-ford/ideas-are-of-themselves-extraordinarily-valuable-but-an-idea-is-just-2/) [Henry Ford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-ford/) > [“Ideas are of themselves extraordinarily valuable, but an idea is just an idea. Almost any one can think up an idea. The thing that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-ford/ideas-are-of-themselves-extraordinarily-valuable-but-an-idea-is-just/) [Henry Ford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-ford/) > [The idea is that that there is no such thing as an external enemy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/guy-ritchie/the-idea-is-that-that-there-is-no-such-thing-as-an-external-enemy/) [Guy Ritchie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/guy-ritchie/) > [The artist should be intoxicated with the idea of the thing he wants to express.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-henri/the-artist-should-be-intoxicated-with-the-idea-of-the-thing-he-wants/) [Robert Henri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-henri/) > [ As a rule, with me an unfinished \[idea\] is a thing that might as well be rubbed out. It's better, if there's something good… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/t-s-eliot/as-a-rule-with-me-an-unfinished-idea-is-a-thing-that-might-as-well-be/) [T. S. Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/t-s-eliot/) > [Sometimes a good quote is risen when you feel you have no idea about one thing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tivea/sometimes-a-good-quote-is-risen-when-you-feel-you-have-no-idea-about/) [Tivea](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tivea/) > [“Almost anyone can think up an idea. The thing that counts is developing it into a practical product. 4 Henry Ford”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-koch/almost-anyone-can-think-up-an-idea-the-thing-that-counts-is/) [Richard Koch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-koch/) > [Men have gone on to build up vast intellectual schemes, philosophies, and theologies, to prove that ideals are not real as ideals but as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/men-have-gone-on-to-build-up-vast-intellectual-schemes-philosophies-2/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Faith in the possibilities of continued and rigorous inquiry does not limit access to truth to any channel or scheme of things. It does…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/faith-in-the-possibilities-of-continued-and-rigorous-inquiry-does-not/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [We cannot guess the outcome of our actions... Which is why our actions must always be acceptable in themselves, and not as strategies.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carolyn-heilbrun/we-cannot-guess-the-outcome-of-our-actions-which-is-why-our-actions/) [Carolyn Heilbrun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carolyn-heilbrun/) > [Time is never more misspent than while we declaim against the want of it; all our actions are then tinctured with peevishness. The yoke…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-georg-ritter-von-zimmermann/time-is-never-more-misspent-than-while-we-declaim-against-the-want-of/) [Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-georg-ritter-von-zimmermann/) > [Do you believe in luck, Ludlow?" I had thought about this more than once in my life. "I believe some poeple are luckier than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/do-you-believe-in-luck-ludlow-i-had-thought-about-this-more-than-once/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [The wisdom of our actions in the first three years of peace will determine the course of world history for half a century.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-a-wallace/the-wisdom-of-our-actions-in-the-first-three-years-of-peace-will/) [Henry A. Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-a-wallace/) ## More by John Dewey > [“The deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/the-deepest-urge-in-human-nature-is-the-desire-to-be-important/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [“Empirically, things are poignant, tragic, beautiful, humorous, settled, disturbed, comfortable, annoying, barren, harsh, consoling, splendid, fearful; are such immediately and in their own right…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/empirically-things-are-poignant-tragic-beautiful-humorous-settled/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [A good aim surveys the present state of experience of pupils, and forming a tentative plan of treatment, keeps the plan constantly in view…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/a-good-aim-surveys-the-present-state-of-experience-of-pupils-and/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Experiences in order to be educative must lead out into an expanding world of subject matter, a subject matter of facts or information and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/experiences-in-order-to-be-educative-must-lead-out-into-an-expanding/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [A tribe, let us say, is warlike. The successes for which it strives, the achievements upon which it sets store, are connected with fighting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/a-tribe-let-us-say-is-warlike-the-successes-for-which-it-strives-the/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [The phrase "think for one's self" is a pleonasm. Unless one does it for one's self, it isn't thinking.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/the-phrase-think-for-one-s-self-is-a-pleonasm-unless-one-does-it-for/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Doctrine that eliminates or even obscures the function of choice of values and enlistment of desires and emotions in behalf of those chosen weakens…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/doctrine-that-eliminates-or-even-obscures-the-function-of-choice-of/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [There is no such thing as educational value in the abstract. The notion that some subjects and methods and that acquaintance with certain facts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/there-is-no-such-thing-as-educational-value-in-the-abstract-the/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Men live in a community in virtue of the things which they have in common; and communication is the way in which they come…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/men-live-in-a-community-in-virtue-of-the-things-which-they-have-in/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/we-can-have-facts-without-thinking-but-we-cannot-have-thinking/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [But progress in knowledge has made us aware of the superficiality of Plato's lumping of individuals and their original powers into a few sharply…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/but-progress-in-knowledge-has-made-us-aware-of-the-superficiality-of/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Even the alleged benefits of war, so far as more than alleged, spring from the fact that conflict of peoples at least enforces intercourse…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/even-the-alleged-benefits-of-war-so-far-as-more-than-alleged-spring/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [“When the organization called soul is free, moving and operative, initial as well as terminal, it is spirit. Qualities are both static, substantial, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/when-the-organization-called-soul-is-free-moving-and-operative/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Since in reality there is nothing to which growth is relative save more growth, there is nothing to which education is subordinate save more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/since-in-reality-there-is-nothing-to-which-growth-is-relative-save/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Creative thinking will improve as we relate the new fact to the old and all facts to each other.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/creative-thinking-will-improve-as-we-relate-the-new-fact-to-the-old/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) [Explore all 486 John Dewey quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) ## More Able quotes > [I am certain that children always know more than they are able to tell, and that makes the big difference between them and adults,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacques-lusseyran/i-am-certain-that-children-always-know-more-than-they-are-able-to/) [Jacques Lusseyran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacques-lusseyran/) > [I have observed this in my experience of slavery, - that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-douglass/i-have-observed-this-in-my-experience-of-slavery-that-whenever-my/) [Frederick Douglass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-douglass/) > [There is something about the South that accepts the supernatural. If you don't accept it and you're having a conversation with someone who does,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alice-englert/there-is-something-about-the-south-that-accepts-the-supernatural-if/) [Alice Englert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alice-englert/) > [In the '80s, the way radio was programmed, if you didn't have a hit record you weren't going to be able to make any…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/huey-lewis/in-the-80s-the-way-radio-was-programmed-if-you-didn-t-have-a-hit/) [Huey Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/huey-lewis/) > [I think I've had the longest career of strength, focus, and still being able to sell records. I think I'm that guy. I'm still…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nas/i-think-i-ve-had-the-longest-career-of-strength-focus-and-still-being/) [Nas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nas/) > [I have that need in me, I want everyone to love me, but I'm embarrassed by that need, so I wanted to cover it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-jeselnik/i-have-that-need-in-me-i-want-everyone-to-love-me-but-i-m-embarrassed/) [Anthony Jeselnik](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-jeselnik/) > [Thinking about the things that happened, I don't know any other ball player would could have done what he (Jackie Robinson) did. To be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pee-wee-reese/thinking-about-the-things-that-happened-i-don-t-know-any-other-ball/) [Pee Wee Reese](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pee-wee-reese/) > [I wanted to remember in order to be able to return.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anais-nin/i-wanted-to-remember-in-order-to-be-able-to-return/) [Anais Nin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anais-nin/) > [Government schools, with your tax money, now discourage the teaching of multiplication tables by rote memorization but teach reading by the 'look-and-say' method which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/greg-perry/government-schools-with-your-tax-money-now-discourage-the-teaching-of/) Greg Perry > [I don't know if I would qualify as mainstream. I think I have managed to function pretty successfully on the fringes of the music…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pat-metheny/i-don-t-know-if-i-would-qualify-as-mainstream-i-think-i-have-managed/) [Pat Metheny](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pat-metheny/) > [What we're supposed to do as actors is be able to portray real human beings and emotions. And if you grow up in this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-browning/what-we-re-supposed-to-do-as-actors-is-be-able-to-portray-real-human/) [Emily Browning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-browning/) > [The reason that Apple is able to create products like iPad is because we always try to be at the intersection of technology and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steve-jobs/the-reason-that-apple-is-able-to-create-products-like-ipad-is-because/) [Steve Jobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steve-jobs/) > [It was an important period for us, because even though we weren't a "punk band", and what became a model for a punk band,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-mallinder/it-was-an-important-period-for-us-because-even-though-we-weren-t-a/) [Stephen Mallinder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-mallinder/) > [- You look fine. - Right. I look fine. Except I don't, said Zora, tugging sadly at her man's nightshirt. This was why Kiki…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zadie-smith/you-look-fine-right-i-look-fine-except-i-don-t-said-zora-tugging/) [Zadie Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zadie-smith/) > [There is a way to be a woman, ask for what we deserve and be able to negotiate.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tracee-ellis-ross/there-is-a-way-to-be-a-woman-ask-for-what-we-deserve-and-be-able-to/) [Tracee Ellis Ross](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tracee-ellis-ross/) Browse all 17,257 Able quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "To have an idea of a thing is not just to get certain sensations from it. It is to be able to respond to the thing in view of its place in an inclusive scheme of action; it is to foresee the drift and probable consequence of the action of the thing upon us and of our action upon it.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "John Dewey" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-to-get-certain-sensations-from/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Able" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-to-get-certain-sensations-from/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e52/john-dewey-545_able_to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-t_1848048.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e52/john-dewey-545_able_to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-t_1848048.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e52/john-dewey-545_able_to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-t_1848048.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“To have an idea of a thing is not just to get certain sensations from it. It is to be able to respond to the…” — John Dewey", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "John Dewey", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "To have an idea of a...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-to-get-certain-sensations-from/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/to-have-an-idea-of-a-thing-is-not-just-to-get-certain-sensations-from/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```