412 Quotes by Alfred North Whitehead

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

A Unitarian is a person who believes in at most one God.

The way in which the persecution of Galileo has been remembered is a tribute to the quiet commencement of the most intimate change in outlook which the human race had yet encountered. Since a babe was born in a manger, it may be doubted whether so great a thing has happened with so little stir

The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.

In England if something goes wrong--say, if one finds a skunk in the garden--he writes to the family solicitor, who proceeds to take the proper measures; whereas in America, you telephone the fire department. Each satisfies a characteristic need; in the English, love of order and legalistic procedure; and here in America, what you like is something vivid, and red, and swift.

The pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit.

When you're average, you're just as close to the bottom as you are the top.

"One and one make two" assumes that the changes in the shift of circumstance are unimportant. But it is impossible for us to analyze this notion of unimportant change.

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.