412 Quotes by Alfred North Whitehead

Algebra is the intellectual instrument which has been created for rendering clear the quantitative aspects of the world.

People make the mistake of talking about 'natural laws.' There are no natural laws. There are only temporary habits of nature.

Style, in its finest sense, is the last acquirement of the educated mind; it is also the most useful. It pervades the whole being.

We think of the number "five" as applying to appropriate groups of any entities whatsoever - to five fishes, five children, five apples, five days... We are merely thinking of those relationships between those two groups which are entirely independent of the individual essences of any of the members of either group. This is a very remarkable feat of abstraction; and it must have taken ages for the human race to rise to it

The human body is an instrument for the production of art in the life of the human soul.

To come very near to a true theory, and to grasp its precise application, are two different things, as the history of science teaches us. Everything of importance has been said before by someone who did not discover it.

Great art is more than a transient refreshment. It is something which adds to the permanent richness of the soul's self-attainment. It justifies itself both by its immediate enjoyment, and also by its discipline of the inmost being. Its discipline is not distinct from enjoyment but by reason of it. It transforms the soul into the permanent realization of values extending beyond its former self.

Religion is the reaction of human nature to its search for God.

On the ostensible exactitude of certain branches of human knowledge, including mathematics. The exactness is a fake.