Alfred North Whitehead Quotes

It takes an extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious.

My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger.

I think like a detective.

The analysis of concepts is for the understanding nothing more than what the magnifying glass is for sight.

Large skepticism leads to large understanding. Small skepticism leads to small understanding. No skepticism leads to no understanding.

Familiar things happen, and mankind does not bother about them. It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.

My only weapon is the question.

An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.

I think the secret is really observation. Well, if you observe what's going on and try to figure out how people are thinking, I think you can always write something that people will understand.

There are a lot of clear thinkers everywhere.

I want to prove you don't need to have academic syntax to be intelligent.

You can observe a lot by watching.

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

I think I have a very detailed sense of observation. I am interested in the details of people's lives and what information these details give.

Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information.

I've never been an intellectual but I have this look.

Not to sound corny, but intelligence is big. Everything fades, and everything can be modified. But intelligence is something you can't fake. I'm not even talking about whether you can read a thesaurus backwards. But there is a beauty in common sense.

The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.

Intellectual comradeship requires that you think your thoughts through to the place where you can make the complex seem simple, the obscure quite clear.

True intelligence requires fabulous imagination.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.

I believe that you can always learn from observation.

I guess I'm just quite observant and I pay attention to a lot of things. Human behavior really fascinates me.

All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable, which makes you see something you weren't noticing, which makes you see something that isn't even visible.