Alfred North Whitehead Quotes

Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.

I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.

I'm hesitant to make grand statements because I feel like that it's not exactly what I'm writing about.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

Well I think that you have to be open and honest in order to learn from your mistakes and be able to correct them in the future to understand what would happen to take things off course. And if we don't address these issues openly and honestly then we don't learn.

A philosopher is, no doubt, entitled to examine even those distinctions that are to be found in the structure of all languages... in that case, such a distinction may be imputed to a vulgar error, which ought to be corrected in philosophy.

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.

One cannot always be right in our complex world; no dishonor attends an incorrect choice among plausible outcomes drawn from a properly constructed argument.

If we want the best judgment of our intelligence personnel, we have to accept the fact that they will be wrong sometimes.

When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but reveal to him the side on which it is false. He is satisfied with that, for he sees that he was not mistaken, and that he only failed to see all sides. Now, no one is offended at not seeing everything; but one does not like to be mistaken, and that perhaps arises from the fact that man naturally cannot see everything, and that naturally he cannot err in the side he looks at, since the perceptions of our senses are always true.

The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The true dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.

The chief danger to philosophy is narrowness in the selection of evidence.

he who thinks great thoughts often makes great errors

Philosophy can be compared to some powders that are so corrosive that, after they have eaten away the infected flesh of a wound, they then devour the living flesh, rot the bones, and penetrate to the very marrow. Philosophy at first refutes errors. But if it is not stopped at this point, it goes on to attack truths. And when it is left on its own, it goes so far that it no longer knows where it is and can find no stopping place.

It is the essence of truth that it is never excessive. Why should it exaggerate? There is that which should be destroyed and that which should be simply illuminated and studied. How great is the force of benevolent and searching examination! We must not resort to the flame where only light is required.

Spurn not a seeming error, but dig below its surface for the truth.

Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.

It is simply untrue that all our institutions are evil,... that all politicians are mere opportunists, that all aspects of university life are corrupt. Having discovered an illness, it's not terribly useful to prescribe death as a cure.

The care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults of inexperience from defects of nature.

Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity. ...Without philosophy thoughts are, as it were, cloudy and indistinct: its task is to make them clear and to give them sharp boundaries.

Philosophers' Syndrome: mistaking a failure of the imagination for an insight into necessity.

People make mistakes in life through believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little.

It's always wise to seek the truth in our opponents' error, and the error in our own truth.

I should venture to assert that the most pervasive fallacy of philosophic thinking goes back to neglect of context.

Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of.