In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat, but in the evolution of real knowledge it marks the first step in progress toward a victory.
Alfred North Whitehead

Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct form ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended.
Alfred North Whitehead

It is in literature that the concrete outlook of humanity receives its expression.
Alfred North Whitehead

It is the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties.
Alfred North Whitehead

It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.
Alfred North Whitehead

It takes an extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious.
Alfred North Whitehead

Knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows.
Alfred North Whitehead

Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanism of the Universe.
Alfred North Whitehead

Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.
Alfred North Whitehead

No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.
Alfred North Whitehead

No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idealistic motives, and idealism in our time has been shoved aside, and we are paying the penalty for it.
Alfred North Whitehead

Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.
Alfred North Whitehead

Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of life is to grasp as much as we can out of that infinitude.
Alfred North Whitehead

Periods of tranquility are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up.
Alfred North Whitehead

Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.
Alfred North Whitehead

Philosophy is the product of wonder.
Alfred North Whitehead

Religion is the last refuge of human savagery.
Alfred North Whitehead

Seek simplicity but distrust it.
Alfred North Whitehead

Simple solutions seldom are. It takes a very unusual mind to undertake analysis of the obvious.
Alfred North Whitehead

Speak out in acts; the time for words has passed, and only deeds will suffice.
Alfred North Whitehead