All practical teachers know that education is a patient process of mastery of details, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
A science which hesitates to forget its founders is lost.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Ignoring the contributions of pioneers in science leads to a loss of direction and purpose in the field.
Alfred North Whitehead's quote highlights the importance of recognizing the foundational figures in science. By acknowledging the work and ideas of those who came before, the scientific community can build upon established knowledge and continue to advance. Forgetting or underappreciating these contributions may result in a disoriented pursuit of discovery, much like a traveler without a map.
Themes
ScienceFoundersKnowledgeProgressHistory
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a scientific seminar to emphasize the importance of acknowledging past researchers.
More from Alfred North Whitehead
All quotes βThe vitality of thought is in adventure. Idea's won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervour, live for it, and, if need be, die for it. Their inheritors receive the idea, perhaps now strong and successful, but without inheriting the fervour; so the idea settles down to a comfortable middle age, turns senile, and dies.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.
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As society is now constituted, a literal adherence to the moral precepts scattered throughout the Gospels would mean sudden death.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
I consider Christianity to be one of the great disasters of the human race... It would be impossible to imagine anything more un - Christianlike than theology.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise. "Necessity is the mother of invention" is a silly proverb. "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges" is much closer to the truth. The basis of growth of modern invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
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