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
Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt degeneration: it is inherent in the very texture of human life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Symbolism is an essential aspect of human existence and not just a trivial concept.
In this quote, Alfred North Whitehead emphasizes that symbolism is a fundamental part of human life, shaping our understanding and experiences. He suggests that rather than being a superficial or corrupt idea, symbolism is deeply woven into the fabric of our reality, impacting how we interpret the world around us and communicate our thoughts and feelings.
Themes
SymbolismHuman LifePhilosophyArtMeaning
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of art in culture, one might use this quote to highlight the role of symbolism.
More from Alfred North Whitehead
All quotes →The 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.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
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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I think perhaps the most important problem is that we are trying to understand the fundamental workings of the universe via a language devised for telling one another when the best fruit is.
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