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
True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True courage stems from moral strength and rational thought rather than sheer brute force.
This quote emphasizes that genuine courage is defined not by physical strength or aggression, but by a steadfast commitment to ethical principles and rational decision-making. It suggests that the most admirable form of bravery is the one that stems from inner virtue and the ability to think critically in the face of challenges.
Themes
CourageVirtueReasonBraveryStrength
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about overcoming adversity, one might say, 'As Alfred North Whitehead said, true courage is the firm resolve of virtue and reason.'
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.
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
Similar quotes
But the safety of the world, in some sense, depends on your saying no to inhumane ideas. Standing up for one's own integrity makes you no friends. It is costly. Yet defiance of the mob, in the service of that which is right, is one of the highest expressions of courage I know.
Gabrielle GiffordsRead
Thus thought I, as by night I read Of the great army of the dead, The trenches cold and damp, The starved and frozen camp,-- The wounded from the battle-plain, In dreary hospitals of pain, The cheerless corridors, The cold and stony floors. Lo! in that house of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom And flit from room to room. And slow, as in a dream of bliss, The speechless sufferer turns to kiss Her shadow, as it falls Upon the darkening walls.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
A sword in hand is a sure sign of a violent mind; but one does not become non-violent merely by throwing the sword away.
Vinoba BhaveRead
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.... The danger lies in refusing to face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it. If you fail anywhere along the line it will take away your confidence. You must make yourself succeed every time. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Eleanor RooseveltRead
You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what you know is right.
Aung San Suu KyiRead
We are here to advance the cause of women and to advance the cause of democracy and to make it absolutely clear that the two are inseparable.
Hillary ClintonRead