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
The only use of knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Knowledge of the past helps us to make better decisions in the present.
This quote emphasizes the importance of historical knowledge, asserting that understanding past events and experiences serves a practical purpose: it prepares us to navigate current challenges and decisions more effectively. Rather than dwelling in nostalgia, the intent is to leverage past lessons to create a better present and future.
Themes
KnowledgePastPresentWisdomLearning
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech, one could say, 'Remember what Whitehead said: the only use of knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present.'
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
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