Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
Algebra reverses the relative importance of the factors in ordinary language. It is essentially a written language, and it endeavors to exemplify in its written structures the patterns which it is its purpose to convey. The pattern of the marks on paper is a particular instance of the pattern to be conveyed to thought. The algebraic method is our best approach to the expression of necessity, by reason of its reduction of accident to the ghostlike character of the real variable.
W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger The Viking Book of Aphorisms, New York: Viking Press, 1966.
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
Be relieving the brain of all unnecessary work, a good notation sets it free to concentrate on more advanced problems, and, in effect, increases the mental power of the race.
In P. Davis and R. Hersh The Mathematical Experience, Boston: Birkhauser, 1981.
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.
In J. R. Newman (ed.) The World of Mathematics, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956.
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
Seek simplicity, and distrust it.
W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger The Viking Book of Aphorisms, New York: Viking Press, 1966.
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
Fundamental progress has to do with the reinterpretation of basic ideas.
W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger The Viking Book of Aphorisms, New York: Viking Press, 1966.
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
We think in generalities, but we live in details.
W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger The Viking Book of Aphorisms, New York: Viking Press, 1966.
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
Apart from blunt truth, our lives sink decadently amid the perfume of hints and suggestions.
W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger The Viking Book of Aphorisms, New York: Viking Press, 1966.
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
Necessity is the mother of invention is a silly proverb. "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges" is much nearer the truth.
W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger The Viking Book of Aphorisms, New York: Viking Press, 1966.
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true. This statement is almost a tautology. For the energy of operation of a proposition in an occasion of experience is its interest and is its importance. But of course a true proposition is more apt to be interesting than a false one.
W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger The Viking Book of Aphorisms, New York: Viking Press, 1966.
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
War can protect; it cannot create.
W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger The Viking Book of Aphorisms, New York: Viking Press, 1966.
