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
Civilizations can only be understood by those who are civilized.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding civilization requires a certain level of civility and awareness.
Alfred North Whitehead's quote suggests that only individuals who possess a sense of civility and understanding can truly comprehend the complexities of civilizations. This implies that civilization is not merely about cultural achievements and advancements but also about the moral and ethical standards that guide human behavior. Those who are civilized are better equipped to analyze and critique the intricacies of societal structures, norms, and values.
Themes
CivilizationUnderstandingCivilityCultureSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about societal progress, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of civility in understanding cultural achievements.
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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