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
Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct form ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Intelligence involves understanding things quickly, while ability refers to the capacity to act wisely based on that understanding.
This quote by Alfred North Whitehead highlights the distinction between intelligence and ability. Intelligence is the swift understanding of concepts and ideas, while ability is the practical implementation of that understanding through wise actions. In essence, being intelligent does not automatically mean one can effectively apply that intelligence, as wisdom and action are integral to making the most of one’s knowledge.
Themes
IntelligenceWisdomUnderstandingAbilityAction
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a discussion on education and the importance of both understanding and practical application.
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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