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
There are two principles inherent in the very nature of things, recurring in some particular embodiments whatever field we explore - the spirit of change, and the spirit of conservation. There can be nothing real without both. Mere change without conservation is a passage from nothing to nothing. . . . Mere conservation without change cannot conserve. For after all, there is a flux of circumstance, and the freshness of being evaporates under mere repetition.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the balance between change and conservation in all aspects of life.
Alfred North Whitehead's quote reflects on the dual principles that govern existence: the necessity of change and the importance of maintaining certain constants. He argues that for anything to be truly real or meaningful, it must embody both change and conservation; otherwise, it risks becoming meaningless or stagnant. The interplay of these two forces creates a dynamic reality where constant flux and the preservation of essential elements coalesce into a rich and valuable existence.
Themes
ChangeConservationBalanceExistenceFlux
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about organizational growth, one might say, 'As we consider our strategy, we must remember that there are two principles inherent in the very nature of things: the spirit of change and the spirit of conservation.'
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.
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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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