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[W]e cannot think first and act afterwards. From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought.

— Alfred North Whitehead Science and the Modern World (1925)

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Progress

More quotes by Alfred North Whitehead

In all philosophic theory there is an ultimate which is actual in virtue of its accidents.

Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (1929)

Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanism of the Universe.

Adventures of Ideas (1933)

No reason can be given for the nature of God, because that nature is the ground of all rationality.

Science and the Modern World (1925)

The human body is an instrument for the production of art in the life of the human soul.

Adventures of Ideas (1933)

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.

An Introduction to Mathematics (1911)

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Change based on principle is progress. Constant change without principle becomes chaos.

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The History of Electricity is a field full of pleasing objects, according to all the genuine and universal principles of taste, deduced from a knowledge of human nature.

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Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alfred North Whitehead (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.