The English never abolish anything. They put it in cold storage.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Whitehead suggests the English prefer to preserve institutions in limbo rather than formally abolish them.
- In plain terms
- People often keep old things inactive instead of getting rid of them.
- What can you take from it?
- Reform often looks like preservation in disguise.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why do we keep unused systems?
- Is preservation always better than abolition?
Another view
It generalizes a national character without evidence.
More from Alfred North Whitehead
No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idealistic motives, and idealism in our time has been shoved as…
Permalink to quote #62 Shakespeare wrote better poetry for not knowing too much; Milton, I think, knew too much finally for the good of his poetry.
Permalink to quote #64 Intellect is to emotion as our clothes are to our bodies; we could not very well have civilized life without clothes, but we would be in a poor way if we had o…
Permalink to quote #61
Related quotes
The hippies, who had never really believed they were the wave of the future anyway, saw the election results as brutal confirmation of the futility of fighting…
Hunter S. ThompsonHunter S. Thompson quote #1 The worst of revolutions is a restoration.
Charles James FoxCharles James Fox quote #2 While early American society was an agrarian society, it was fast becoming more commercial, and commercial goals made their way among its agricultural classes …
Richard HofstadterRichard Hofstadter quote #2