I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning, or destroyed it altogether.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Whitehead complains about being quoted out of context, which distorts or destroys his intended meaning.
- In plain terms
- Quotes taken out of context often change or ruin the original meaning.
- What can you take from it?
- Always consider context when quoting others.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Have you ever been quoted wrongly?
- How do you verify a quote?
Another view
Sometimes short quotes capture an essence even without full context.
More from Alfred North Whitehead
Dogmatic common sense is the death of philosophic adventure. The universe is vast.
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