10 Alfred North Whitehead Quotes on Life

Alfred North Whitehead quotes on life

1. In its solitariness the spirit asks, What, in the way of value, is the attainment of life? And it can find no such value till it has merged its individual claim with that of the objective universe. Religion is world-loyalty.

2. There is a quality of life which lies always beyond the mere fact of life; and when we include the quality in the fact, there is still omitted the quality of the quality.

16. The religious vision, and its history of persistent expansion, is our one ground for optimism. Apart from it, human life is a flash of occasional enjoyments lighting up a mass of pain and misery, a bagatelle of transient experience.

24. The universities are schools of education, and schools of research. But the primary reason for their existence is not to be found either in the mere knowledge conveyed to the students or in the mere opportunities for research afforded to the members of the faculty. Both these functions could be performed at a cheaper rate, apart from these very expensive institutions. Books are cheap, and the system of apprenticeship is well understood. So far as the mere imparting of information is concerned, no university has had any justification for existence since the popularisation of printing in the fifteenth century. Yet the chief impetus to the foundation of universities came after that date, and in more recent times has even increased. The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning.

45. Whether or no it be for the general good, life is robbery. It is at this point that with life morals become acute. The robber requires justification.

46. ... the kingdom of heaven is with us today.

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

50. The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.

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

73. We think in generalities, but we live in details.