128 Pragmatism Quotes

The universalists, the idealists, the Utopians all aim too high. They give promises of an unattainable paradise, and by doing so they deceive mankind. Whatever label they wear, whether they call themselves Christians, Communists, humanitarians, whether they are merely sincere but stupid or wire-pullers and cynics, they are all makers of slaves. I myself have always kept my eye fixed on a paradise which, in the nature of things, lies well within our reach. I mean an improvement in the lot of the German people. (21st February 1945)

In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.

Consider what effects that might conceivably have practical bearings you conceive the objects of your conception to have. Then, your conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object.

No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat.

Every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint.

My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?

There's something wrong with a mother who washes out a measuring cup with soap and water after she's only measured water in it.

If you can't do what you want, do what you can.

The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.

We do not consider our principles as dogmas contained in books that are said to come from heaven. We derive our inspiration, not from heaven, or from an unseen world, but directly from life.

The nation has placed its faith in the precept that all laws should be inspired by actual needs here on earth as a basic fact of national life.

If one cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen.

In a fight you don't stop to choose your cudgels.

Submit to the present evil, lest a greater one befall you.

If you have some problem in your life and you need to deal with it then use religion it's fine. I use Google.

Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.

Unnecessary customs live a brutally short life in America.

We can act as if there were a God; feel as if we were free; consider Nature as if she were full of special designs; lay plans as if we were to be immortal; and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life.

We must frankly confess, then, using our empirical common sense and ordinary practical prejudices, that in the world that actually is, the virtues of sympathy, charity, and non-resistance may be, and often have been, manifested in excess. ... You will agree to this in general, for in spite of the Gospel, in spite of Quakerism, in spite of Tolstoi, you believe in fighting fire with fire, in shooting down usurpers, locking up thieves, and freezing out vagabonds and swindlers.

A difference which makes no difference is no difference at all.

Don't argue about the difficulties. The difficulties will argue for themselves.

I don't believe in psychology. I believe in good moves.

'Faith' is a fine invention When Gentlemen can see - But Microscopes are prudent In an Emergency.

One does simply what one can in order to apply what one knows.

The world is ruled only by consideration of advantages.

Pacifism is a nice idea, but it can get you killed. We're not there yet. Evolution is slow, small pox is fast.

There are some people, nevertheless - and I am one of them - who think that the most practical and important thing about a man is still his view of the universe. ... We think that for a general about to fight an enemy, it is important to know the enemy's numbers, but still more important to know the enemy's philosophy. We think the question is not whether the theory of the cosmos affects matters, but whether in the long run, anything else affects them.

The Stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.

When they come downstairs from their Ivory Towers, Idealists are very apt to walk straight into the gutter.

I am a libertarian with a small l and a Republican with a capital R. And I am a Republican with a capital R on grounds of expediency, not on principle.

In advocating any measure we must consider not only its justice but its practicability.

J'aime fort la verite, mais je n'aime point du tout le martyre.

If you need anything, take it from the Americans!

I don't have labels. I believe in human beings, I believe in a strong national security, I believe in maximizing freedom... I can give you a whole list of things i'm for, but I believe in solving problems. I guess, more than anything else, I'm a pragmatist with strong beliefs in people.

Why that's a hundred miles away. That's a long way to go just to eat.

Immediate luminousness, in short, philosophical reasonableness and moral helpfulness are the only available criteria. Saint Teresa might have had the nervous system of the placidest cow, and it would not now save her theology, if the trial of the theology by these other tests should show it to be contemptible. And conversely if her theology can stand these other tests, it will make no difference how hysterical or nervously off balance Saint Teresa may have been when she was with us here below.

No particular results then, so far, but only an attitude of orientation, is what the pragmatic method means. The attitude of looking away from first things, principles, 'categories,' supposed necessities; and of looking towards last things, fruits, consequences, facts.

Truth therefore and utility are here the very same thing:

...the Democrats know that no matter how many GATTs, NAFTAs, empty OSHAs, and other betrayals...they heap on those labor leaders, they can be had because, once again, the Republicans are deemed worse.

If my uncle had wheels and pedals, he'd be a bicycle. We really can't engage in 'if's.

Shut up and calculate!

There has to be a woman, but not much of a one. A good horse is much more important.

The system, though it may not be perfect in every part, is, upon the whole, a good one; is the best that the present views and circumstances of the country will permit; and is such an one as promises every species of security which a reasonable people can desire.

All the world over and at all times there have been practical men, absorbed in 'irreducible and stubborn facts': all the world over and at all times there have been men of philosophic temperament, who have been absorbed in the weaving of general principles.

Free trade is not a principle; it is an expedient.

'As for that,' said Waldenshare, 'sensible men are all of the same religion.' 'Pray, what is that?' inquired the Prince. 'Sensible men never tell.'

If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.

No policy is worth anything outside of reality.

[On the most beautiful words in the English language] The ones I like...are 'cheque' and 'enclosed.'

The world belongs to who doesn't feel. The primary condition to be a practical man is the absence of sensitivity.

There is reason to think the most celebrated philosophers would have been bunglers at business; but the reason is because they despised it.

'Oh, I'm not a Berkeleian. I believe my back's against this wall. I believe there's a sten gun over there.'

[regarding Mrs. Teasdale's late husband] Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first.

The real distinction is between those who adapt their purposes to reality and those who seek to mold reality in the light of their purposes.

What is right and what is practicable are two different things.

Abstract propositions should never be discussed by a legislative body.

The deed is everything, the glory nothing.

'Democracy is a means of achieving a higher level of individual and collective gratification, welfare, peace, stability and prosperity. It is not an end in itself! Practitioners of democracy in the Pacific should therefore be pragmatic in their approach. An idealistic and a purist approach is, I believe, misplaced.'

Is to accept the leadership of a crumbling country a crime? Is to prevent the Russians, the natural enemy of Germany, from obtaining our arms and manpower a crime? In Russian eyes it probably is. But I'm referring to the eyes of a westerner. I knew that we had to capitulate and I wanted it to be to the Americans and British, and not to the East. I'm not even accused of war crimes in the sense of the atrocities. It's clear they have no case against me. I came into a powerful position in 1943. How can I be accused of a conspiracy?

The law should regulate in certain areas of culture - but it should regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic question: 'Will it do good?' When challenged about the expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, 'Why not?' We should ask, 'Why?' Show me why your regulation of culture is needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your lawyers away.

Gdyby w jeziorze byly ryby, wedkowanie nie mialoby sensu.

There is nothing more practical than a good theory.

We must take things as we find them, and not as we wish them to be.

Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin than his preservation.

Of course not ... but I am told it works even if you don't believe in it.

I have withdrawn the red dress, the mala, because thousands of people wanted to be sannyasins but just because of the clothes and the mala they felt difficulties in the world - their job, their family, their wife, their parents, their friends - and it was too much of a trouble. I have withdrawn everything. Now whatsoever remains is something inner which neither the wife can detect nor the father nor the job nor the friends.

The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.

A lot can be said for the infinite mercies of God, but the smarts of a good pharmacist, when you get down to it, is worth more.

There was no need to do any housework at all. After four years the dirt doesn't get any worse.

Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.

I think metaphysics is good if it improves everyday life; otherwise forget it.

If he could, Ron Paul would abolish three-quarters of the government, which works out to meaning that about three-quarters of what Ron Paul says falls into the 'impractical dreamer' category. That leaves one-quarter -- but that fraction of his agenda is, no pun intended, on the money.

A solved problem creates two new problems, and the best prescription for happy living is not to solve any more problems than you have to.

To state a timetable now would simply paralyze the proper working of government, put at risk the changes we are making for Britain and damage the country.

We introduced a new model of behavior: don't get involved in diffuse general ideological polemics with the center, to whom numerous concrete causes are always being sacrificed; fight 'only' for those concrete causes, and be prepared to fight for them unswervingly, to the end. In other words, don't get mixed up in backroom wheeling and dealing, but play an open game.

A full 'definition of an object must include the whole of human experience, both as a criterion of truth and a practical indicator of its connection with human wants.

Russia's modern foreign policy is based on the principles of pragmatism, predictability and the supremacy of international law.

Every development of truths which relate to human nature, and more especially its active manifestations, is attended with a wish to see worked out in practice what theory has shown us to be just and good. To man, whose mind is seldom satisfied with the calmly beneficent influence of abstract ideas, this desire is perfectly natural, and it increases in liveliness with the spirit of benevolent sympathy in social happiness and well-being. But, however natural in itself, and however noble in its origin, this desire has not unfrequently led to hurtful consequences,-nay, often to greater evils than the colder indifference, or (as from the very opposite cause the same effect may follow) the glowing enthusiasm, which, comparatively heedless of reality, delights only in the pure beauty of ideas.

God is a great concept, [but it] doesn't work