Alfred North Whitehead
"Religion carries two sorts of people in two entirely opposite directions: the mild and gentle people it carries towards mercy and justice; the persecuting people it carries into fiendish sadistic cruelty. Mind you, though this may seem to justify the eighteenth-century Age of Reason in its contention that religion is nothing but an organized, gigantic fraud and a curse to the human race, nothing could be farther from the truth. It possesses these two aspects, the evil one of the two appealing to people capable of naïve hatred; but what is actually happening is that when you get natures stirred to their depths over questions which they feel to be overwhelmingly vital, you get the bad stirred up in them as well as the good; the mud as well as the water. It doesn't seem to matter much which sect you have, for both types occur in all sects..."
66 Quotes
"Religion carries two sorts of people in two entirely opposite directions: the mild and gentle people it carries towards mercy and justice; the persecuting people it carries into fiendish sadistic cruelty. Mind you, though this may seem to justify the eighteenth-century Age of Reason in its contention that religion is nothing but an organized, gigantic fraud and a curse to the human race, nothing could be farther from the truth. It possesses these two aspects, the evil one of the two appealing to people capable of naïve hatred; but what is actually happening is that when you get natures stirred to their depths over questions which they feel to be overwhelmingly vital, you get the bad stirred up in them as well as the good; the mud as well as the water. It doesn't seem to matter much which sect you have, for both types occur in all sects..."
"الدين يسلك بالبشر مسلكين متناقضين تمامًا: فمنهم من يقوده إلى الرحمة والعدل بلين ووداعة، ومنهم من يدفعه إلى قسوة شيطانية متوحشة. ومع أن هذا قد يبدو وكأنه يبرر زعم عصر التنوير في القرن الثامن عشر بأن الدين ليس سوى احتيال منظم هائل ولعنة على الجنس البشري، إلا أن الحقيقة أبعد ما تكون عن ذلك. فالدين يحمل هذين الوجهين، والجانب الشرير منهما يستهوي النفوس القادرة على الكراهية الساذجة. لكن ما يحدث فعليًا هو أنه عندما تُثار الطبائع إلى أعماقها بقضايا تراها حيوية ومصيرية، يختلط فيها الخير بالشر، والماء بالوحل. ولا يهم كثيرًا إلى أي طائفة تنتمي، فكلا الصنفين موجودان في جميع الملل والنحل."
Alfred North Whitehead
Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead
"Rightness of limitation is essential for growth of reality. Unlimited possibility and abstract creativity can procure nothing. The limitation, and the basis arising from what is already actual, are both of them necessary and interconnected."
"إن صواب التحديد جوهري لنمو الواقع. فالإمكانية اللامحدودة والإبداع المجرد لا يثمران شيئًا. إن التحديد، والأساس المنبثق مما هو قائم بالفعل، كلاهما ضروريان ومتشابكان."
Alfred North Whitehead
"The task of a university is the creation of the future, so far as rational thought and civilized modes of appreciation can affect the issue."
"مهمة الجامعة هي صياغة المستقبل، بقدر ما يستطيع الفكر الرشيد وأنماط التقدير المتحضرة أن تؤثر في هذه الغاية."
Alfred North Whitehead
"Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame; obtained with labour, for mankind employed, and then, when most you share it, best enjoyed."
"الحكمة وحدها غاية الطموح الحق، ومنها ينبع الف"
Alfred North Whitehead
"Knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows."
"تَضْمَحِلُّ المعرفةُ كلَّما اتَّسَعَت الحكمةُ."
Alfred North Whitehead
"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them."
"تتطور الحضارة بزيادة عدد العمليات الجوهرية التي نتمكن من أدائها دون التفكير فيها."
Alfred North Whitehead
"Fools act on imagination without knowledge, pedants act on knowledge without imagination."
"يتصرف الحمقى بخيالٍ مجردٍ من المعرفة، ويتصرف المتشدقون بمعرفةٍ مجردةٍ من الخيال."
Alfred North Whitehead
"True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason."
"الشجاعة الحقة ليست قوة غاشمة لأبطال العامة، بل هي العزيمة الراسخة للفضيلة والعقل."
Alfred North Whitehead
"If a dog jumps into your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer."
"إذا قفز كلبٌ إلى حِجْرك، فذلك لأنه يحبك؛ أما إذا فعلت القطة الأمر ذاته، فذلك لأن حِجْرك أدفأ."
Alfred North Whitehead
"In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat, but in the evolution of real knowledge it marks the first step in progress toward a victory."
"في المنطق الصوري، التناقض إيذانٌ باله"
Alfred North Whitehead
"No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude."
"لا يبلغ أحدٌ قمة النجاح دون أن يقرّ بفضل من عاونه. والحكيم الواثق هو من يعترف بهذا العون شاكراً."
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 aside, and we are paying the penalty for it."
"ما من حقبة تاريخية عظمت قط، ولا يمكن لها أن تعظم، إلا إذا قامت على دوافع سامية ومثل عليا، وقد دُفِعَتْ هذه المثل جانبًا في عصرنا، وها نحن ندفع ثمن ذلك."
Alfred North Whitehead
"Religion is the last refuge of human savagery."
"الدين هو الملاذ الأخير للوحشية البشرية."
Alfred North Whitehead
"It takes an extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious."
"يتطلب ذكاءً فذًّا أن يتأمل المرء البديهيات."
Alfred North Whitehead
"Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct form ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended."
"الذكاء سرعة الإدراك، وهو يختلف عن المقدرة التي هي سعة العمل بحكمة على ما أُدرك."
Alfred North Whitehead
"Speech is human nature itself, with none of the artificiality of written language."
Alfred North Whitehead
"The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature."
Alfred North Whitehead
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties."
Alfred North Whitehead
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