TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it... That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That�s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index W > Alfred North Whitehead Quotes > Invention

Thumbnail of Alfred North Whitehead (source)
Alfred North Whitehead
(15 Feb 1861 - 30 Dec 1947)

English mathematician and philosopher who worked in logic, physics, and later in his life spent more time on the philosophy of science and metaphysics. He worked with Bertrand Russell on Principia Mathematica which shows that logic underlies all mathematics.



Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise. “Necessity is the mother of invention” is a silly proverb. “Necessity is the mother of futile dodges” is much closer to the truth. The basis of growth of modern invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity.
— Alfred North Whitehead
In 'Technical Education and Its Relation to Science and Literature', The Aims of Education and Other Essays (1917), 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Basis (180)  |  Closer (43)  |  Condition (362)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Dodge (3)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Futile (13)  |  Genius (301)  |  Growth (200)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Invention (400)  |  Mental (179)  |  Modern (402)  |  Mother (116)  |  Mother Of Invention (6)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proverb (29)  |  Require (229)  |  Silly (17)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Wholly (88)

It is impossible not to feel stirred at the thought of the emotions of man at certain historic moments of adventure and discovery—Columbus when he first saw the Western shore, Pizarro when he stared at the Pacific Ocean, Franklin when the electric spark came from the string of his kite, Galileo when he first turned his telescope to the heavens. Such moments are also granted to students in the abstract regions of thought, and high among them must be placed the morning when Descartes lay in bed and invented the method of co-ordinate geometry.
— Alfred North Whitehead
Quoted in James Roy Newman, The World of Mathematics (2000), Vol. 1, 239.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Adventure (69)  |  Certain (557)  |  Christopher Columbus (16)  |  Coordinate Geometry (2)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Benjamin Franklin (95)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Grant (76)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  High (370)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Invention (400)  |  Kite (4)  |  Man (2252)  |  Method (531)  |  Moment (260)  |  Morning (98)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Pacific Ocean (5)  |  Saw (160)  |  Shore (25)  |  Spark (32)  |  Star (460)  |  String (22)  |  Student (317)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Thought (995)  |  Turn (454)  |  Western (45)

The greatest invention of the nineteenth century was the invention of the method of invention.
— Alfred North Whitehead
In Science and the Modern World (1925, 1997), 96.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Century (319)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Invention (400)  |  Method (531)

The invention of the differential calculus marks a crisis in the history of mathematics. The progress of science is divided between periods characterized by a slow accumulation of ideas and periods, when, owing to the new material for thought thus patiently collected, some genius by the invention of a new method or a new point of view, suddenly transforms the whole subject on to a higher level.
— Alfred North Whitehead
In An Introduction to Mathematics (1911), 217. Whitehead continued by quoting the poet, Percy Shelley, who compared the slow accumulation of thoughts leading to an avalanche following the laying down of a great truth. See the poetic quote beginning, “The sun-awakened avalanche…” on the Percy Shelley Quotations page.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Collect (19)  |  Crisis (25)  |  Differential Calculus (11)  |  Divide (77)  |  Divided (50)  |  Genius (301)  |  Higher Level (3)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Mathematics (7)  |  Idea (881)  |  Invention (400)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  New (1273)  |  Owing (39)  |  Patient (209)  |  Period (200)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Slow (108)  |  Subject (543)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transform (74)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

What is peculiar and new to the [19th] century, differentiating it from all its predecessors, is its technology. It was not merely the introduction of some great isolated inventions. It is impossible not to feel that something more than that was involved. … The process of change was slow, unconscious, and unexpected. In the nineteeth century, the process became quick, conscious, and expected. … The whole change has arisen from the new scientific information. Science, conceived not so much in its principles as in its results, is an obvious storehouse of ideas for utilisation. … Also, it is a great mistake to think that the bare scientific idea is the required invention, so that it has only to be picked up and used. An intense period of imaginative design lies between. One element in the new method is just the discovery of how to set about bridging the gap between the scientific ideas, and the ultimate product. It is a process of disciplined attack upon one difficulty after another This discipline of knowledge applies beyond technology to pure science, and beyond science to general scholarship. It represents the change from amateurs to professionals. … But the full self-conscious realisation of the power of professionalism in knowledge in all its departments, and of the way to produce the professionals, and of the importance of knowledge to the advance of technology, and of the methods by which abstract knowledge can be connected with technology, and of the boundless possibilities of technological advance,—the realisation of all these things was first completely attained in the nineteeth century.
— Alfred North Whitehead
In Science and the Modern World (1925, 1997), 96.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Advance (298)  |  Amateur (22)  |  Attack (86)  |  Attain (126)  |  Bare (33)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Century (319)  |  Change (639)  |  Completely (137)  |  Connect (126)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Department (93)  |  Design (203)  |  Differentiate (19)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Element (322)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expected (5)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Gap (36)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Importance (299)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Information (173)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Invention (400)  |  Involved (90)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lie (370)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Period (200)  |  Power (771)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Principle (530)  |  Process (439)  |  Product (166)  |  Professional (77)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Realisation (4)  |  Represent (157)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (700)  |  Scholarship (22)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Self (268)  |  Set (400)  |  Slow (108)  |  Something (718)  |  Storehouse (6)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unconscious (24)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)


See also:

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.