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

—Alfred North Whitehead

age youth tragedy

About Alfred North Whitehead

Portrait of Alfred North Whitehead

Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He created the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which has been applied in a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, theology, education, physics, biology, economics, and psychology.

More quotations from Alfred North Whitehead

There are no whole truths; all truths are half- truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.

—Alfred North Whitehead

Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.

—Alfred North Whitehead

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.

—Alfred North Whitehead

simplicity distrust

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.

—Alfred North Whitehead

Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.

—Alfred North Whitehead

More quotations tagged with “tragedy”

Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future. But we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.

—D. H. Lawrence

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That's the tragedy of falling in love; it brings with it the potential for loss.

—Sarah Rayner in One Morning

love potential loss tragedy

When, at some point in our lives, we meet a real tragedy—which could happen to any one of us—we can react in two ways. Obviously, we can lose hope, let ourselves slip into discouragement, into alcohol, drugs, and unending sadness. Or else we can wake ourselves up, discover in ourselves an energy that was hidden there, and act with more clarity, more force.

—14th Dalai Lama

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And this is the simple truth—that to live is to feel oneself lost. He who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce.

—Soren Kierkegaard

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America: a country where everything is done to prove life isn't tragic.

—Albert Camus

USA tragedy proof

History

11 Jul 2015 Added