"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.“


-Alfred North Whitehead

posted in history


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.

Other Quotes You Might Like

Discover more inspiring quotes from our collection

"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."

-Alfred North Whitehead

wisdomView Quote
"Knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows."

-Alfred North Whitehead

wisdomView Quote
"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them."

-Alfred North Whitehead

technologyView Quote
"No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude."

-Alfred North Whitehead

successView Quote
"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

scienceView Quote
"Religion is the last refuge of human savagery."

-Alfred North Whitehead

religionView Quote

More Quotes About history

Explore other inspiring quotes in this category

"Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers."

-Carlos Fuentes

historyView Quote
"If I had been elected president in 1948, history would be vastly different. I believe we would have stemmed the growth of Big Government, which had begun with the New Deal and culminated with the Great Society."

-Strom Thurmond

historyView Quote
"For most of our history, Americans enjoyed both liberty and security from foreign threats."

-Harry Browne

historyView Quote
"There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history. It is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations."

-Claude Vorilhon

historyView Quote
"This is a good time to ask apologists for the Islamic regime, who degrades Islam? Who imposes stoning, forced marriage of underage girls and flogging for not wearing the veil? Do such practices represent Iran's ancient history and culture, its ethnic and religious diversity? Its centuries of sensual and subversive poetry?"

-Azar Nafisi

historyView Quote
"What would be the nicest thing I could say about Newt Gingrich? He may be one of the great supporters of the humanities, because you have people who don't want to study the social sciences, because it's not profitable, and now Newt, as the highest-paid historian in American history, may be an encouragement to people to study history."

-Barney Frank

historyView Quote