Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864), ch. 8 "Of the Analytical Engine"
Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)
Source: 1930s, Modern Theory of Development, 1933, 1962, p. 46
“Imagine that such a world is within our grasp.”
Nobel lecture (2005)
Context: Imagine what would happen if the nations of the world spent as much on development as on building the machines of war. Imagine a world where every human being would live in freedom and dignity. Imagine a world in which we would shed the same tears when a child dies in Darfur or Vancouver. Imagine a world where we would settle our differences through diplomacy and dialogue and not through bombs or bullets. Imagine if the only nuclear weapons remaining were the relics in our museums. Imagine the legacy we could leave to our children.
Imagine that such a world is within our grasp.
Source: Power Without Property, 1959, p. 75; As cited in: Richard Brinkman (2013) Corporate Pharaohs: A Vicious Circle of Globalization. p. 249.
Source: Man Against Mass Society (1952), p. 123
“To seek wisdom rather than truth. It is more within our grasp.”
“Victory is within our ready grasp…We are in reach of a famous victory”
"Abbott's 'famous victory' remark … was it gospel or not?" http://www.theage.com.au/national/abbotts-famous-victory-remark--was-it-gospel-or-not-20100623-ywq0.html in The Age, June 23, 2010.
2010
“It is a blind grasping out for their own wholeness, and the novel-report is a means toward it.”
Anna Wulf, in "Free Women: 1"<!-- p. 59 -->
The Golden Notebook (1962)
Context: The novel has become a function of the fragmented society, the fragmented consciousness. Human beings are so divided, are becoming more and more divided, and more subdivided in themselves, reflecting the world, that they reach out desperately, not knowing they do it, for information about other groups inside their own country, let alone about groups in other countries. It is a blind grasping out for their own wholeness, and the novel-report is a means toward it.
As We May Think (1945)
Context: If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability. The abacus, with its beads strung on parallel wires, led the Arabs to positional numeration and the concept of zero many centuries before the rest of the world; and it was a useful tool — so useful that it still exists.
