“The fact of the religious vision, and its history of persistent expansion, is our one ground for optimism. Apart from it, human life is a flash of occasional enjoyments lighting up a mass of pain and misery, a bagatelle of transient experience.”
1920s, Science and the Modern World (1925)
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Alfred North Whitehead 112
English mathematician and philosopher 1861–1947Related quotes

Source: Cours de linguistique générale (1916), p. 111-112
Source: Course in General Linguistics
Context: Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass. Philosophers and linguists have always agreed in recognizing that without the help of signs we would be unable to make a clear-cut, consistent distinction between two ideas. Without language, thought is a vague, uncharted nebula. here are no pre-existing ideas, and nothing is distinct before the appearance of language.

Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Introduction, p.xii

As quoted in "The Dreams of William Golding", BBC Arena (2012)
"Only His Wings Remained", p. 54
The Flamingo's Smile (1985)

Her comment on the role of dance and music in veneration of God. Quoted in "Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life", page=28
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[Swami Nikhilananda, Holy Mother, 204]

"Whatever You Say, Say Nothing", line 57, from North (1975).
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