“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 Whitehead112
English mathematician and philosopher 1861–1947Related quotes
Ferdinand de Saussure book Course in General Linguistics
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.
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) United States Baptist theologian
Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Introduction, p.xii
William Golding (1911–1993) British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate
As quoted in "The Dreams of William Golding", BBC Arena (2012)
Stephen Jay Gould book The Flamingo's Smile
"Only His Wings Remained", p. 54
The Flamingo's Smile (1985)
Susanne K. Langer (1895–1985) American philosopher
Philosophical Sketches, Ayer (1979)
Balasaraswati (1918–1984) Indian dancer
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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Sarada Devi (1853–1920) Hindu religious figure, spiritual consort of Ramakrishna
[Swami Nikhilananda, Holy Mother, 204]
Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer
"Whatever You Say, Say Nothing", line 57, from North (1975).
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