“Education with inert ideas is not only useless: it is, above all things, harmful.”

— Alfred North Whitehead, "The Aims of Education" (1916)

About Alfred North Whitehead

1861 – 1947

English mathematician and philosopher.

“The chief error in philosophy is overstatement.”

“Error is the price we pay for progress.”

“The chief danger to philosophy is narrowness in the selection of evidence.”

“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

“Education makes a greater difference between man and man, than nature has made between man and brute.”

“We learn our lessons, not for life, but for the lecture room.”

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

“Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.”