Pragmatism Quotes

It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them.

I see graphic design as the organization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistent and pragmatically understandable.

Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity;

and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of language, nationality, or religion.

You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream.

But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It's very real. It's very strong.

I have no Napoleonic dream. I'm just hard-working and pragmatic.

In a world where we are so pragmatic and materialistic, fear is the only emotion that allows even a sophisticated person to believe in something beyond.

The task of universal pragmatics is to identify and reconstruct universal conditions of possible mutual understanding.

When I went to the moon I was a pragmatic test pilot.

But when I saw the planet Earth floating in the vastness of space the presence of divinity became almost palpable and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident.

You read the pragmatists and all you know is: not Descartes, not Kant, not Plato. It's like aspirin. You can't use aspirin to give yourself power, you take it to get rid of headaches. In that way, pragmatism is a philosophical therapy. It helps you stop asking the unhelpful questions.

Anybody who witnesses the suffering of animals and has a glimmer of hope of reducing that suffering can't take the position that it's all or nothing. We have to be pragmatic. Screw the principle.

Pure pragmatism can't imagine a bold future.

Pure idealism can't get anything done. It is the delicate blend of both that drives innovation.

Pragmatism asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false? What, in short, is the truth's cash-value in experiential terms?

The definition of definition is at bottom just what the maxim of pragmatism expresses.

Dream in a pragmatic way.

In any architecture, there is an equity between the pragmatic function and the symbolic function.

I'm not asking any of you to make drastic changes to every single one of your recipes or to totally change the way you do business. But what I am asking is that you consider reformulating your menu in pragmatic and incremental ways to create healthier versions of the foods that we all love.

...never let a passion for the perfect take precedence over pragmatism.

Most governments are pragmatic, most people are logical.

There are pockets of extremism in Israel, in the U.S. and in the Muslim world. But we have to fight them with reason, with logic and with compassion.

The god hypothesis is no longer of any pragmatic value for the interpretation or comprehension of nature, and indeed often stands in the way of better and truer interpretation. Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler, but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire Cat.

Our greatest challenge today is to couple conviction with doubt.

By conviction, I mean some pragmatically developed faith, trust, or centeredness; and by doubt I mean openness to the ongoing changeability, mystery, and fallibility of the conviction.

Pragmatism is an intellectually safe but ultimately sterile philosophy.

The 'natural' is not necessarily a 'human' value.

Humanity has begun to transcend nature: we can no longer justify the maintenance of a discriminatory sex class system on grounds of its origins in nature. Indeed, for pragmatic reasons alone it is beginning to look as if we must get rid of it.

Idealism without pragmatism is impotent.

Pragmatism without idealism is meaningless. The key to effective leadership is pragmatic idealism.

Strength, the American way, is not manifested by threats of criminal prosecution or police state methods. Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods.

WIth both trepidation and relief, I abandoned pragmatism in favor of magnetism.

I am not against being pragmatic, because it is pragmatic to make a good pass, not a bad one. If I have the ball, what do I do with it? Could anybody argue that a bad solution like just kicking it away is pragmatic just because, sometimes, it works by accident?

I am pragmatic. That which works, works, and theory can go screw itself. However, my pragmatism also extends to maintainability, which is why I also want it done well.

Extremists on the left tend to be just as critical of pragmatism as extremists on the right.

Progress must not become progressivism, where success is measured only by achieving pragmatic results.

Nature has color-coded groups of individuals so that statistically reliable predictions of their adaptability to intellectual rewarding and effective lives can easily be made and profitably used by the pragmatic man-in-the street.

Pragmatism ... reflects with almost disarming candor the spirit of the prevailing business culture, the very same attitude of 'being practical' as counter to which philosophical meditation as such was conceived.

Architecture falls between art and airports.

It's pragmatic-it helps you get from point A to point B. But it also works as art. It makes you think twice. It inspires you. It brings you back to yourself.

The most vital issue of the age is whether the future progress of humanity is to be governed by the modern economic and materialistic mind of the West or by a nobler pragmatism guided, uplifted and enlightened by spiritual culture and knowledge.

[Pragmatism's] only test of probable truth is what works best in the way of leading us, what fits every part of life best and combines with the collectivity of experience's demands, nothing being omitted.