It is amusing to discover, in the twentieth century, that the quarrels between two lovers, two mathematicians, two nations, two economic systems, usually assumed insoluble in a finite period should exhibit one mechanism, the semantic mechanism of identification -- the discovery of which makes universal agreement possible, in mathematics and in life.
More Quotes from Alfred Korzybski:
a few philosophers really do important work. This applies to the so called critical philosophy and to the theory of knowledge or epistemology. This class of workers I call epistemologists to avoid the disagreeable implications of the term philosopher.Alfred Korzybski
Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.
Alfred Korzybski
In the rough, a symbol is a sign that stands for something Before a noise, etc., may become a symbol, something must exist for the symbol to symbolize.
Alfred Korzybski
Whatever you say it is, it isn't.
Alfred Korzybski
Thus, we see that one of the obvious origins of human disagreement lies in the use of noises for words.
Alfred Korzybski
If the structure is not similar, then the traveller or speaker is led astray, which, in serious human life-problems, must become always eminently harmful.
Alfred Korzybski
Readers Who Like This Quotation Also Like:
Based on Topics: Discovery & Invention Quotes, Life Quotes, Mathematics QuotesBased on Keywords: insoluble, semantic
Also minimalism is a term that all of us who share so little in common and who are lumped together as minimalists are not terribly happy with.
Ann Beattie
The size of your accomplishments, the quality of your achievement, will depend very largely on how big a man you see in yourself, what sort of image you get of your possible self, yourself at your best.
Orison Swett Marden
Nuclear weapons offer us nothing but a balance of terror, and a balance of terror is still terror.
George Wald