Holism Quotes

• The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

  Aristotle

  Peace, Philosophical, Logical Reasoning

  James McLean Watson, Aristotle (1909). “Aristotle's criticisms of Plato”

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• To go back to architecture, whats organic about architecture as a field, unlike product design, is this whole issue of holism and of monumentality is really our realm. Like, we have to design things which are coherent as a single object, but also break down into small rooms and have an identity of both the big scale and the small scale.

  Greg Lynn

  Small Rooms, Issues, Design

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• I see myself today as Sitting Bull trying to bring a voice of Easternism, holism, community-based thinking to a very Western culture.

  Joel Salatin

  Thinking, Voice, Community

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• A fist is more than the sum of its fingers.

  Margaret Atwood

  Mathematical Logic, Greek, Fists

  Margaret Atwood (2007). “The Blind Assassin: A Novel”, p.401, Anchor

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• The world is more than the sum of its suffering.

  Deepak Chopra

  Spiritual, Mathematical Logic, Greek

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• The intimate rapport with nature is one of the most precious things in life. Nature is indeed very close to us; sometimes closer than hands and feet, of which in truth she is but the extension. The emotional appeal of nature is tremendous, sometimes almost more than one can bear.

  Jan Smuts

  Emotional, Hands, Things In Life

  "Holism and Evolution". Book by Jan Smuts, p. 337, 1926.

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• Having no human companion I felt a spirit of comradeship for the objects of nature around me. In my childish way I communed with these as with my own soul; they became the sharers of my confidence.

  Jan Smuts

  Soul, Way, Spirit

  "Holism and Evolution". Book by Jan Smuts, 1926.

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• A good album should be more than the sum of its parts.

  Ian Rankin

  Albums, Should

  "Exit Music". Book by Ian Rankin, 2007.

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• A painting is more than the sum of its parts

  Wendelin Van Draanen

  Logical Reasoning, Mathematical Logic, Greek

  Wendelin Van Draanen (2008). “Flipped”, p.34, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• Reductionism is a dirty word, and a kind of 'holistier than thou' self-righteousness has become fashionable.

  Richard Dawkins

  Dirty, Self, Kind

  Richard Dawkins (2016). “The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene”, p.172, Oxford University Press

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• Cyborgs are not reverent; they do not re-member the cosmos. They are wary of holism, but needy for connection- they seem to have a natural feel for united front politics, but without the vanguard party. The main trouble with cyborgs, of course, is that they are the illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism, not to mention state socialism. But illegitimate offspring are often exceedingly unfaithful to their origins.

  Donna J. Haraway

  Party, Connections, Cosmos

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• General Systems Theory, a related modern concept [to holism], says that each variable in any system interacts with the other variables so thoroughly that cause and effect cannot be separated. A simple variable can be both cause and effect. Reality will not be still. And it cannot be taken apart! You cannot understand a cell, a rat, a brain structure, a family, a culture if you isolate it from its context. Relationship is everything.

  Marilyn Ferguson

  Taken, Simple, Reality

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• When the study of the household (ecology) and the management of the household (economics) can be merged, and when ethics can be extended to include environmental as well as human values, then we can be optimistic about the future of humankind. Accordingly, bringing together these three ‘E's' is the ultimate holism and the great challenge for our future.

  Eugene Odum

  Optimistic, Challenges, Together

  Eugene Pleasants Odum (1993). “Ecology and our endangered life-support systems”

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