Pragmatism Quotes

• 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.

  Bono

  Dream, Strong, Real

  "My wish: Three actions for Africa". TED Talk, www.ted.com. February 2005.

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• 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.

  Simon Sinek

  Innovation, Done, Imagine

  Twitter post from Aug 08, 2011

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• Idealism without pragmatism is impotent. Pragmatism without idealism is meaningless. The key to effective leadership is pragmatic idealism.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Keys, Idealism, Effective Leadership

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

  Walter Isaacson

  Passion, Perfect, Precedence

  Walter Isaacson (2011). “Walter Isaacson Great Innovators e-book boxed set: Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, Einstein”, p.130, Simon and Schuster

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• 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?

  William James

  Truth, Ideas, Differences

  William James (2012). “Pragmatism”, p.77, Courier Corporation

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• Pragmatism is an intellectually safe but ultimately sterile philosophy.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Philosophy, Safe

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• 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.

  Linus Torvalds

  Done, Want, Theory

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• Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods

  Margaret Chase Smith

  Mean, Greatness, Ends

  Margaret Chase Smith (1972). “Declaration of Conscience”

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• There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.

  James Russell Lowell

  Philosophical, Destiny, Grieving

  'Democracy and other Addresses' (1887) 'Democracy'

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• [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.

  William James

  Truth, Demand, Tests

  William James (1981). “Pragmatism”, p.38, Hackett Publishing

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

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Definitions, Bottom, Maxims

  Letter to William James, January 08, 1909.

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• Idealism loses to pragmatism when it comes to winning elections.

  Danny Strong

  Winning, Election, Idealism And Realism

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• I do believe in God, but I think it's very healthy for a believer to spend time in the pragmatism of agnosticism, and I think God appreciates agnostics trying to make a science of it and going, "I will not believe any further than that." I enjoy that kind of engineering mind. In no way did it ever feel blasphemous to me as a man of faith.

  Matthew McConaughey

  Believe, Men, Thinking

  "Q&A: True Detective's Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, the Laurel and Hardy of Existential Despair". Interview with John Lopez, grantland.com. January 8, 2014.

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

  Richard M. Nixon

  Critical, Extremist, Left

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• It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them.

  Cesare Beccaria

  Crime

  Cesare Beccaria (2016). “On Crimes and Punishments”, p.107, Transaction Publishers

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• 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.

  Richard Rorty

  Plato, Philosophical, Giving

  Interview with Gideon Lewis-Kraus, believermag.com. June 1, 2003.

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• It is often argued that religion is valuable because it makes men good, but even if this were true it would not be a proof that religion is true. That would be an extension of pragmatism beyond endurance. Santa Claus makes children good in precisely the same way, and yet no one would argue seriously that the fact proves his existence. The defense of religion is full of such logical imbecilities.

  H. L. Mencken

  Children, Men, Political

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.371, Knopf

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• Modern definitions of truth, such as those as pragmatism and instrumentalism, which are practical rather than contemplative, are inspired by industrialisation as opposed to aristocracy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Political, Aristocracy, Definitions

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• If theological ideas prove to have a value for concrete life, they will be true, for pragmatism, in the sense of being good for so much. How much more they are true, will depend entirely on their relations to the other truths that also have to be acknowledged.

  William James

  Ideas, Relation, Being True

  William James (2012). “Pragmatism”, p.29, Courier Corporation

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• Pragmatism is the disguise progressive and other ideologues do when they want to demonize competing ideologies.

  Jonah Goldberg

  Want, Progressive, Ideologues

  Jonah Goldberg (2012). “The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas”, p.24, Penguin

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• Pragmatism , in trying to turn experimental physics into a prototype of all science and to model all spheres of intellectual life after the techniques of the laboratory, is the counterpart of modern industrialism, for which the factory is the prototype of human existence, and which models all branches of culture after production on the conveyor belt.

  Max Horkheimer

  Intellectual, Trying, Culture

  Max Horkheimer (2004). “EPZ Eclipse of Reason”, p.35, A&C Black

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• ..She had that brand of pragmatism that would find her the first brewing tea after Armageddon.

  Clive Barker

  Tea, Firsts, Armageddon

  Clive Barker (2015). “Weaveworld”, p.560, Crossroad Press

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• The results of political changes are hardly ever those which their friends hope or their foes fear.

  Thomas Huxley

  Political, Liberty, Politics

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.425, Cambridge University Press

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• Western science is approaching a paradigm shift of unprecedented proportions, one that will change our concepts of reality and of human nature, bridge the gap between ancient wisdom and modern science, and reconcile the differences between Eastern spirituality and Western pragmatism.

  Stanislav Grof

  Reality, Bridges, Differences

  Stanislav Grof (1985). “Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy”, p.16, SUNY Press

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• The Citizen's Petition reflects Vermont's spirit of pragmatism and across-the-board cooperation. I applaud the 'Campaign to Fix the Debt' for calling attention to one of the country's most pressing problems, our ballooning national debt, and for urging policymakers to find practical solutions.

  Peter Welch

  Country, Calling, Debt

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