"In all the previous cases of wholes, we have nowhere been able to argue from the parts of the whole. Compared to its parts, the whole constituted by them is something quite different, something creatively new, as we have seen. Creative evolution synthesises from the parts a new entity not only different from them, but quite transcending them. That is the essence of a whole. It is always transcendent to its parts, and its character cannot be inferred from the characters of its parts."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Systems scientistsMilitary leaders from South AfricaPrime Ministers of South Africa‎Academics from South AfricaPhilosophers from South Africa
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 342
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jan_Smuts
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Jan Smuts
Jan Christiaan Smuts (24 May 1870 – 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, general, and intellectual. Amongst the offices that he held, he was Prime Minister of South Africa and Field Marshal in the British Army.
58 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Jan Smuts →
Related Quotes
"The groans of the dying and the blanched set faces of the dead ... were enough to drive away all unwholesome feelings…"
"History writes the word 'Reconciliation' over all her quarrels."
"The war was fought throughout and ultimately won, not only by the usual military weapons in the narrower sense, but b…"
"The grand success of the British Empire depends not on its having followed any constitutional precedent of the past b…"
"At the vital moment there seems to be a failure of leadership, and also a failure of the general human spirit among t…"
"I view it as a thoroughly bad peace – impolitic and impracticable in the case of Germany, absolutely ludicrous in the…"
"It was the human spirit itself that failed at Paris. It is no use passing judgments and making scapegoats of this or …"
"If there was to be equal manhood suffrage the whites would be swamped all over South Africa by the blacks and the who…"
"The Mountain is not merely something eternally sublime. It has a great historical and spiritual meaning for us ... Fr…"
"... the Jameson Raid was the real declaration of war."