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Who really said it

Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilisation of knowledge

Written by Alfred North Whitehead 1861–1947 · British mathematician and philosopher
Verified Free to reuse

Alfred North Whitehead wrote these words in the opening essay in The Aims of Education (1929). The primary transcription and the sourced Wikiquote entry agree on the wording.

Last verified 9 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilisation of knowledge” — Alfred North Whitehead

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Provenance

The source

Work
The Aims of Education
Publication
1929
Location
the opening essay in The Aims of Education (1929)

Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilisation of knowledge.

Literal words in the fetched source; line breaks have been joined.

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How we verified this

Public domain

This exact original English wording is documented in the pre-1931 work identified above. It is public domain in the United States; this assessment concerns the historical text, not a website’s additional editorial material.

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Context

Why it mattered

The opening essay argues for applying ideas rather than accumulating inert information.

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Documented sourcewww.educationevolving.org

Primary text or film-dialogue documentation supporting the quoted wording and identified work.
Specialist sourced collectionen.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotation entry identifying the author and the containing work.

The author

About Alfred North Whitehead

Alfred North Whitehead

1861–1947 · British mathematician and philosopher

British mathematician and philosopher who wrote on mathematical reasoning, nature and the purposes of education.

For writers & researchers

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The primary source (Chicago)

Alfred North Whitehead. The Aims of Education. 1929. Opening essay.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilisation of knowledge’?” Last verified 9 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/education-is-the-acquisition-of-the-art-of-the-utilisation/

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