George Santayana Quotes - Page 3

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• Society is like the air, necessary to breathe but insufficient to live on.

  George Santayana

  Clouds, Air, Wind

  George Santayana, Marianne S. Wokeck, Martin A. Coleman, James Gouinlock (2013). “The The Life of Reason Or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Society, Volume VII, Book Two”, p.115, MIT Press

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• Man is a gregarious animal, and much more so in his mind than in his body. He may like to go alone for a walk, but he hates to stand alone in his opinions.

  George Santayana

  Hate, Animal, Men

  George Santayana (1937). “The Works of George Santayana: Soliloquies in England and Later soliloquies”

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• Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.

  George Santayana

  Order, Names, Confusion

  George Santayana (1995). “Dominations and Powers: Reflections on Liberty, Society, and Government”, p.33, Transaction Publishers

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• Beauty is a pledge of the possible conformity between the soul and nature, and consequently a ground of faith in the supremacy of the good.

  George Santayana

  Nature, Soul, Conformity

  George Santayana (2004). “The Sense of Beauty”, p.270, Cosimo, Inc.

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• To feel beauty is a better thing than to understand how we come to feel it. To have imagination and taste, to love the best, to be carried by the contemplation of nature to a vivid faith in the ideal, all this is more, a great deal more, than any science can hope to be.

  George Santayana

  Imagination, Vivid, Taste

  George Santayana (2004). “The Sense of Beauty”, p.11, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Each religion necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself. Religions, like languages, are necessary rivals. What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.

  George Santayana

  Men, Historical, Rivals

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• The loftiest edifices need the deepest foundations.

  George Santayana

  Commitment, Foundation, Needs

  George Santayana, Marianne S. Wokeck, Martin A. Coleman, James Gouinlock (2013). “The The Life of Reason Or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Society, Volume VII, Book Two”, p.20, MIT Press

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• Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect...

  George Santayana

  Skepticism, Intellect, Chastity

  "Scepticism and Animal Faith". Book by George Santayana, 1923.

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• History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten. ...What is interesting is brought forward as if it had been central and efficacious in the march of events, and harmonies are turned into causes. Kings and generals are endowed with motives appropriate to what the historian values in their actions; plans are imputed to them prophetic of their actual achievements, while the thoughts that really preoccupied them remain buried in absolute oblivion.

  George Santayana

  Kings, History, Interesting

  George Santayana (2015). “The Life of Reason: Human Understanding”, p.378, 谷月社

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• love make us poets, and the approach of death should make us philosophers.

  George Santayana

  Love, Death, Philosopher

  George Santayana (2012). “The Sense of Beauty”, p.146, Courier Corporation

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• Work and love these are the basics; waking life is a dream controlled.

  George Santayana

  Dream, And Love, Waking Life

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• The best men in all ages keep classic traditions alive

  George Santayana

  Men, Age, Alive

  George Santayana, Martin A. Coleman (2009). “The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings”, p.326, Indiana University Press

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• Man's most serious activity is play.

  George Santayana

  Men, Playing Games, Serious

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• The mediocrity of everything in the great world of today is simply appalling. We live in intellectual slums.

  George Santayana

  Intellectual, Mediocrity, World

  George Santayana, William G. Holzberger (2003). “The Works of George Santayana: The letters of George Santayana. 1933-1936. Vol. 5. Book 5”, p.148, MIT Press

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• It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.

  George Santayana

  Stupid, Ideas, Brain

  George Santayana (2015). “The Life of Reason: Human Understanding”, p.392, 谷月社

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• Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.

  George Santayana

  Fashion, Political, Innovation

  1905-6 The Life of Reason,'Reason in Religion'.

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• When men and women agree, it is only in their conclusions; their reasons are always different.

  George Santayana

  Women, Different, Reason

  George Santayana (2015). “The Life of Reason: Human Understanding”, p.87, 谷月社

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• The Bible is a wonderful source of inspiration for those who don't understand it.

  George Santayana

  Religious, Atheist, Inspiration

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• Those who speak most of progress measure it by quantity and not by quality.

  George Santayana

  Progress, Quality, Speak

  George Santayana (2014). “Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion”, p.7, The Floating Press

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• Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character.

  George Santayana

  Happiness, Work, Character

  George Santayana, Marianne S. Wokeck, Martin A. Coleman, James Gouinlock (2011). “The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense, Volume VII, Book One”, p.135, MIT Press

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• The mass of mankind is divided into two classes, the Sancho Panza's who have a sense for reality, but no ideals, and the Don Quixote's with a sense for ideals, but mad.

  George Santayana

  Reality, Class, Two

  George Santayana (1936). “The Works of George Santayana”

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• Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.

  George Santayana

  Summer, Nature, Fate

  George Santayana (1967). “Animal Faith and Spiritual Life”, Irvington Pub

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• Happiness is impossible, and even inconceivable, to a mind without scope and without pause, a mind driven by craving, pleasure, or fear. To be happy, you must be reasonable, or you must be tamed. You must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world and what things in it can really serve you. To be happy, you must be wise.

  George Santayana

  Wise, Taken, Passion

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• The family is one of nature's masterpieces.

  George Santayana

  Inspirational, Family, Brother

  George Santayana, Marianne S. Wokeck, Martin A. Coleman, James Gouinlock (2013). “The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Society, Volume VII, Book Two”, p.23, MIT Press

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• Our dignity is not in what we do, but what we understand.

  George Santayana

  Wisdom, Understanding, Dignity

  George Santayana, Martin A. Coleman (2009). “The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings”, p.532, Indiana University Press

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