George Santayana
George Santayana
Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana, was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Originally from Spain, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States from the age of eight and identified himself as an American, although he always kept a valid Spanish passport. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters. At the age of forty-eight, Santayana left his position at Harvard and returned to Europe...
NationalitySpanish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth16 December 1863
CityMadrid, Spain
CountrySpain
Religion in its humility restores man to his only dignity, the courage to live by grace.
My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.
There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar: it keeps the mind nimble, it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor.
If artists and poets are unhappy, it is after all because happiness does not interest them.
Depression is rage spread thin.
Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.
Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.
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.
Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated.
Prayer is not a substitute for work; it is an effort to work further and be efficient beyond the range of one's powers.
The human mind is not rich enough to drive many horses abreast and wants one general scheme, under which it strives to bring everything.
The whole machinery of our intelligence, our general ideas and laws, fixed and external objects, principles, persons, and gods, are so many symbolic, algebraic expressions. They stand for experience; experience which we are incapable of retaining and surveying in its multitudinous immediacy. We should flounder hopelessly, like the animals, did we not keep ourselves afloat and direct our course by these intellectual devices. Theory helps us to bear our ignorance of fact.
Our occasional madness is less wonderful than our occasional sanity.
Society is like the air, necessary to breathe but insufficient to live on.