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
A musical education is necessary for musical judgement. What most people relish is hardly music; it is rather a drowsy reverie relieved by nervous thrills.
People are usually more firmly convinced that their opinions are precious than that they are true.
Culture is on the horns of this dilemma: if profound and noble it must remain rare, if common it must become mean.
The quality of wit inspires more admiration than confidence
It is war that wastes a nations wealth, chokes its industries, kills its flower, narrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adventurers, and leaves the puny, deformed, and unmanly to breed the next generation.
It is war that wastes a nations wealth, chokes its industries, kills its flower, narrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adventurers, and leaves the puny, deformed, and unmanly to breed the next generation.
Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.
The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again
Popular poets are the parish priests of the Muse, retailing her ancient divinations to a long since converted public.
Historical investigation has for its aim to fix the order and character of events throughout past time and in all places. The task is frankly superhuman.
Music contains a whole gamut of experience, from sensuous elements to ultimate intellectual harmonies.