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
People never believe in volcanoes until the lava actually overtakes them.
In Greece wise men speak and fools decide.
Fear first created the gods.
Periods of tranquillity are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up.
The loftiest edifices need the deepest foundations.
Words are weapons, and it is dangerous . . . to borrow them from the arsenal of the enemy.
Fun is a good thing but only when it spoils nothing better.
Let a man once overcome his selfish terror at his own infinitude, and his infinitude is, in one sense, overcome.
To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by geography.
At best, the true philosopher can fulfil his mission very imperfectly, which is to pilot himself, or at most a few voluntary companions who may find themselves in the same boat.
Manhood and sagacity ripen of themselves; it suffices not to repress or distort them.
The mind of the Renaissance was not a pilgrim mind, but a sedentary city mind, like that of the ancients.
To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.
To reform means to shatter one form and to create another; but the two sides of this act are not always equally intended nor equally successful.