George Santayana quotes - page 3

It is not society's fault that most men seem to miss their vocation. Most men have no vocation. (George Santayana)
Experience has repeatedly confirmed that well-known maxim of Bacon's that 'a little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.' At the same time, when Bacon penned that sage epigram... he forgot to add that the God to whom depth in philosophy brings back men's minds is far from being the same from whom a little philosophy estranges them.
George Santayana
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
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect...
George Santayana
An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.
George Santayana
Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.
George Santayana
Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood.
George Santayana
A man's feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.
George Santayana
The loneliest woman in the world is a woman without a close woman friend.
George Santayana
Eternal vigilance is the price of knowledge.
George Santayana
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer; there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness. (George Santayana)
There is nothing impossible in the existence of the supernatural: its existence seems to me decidedly probable.
George Santayana
The tendency to gather and to breed philosophers in universities does not belong to ages of free and humane reflection: it is scholastic and proper to the Middle Ages and to Germany.
George Santayana
Art like life, should be free, since both are experimental.
George Santayana
Intolerance is a form of egotism, and to condemn egotism intolerantly is to share it.
George Santayana
There is a kind of courtesy in skepticism. It would be an offense against polite conventions to press our doubts too far.
George Santayana
The pint would call the quart a dualist, if you tried to pour the quart into him.
George Santayana
All his life he [the American] jumps into the train after it has started and jumps out before it has stopped; and he never once gets left behind, or breaks a leg.
George Santayana
Before you contradict an old man, my fair friend, you should endeavor to understand him.
George Santayana
Animals are born and bred in litters. Solitude grows blessed and peaceful only in old age.
George Santayana
Profound skepticism is favorable to conventions, because it doubts that the criticism of conventions is any truer than they are. (George Santayana)
I leave you but the sound of many a word In mocking echoes haply overheard, I sang to heaven. My exile made me free, from world to world, from all worlds carried me.
George Santayana
The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.
George Santayana
Injustice in this world is not something comparative; the wrong is deep, clear, and absolute in each private fate.
George Santayana
America is a young country with an old mentality.
George Santayana