George Santayana quotes - page 6

In Greece wise men speak and fools decide. (George Santayana)
To be brief is almost a condition of being inspired. View quote
George Santayana
It is a revenge the devil sometimes takes upon the virtuous, that he entraps them by the force of the very passion they have suppressed and think themselves superior to. View quote
George Santayana
To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman. View quote
George Santayana
If pain could have cured us we should long ago have been saved. View quote
George Santayana
Music is a means of giving form to our inner feelings, without attaching them to events or objects in the world. View quote
George Santayana
The brute necessity of believing something so long as life lasts does not justify any belief in particular. View quote
George Santayana
Each religion, by the help of more or less myth, which it takes more or less seriously, proposes some method of fortifying the human soul and enabling it to make its peace with its destiny. View quote
George Santayana
Nothing is so poor and melancholy as art that is interested in itself and not in its subject. View quote
George Santayana
Knowledge is not eating, and we cannot expect to devour and possess what we mean. Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace. View quote
George Santayana
By nature's kindly disposition most questions which it is beyond a man's power to answer do not occur to him at all. (George Santayana)
The love of all-inclusiveness is as dangerous in philosophy as in art. View quote
George Santayana
Tyrants are seldom free; the cares and the instruments of their tyranny enslave them. View quote
George Santayana
Philosophers are very severe towards other philosophers because they expect too much. View quote
George Santayana
The diseases which destroy a man are no less natural than the instincts which preserve him. View quote
George Santayana
The existence of any evil anywhere at any time absolutely ruins a total optimism. View quote
George Santayana
Emotion is primarily about nothing and much of it remains about nothing to the end. View quote
George Santayana
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. View quote
George Santayana
Nothing can so pierce the soul as the uttermost sigh of the body. View quote
George Santayana
Fun is a good thing but only when it spoils nothing better. View quote
George Santayana
The primary use of conversation is to satisfy the impulse to talk. (George Santayana)
The mind of the Renaissance was not a pilgrim mind, but a sedentary city mind, like that of the ancients. View quote
George Santayana
The hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy. View quote
George Santayana
The more rational an institution is the less it suffers by making concessions to others. View quote
George Santayana
Parents lend children their experience and a vicarious memory; children endow their parents with a vicarious immortality. View quote
George Santayana