“One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.”
Source: Atoms of Thought: An Anthology of Thoughts
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Famous George Santayana Quotes
“A man's feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.”
“It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness.”
“For a man who has done his natural duty, death is as natural as sleep.”
Source: The Middle Span
“Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.”
Source: Dominations and Powers: Reflections on Liberty, Society, and Government
“America is a young country with an old mentality.”
Source: The Genteel Tradition: Nine Essays
“The dreamer can know no truth, not even about his dream, except by awaking out of it.”
Source: The Works of George Santayana
“When men and women agree, it is only in their conclusions; their reasons are always different.”
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
“The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas.”
Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana
“The Soul is the voice of the body's interests.”
Source: The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense, Volume VII, Book One
Source: The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Society, Volume VII, Book Two
“Nonsense is so good only because common sense is so limited.”
Source: The Sense of Beauty
“Sanity is madness put to good use.”
Source: The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings
“The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it.”
“To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by geography.”
Source: The letters of George Santayana
“Fun is a good thing but only when it spoils nothing better.”
Source: The Sense of Beauty
“Periods of tranquillity are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up.”
“The Bible is a wonderful source of inspiration for those who don't understand it.”
“The wisest mind has something yet to learn.”
Source: The Works of George Santayana
“Intolerance is a form of egotism, and to condemn egotism intolerantly is to share it.”
Source: The Letters of George Santayana, Book Eight, 1948-1952
“The Bible is literature, not dogma.”
Source: Spinoza's Ethics and
“The spirit's foe in man has not been simplicity, but sophistication.”
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
“To be brief is almost a condition of being inspired.”
Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana
“For gold is tried in the fire and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity.”
“Prayer, among sane people, has never superseded practical efforts to secure the desired end.”
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
“The highest form of vanity is love of fame.”
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
Source: The Works of George Santayana
“The primary use of conversation is to satisfy the impulse to talk.”
Source: The Works of George Santayana
Source: The letters of George Santayana
Source: The Works of George Santayana
“Before you contradict an old man, my fair friend, you should endeavour to understand him.”
“Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.”
Source: The Works of George Santayana
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
“Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character.”
Source: The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense, Volume VII, Book One
“Emotion is primarily about nothing and much of it remains about nothing to the end.”
Source: The Life of Reason Or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Art, Volume VII, Book Four
Source: Character and Opinion in the United States