Source: Atoms of Thought: An Anthology of Thoughts
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Famous George Santayana Quotes
“I believe in general in a dualism between facts and the ideas of those facts in human heads.”
Source: The letters of George Santayana
“If pain could have cured us we should long ago have been saved.”
Source: The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense, Volume VII, Book One
“Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.”
Source: Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe
“Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself.”
Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana
“Philosophers are very severe towards other philosophers because they expect too much.”
Source: Character and Opinion in the United States
“Society is like the air, necessary to breathe but insufficient to live on.”
Source: The The Life of Reason Or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Society, Volume VII, Book Two
“The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.”
Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana
“The diseases which destroy a man are no less natural than the instincts which preserve him.”
Source: The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings
“The existence of any evil anywhere at any time absolutely ruins a total optimism.”
Source: The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings
“The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the older man who will not laugh is a fool.”
“Theory helps us to bear our ignorance of facts.”
Source: The Sense of Beauty
Source: Atoms of Thought: An Anthology of Thoughts
Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana
Source: The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Society, Volume VII, Book Two
Source: Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion
“Tyrants are seldom free; the cares and the instruments of their tyranny enslave them.”
Source: Dominations and Powers: Reflections on Liberty, Society, and Government
“A soul is but the last bubble of a long fermentation in the world.”
Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana
Source: The Works of George Santayana: The sense of beauty. Poems. Lucifer. Overheard in Seville
Source: The Life of Reason: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense
“It is always pleasant to be urged to do something on the ground that one can do it well.”
Source: The Works of George Santayana: The letters of George Santayana. 1921-1927. Vol. 5. Book 3
“It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.”
Source: The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana
“Nothing so much enhances a good as to make sacrifices for it.”
Source: The Sense of Beauty
“Oxford, the paradise of dead philosophies.”
Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
Source: The Life of Reason Or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Art, Volume VII, Book Four
“The hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy.”
Source: The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress
“The more rational an institution is the less it suffers by making concessions to others.”
Source: The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings
Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana
“The word experience is like a shrapnel shell, and bursts into a thousand meanings.”
Source: Character and Opinion in the United States
“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.”
“Wealth, religion, military victory have more rhetorical than efficacious worth.”
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
Source: The Life of Reason: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense
Source: Character and Opinion in the United States
Source: Santayana on America: Essays, Notes, and Letters on American Life, Literature, and Philosophy
Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
Source: The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings
Source: Persons and Places: My host the world
Source: Character and Opinion in the United States
Source: The Philosophy of Santayana
Source: The letters of George Santayana
Source: The Works of George Santayana