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George Santayana Quotes

Philosopher

George Santayana was an American philosopher, essayist, and critic renowned for his unique philosophical thoughts and profound insights into culture, art, and science. His philosophy emphasizes individualism, naturalism, and pragmatism, and his works have had a profound impact on 20th-century philosophy and culture.

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Famous George Santayana Quotes

“In this world we must either institute conventional forms of expression or else pretend that we have nothing to express; the choice lies between a mask and a figleaf.”

World Form Lying Choices This World Expression Manners Mask Conventional Institute

Book:The Works of George Santayana: Soliloquies in England and Later soliloquies

Source: The Works of George Santayana: Soliloquies in England and Later soliloquies

“The truth properly means the sum of all true propositions, what omniscience would assert, the whole ideal system of qualities andrelations which the world has exemplified or will exemplify. The truth is all things seen under the form of eternity.”

World Mean Whole Truth Form Quality Truth Is Ideals All Things Eternity Propositions Omniscience

Book:Character and Opinion in the United States

Source: Character and Opinion in the United States

“The only kind of reform usually possible is reform from within; a more intimate study and more intelligent use of the traditional forms.”

Kind Use Form Study Intelligent Traditional Reform Intimate

Book:The Sense of Beauty

Source: The Sense of Beauty

“Intolerance is a form of egotism, and to condemn egotism intolerantly is to share it.”

Form Share Intolerance Egotism

Author:George Santayana

“The highest form of vanity is love of fame.”

Form Fame Highest Reputation Vanity

Book:The Life of Reason: Human Understanding

Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding

“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.”

Mean Two Form Sides Successful Reform Reformation Two Sides

Book:Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion

Source: Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion

“Music is a means of giving form to our inner feelings, without attaching them to events or objects in the world.”

World Giving Mean Feelings Form Music Events Objects Music Is Singing Inner Feelings

Book:Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana

Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana

“Repetition is the only form of permanence that Nature can achieve.”

Form Science Time Nature Natural Achieve Wit Repetition Permanence

Book:The Works of George Santayana

Source: The Works of George Santayana

“If a man really knew himself he would utterly despise the ignorant notions others might form on a subject in which he had such matchless opportunities for observation.”

Ifs Men Might Form Hate Opportunity Subjects Notion Ignorant Observation Despise

Book:The The Life of Reason Or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Society, Volume VII, Book Two

Source: The The Life of Reason Or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Society, Volume VII, Book Two

“Rejection is a form of self-assertion. You have only to look back upon yourself as a person who hates this or that to discover what it is that you secretly love.”

Looks Persons Self Form Hate Rejection Despise Assertion Love Hate

Book:The Works of George Santayana

Source: The Works of George Santayana

“Society itself is an accident to the spirit, and if society in any of its forms is to be justified morally it must be justified at the bar of the individual conscience.”

Ifs Form Spirit Individual Justice Conscience Accidents Bars Justified

Book:The Works of George Santayana: Dialogues in limbo. Platonism and the spiritual life. A long way round to Nirvana. The prestige of the infinite. Ultimate religion

Source: The Works of George Santayana: Dialogues in limbo. Platonism and the spiritual life. A long way round to Nirvana. The prestige of the infinite. Ultimate religion

“To understand oneself is the classic form of consolation; to elude oneself is the romantic.”

Form Oneself Psychological Classic Consolation Elude

Book:The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings

Source: The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings

“The theatre, for all its artifices, depicts life in a sense more truly than history, because the medium has a kindred movement to that of real life, though an artificial setting and form.”

Real Form History Movement Theater Theatre Real Life Setting Mediums Settings Artificial Kindred Artifice

Book:The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings

Source: The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings

“When a man's life is over, it remains true that he was one sort of man and not another. A man who understands himself under the form of eternity knows the quality that eternally belongs to him, and knows that he cannot wholly die, even if he would, for when the movement of his life is over, the truth of his life remains.”

Ifs Knows Men Form Life Is Dies Quality Movement Eternity Remains Over It Eulogy

Book:Spinoza's Ethics and

Source: Spinoza's Ethics and