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George Santayana

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

“Dissatisfaction with the actual is what usually leads people to frame ideals at all, or at least to hold them fast; but such a negative motive leaves the ideal vague and without consistency. If we could suddenly have our will, we should very likely find the result trivial or horrible.”

Ideals Disappointment Will

Book:Egotism In German Philosophy

Source: Egotism In German Philosophy

“In the Gospels, for instance, we sometimes find the kingdom of heaven illustrated by principles drawn from observation of this world rather than from an ideal conception of justice; ... They remind us that the God we are seeking is present and active, that he is the living God; they are doubtless necessary if we are to keep religion from passing into a mere idealism and God into the vanishing point of our thought and endeavour.”

“Music is essentially useless, as life is; but both have an ideal extension which lends utility to its conditions.”

Life Is Music Conditions Music Is Ideals Useless Extensions Utility

Author:George Santayana

“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

“Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.”

Nature Existence Fate Summer Ideals Garden Essence Comic Tragic June Lyrical

Book:Animal Faith and Spiritual Life

Source: Animal Faith and Spiritual Life

“To feel beauty is a better thing than to understand how we come to feel it. To have imagination and taste, to love the best, to be carried by the contemplation of nature to a vivid faith in the ideal, all this is more, a great deal more, than any science can hope to be.”

Feels Imagination Deals Taste Ideals Contemplation Vivid

Book:The Sense of Beauty

Source: The Sense of Beauty

“The mass of mankind is divided into two classes, the Sancho Panza's who have a sense for reality, but no ideals, and the Don Quixote's with a sense for ideals, but mad.”

Two Reality Class Mankind Mass Ideals Mad Divided Humankind Mad Men

Book:The Works of George Santayana

Source: The Works of George Santayana

“You and I possess manifold ideal bonds in the interests we share; but each of us has his poor body and his irremediable, incommunicable dreams.”

Dream Body Interest Poor Share Ideals Optimism Pessimism Manifold

Book:The Life of Reason: Human Understanding

Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding

“The vital straining towards an ideal, definite but latent, when it dominates a whole life, may express that ideal more fully than could the best chosen words.”

May Whole Progress Evolution Ideals Whole Life Chosen Definite Latent

Book:Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe

Source: Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe

“Ideal society is a drama enacted exclusively in the imagination.”

Ideas Imagination Drama Ideals Ideal Society

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

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

“In endowing us with memory, nature has revealed to us a truth utterly unimaginable to the unreflective creation, the truth of immortality....The most ideal human passion is love, which is also the most absolute and animal and one of the most ephemeral.”

Love Humans Passion Memories Animal Creation Ideals Absolutes Immortality Ephemeral Unimaginable

Author:George Santayana

“There is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal, as if it were not a benefit and a joy to a man, being what he is, to know that many are, have been, and will be better than he.”

Ifs Knows Men Has Beens Joy Greater Benefits Ideals Stupidity Meanness Uniformity

Book:The Life of Reason: Human Understanding

Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding

“Love is a brilliant illustration of a principle everywhere discoverable: namely, that human reason lives by turning the friction of material forces into the light of ideal goods.”

Love Humans Reason Light Force Love Is Principles Materials Ideals Brilliant Live By Goods Illustration Friction Human Reason

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

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

“An ideal cannot wait for its realization to prove its validity.”

Waiting Prove Ideals Realization Prove It Validity

Book:Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana

Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana

“There is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal.”

Greater Ideals Stupidity Meanness Uniformity

Book:The Life of Reason: Human Understanding

Source: The Life of Reason: Human Understanding

About the Author

Born: December 16, 1863
Died: September 26, 1952
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 493

Related Topics

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Popular Topics

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Books & Sources

The Life of Reason: Human UnderstandingRelated source material

Little essays drawn from the writings of George SantayanaRelated source material

The Essential Santayana: Selected WritingsRelated source material

The Works of George SantayanaRelated source material

The Sense of BeautyRelated source material

Character and Opinion in the United StatesRelated source material

The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Society, Volume VII, Book TwoRelated source material

The Life of Reason: Introduction and Reason in Common SenseRelated source material

The letters of George SantayanaRelated source material

The Life of Reason Or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Art, Volume VII, Book FourRelated source material

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