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Quote by George Santayana

“The universe, as far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine.... If we dramatize its life and conceive its spirit, we are filled with wonder, terror and amusement, so magnificent is the spirit.”

Quote by George Santayana

Author

George Santayana

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. more

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“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

“An operation that eventually kills may be technically successful, and the man may die cured; and so a description of religion thatshowed it to be madness might first show how real and warm it was, so that if it perished, at least it would perish understood.”

Ifs Men Firsts May Real Shows Might Religion Dies Successful He Man Understood Madness Warm Operations Description

Book:Character and Opinion in the United States

Source: Character and Opinion in the United States

“Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine That lights the pathway but one step ahead Across a void of mystery and dread.”

Light Faith Steps Knowledge Mystery Void Dread Pathways Torches

Book:The Philosophy of Santayana

Source: The Philosophy of Santayana

“Logic, like language, is partly a free construction and partly a means of symbolizing and harnessing in expression the existing diversities of things; and whilst some languages, given a man's constitution and habits, may seem more beautiful and convenient to him than others, it is a foolish heat in a patriot to insist that only his native language is intelligible or right.”

Men May Mean Seems Beautiful Language Given Expression Habit Diversity Logic Constitution Foolish Heat Native Construction Patriot Convenient Native Language

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

“Truth is one of the realities covered in the eclectic religion of our fathers by the idea of God. Awe very properly hangs about it, since it is the immovable standard and silent witness of all our memories and assertions; and the past and the future, which in our anxious life are so differently interesting and so differently dark, are one seamless garment for the truth, shining like the sun.”

Source: Scepticism and Animal Faith

“Nietzsche said that the earth has been a madhouse long enough. Without contradicting him we might perhaps soften the expression, and say that philosophy has been long enough an asylum for enthusiasts.”

Long Has Beens Said Enough Philosophy Might Earth Expression Philosophical Enthusiasm Asylums Contradicting Madhouses

Book:The Genteel Tradition: Nine Essays

Source: The Genteel Tradition: Nine Essays

“A conceived thing is doubly a product of mind, more a product of mind, if you will, than an idea, since ideas arise, so to speak,by the mind's inertia and conceptions of things by its activity. Ideas are mental sediment; conceived things are mental growths.”

Ifs Mind Ideas Speak Growth Products Activity Arise Conception Inertia

Book: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: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense, Volume VII, Book One

“You cannot prove realism to a complete sceptic or idealist; but you can show an honest man that he is not a complete sceptic or idealist, but a realist at heart. So long as he is alive his sincere philosophy must fulfil the assumptions of his life and not destroy him.”

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Book:Essays in critical realism: a co-operative study of the problem of knowledge

Source: Essays in critical realism: a co-operative study of the problem of knowledge

“What brings enlightenment is experience, in the sad sense of this word--the pressure of hard facts and unintelligible troubles, making a man rub his eyes in his waking dream, and put two and two together. Enlightenment is cold water.”

Men Two Hard Facts Dream Eye Together Water Trouble Cold Enlightenment Experience Pressure His Eyes Waking Cold Water Trouble Making

Book:The Genteel Tradition: Nine Essays

Source: The Genteel Tradition: Nine Essays