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George Santayana

55 quotes

George Santayana (1863–1952) was a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist known for his elegant prose and incisive cultural commentary. His famous warning — "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" — is one of the most quoted lines in the English language.

“It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss volatile spirits prefer unhappiness.”

— George Santayana

Marriage

All Quotes by George Santayana

“It is possible to be a master in false philosophy, easier, in fact, than to be a master in the truth, because a false philosophy can be made as simple and consistent as one pleases.”

— George Santayana

Truth

“Friendship is almost always the union of a part of one mind with the part of another people are friends in spots.”

— George Santayana

Friendship

“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.”

— George Santayana

Death

“The passions grafted on wounded pride are the most inveterate they are green and vigorous in old age.”

— George Santayana

Age

“The love of all-inclusiveness is as dangerous in philosophy as in art.”

— George Santayana

Art

“Knowledge is recognition of something absent it is a salutation, not an embrace.”

— George Santayana

Knowledge

“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.”

— George Santayana

Nature

“The hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy.”

— George Santayana

Wisdom

“That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject.”

— George Santayana

Fear

“The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it.”

— George Santayana

Truth

“Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.”

— George Santayana

Intelligence

“For a man who has done his natural duty, death is as natural as sleep.”

— George Santayana

Death

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

— George Santayana

Music

“Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character.”

— George Santayana

Happiness

“Each religion, by the help of more or less myth, which it takes more or less seriously, proposes some method of fortifying the human soul and enabling it to make its peace with its destiny.”

— George Santayana

Peace

“An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.”

— George Santayana

Art

“The word experience is like a shrapnel shell, and bursts into a thousand meanings.”

— George Santayana

Experience

“Religion in its humility restores man to his only dignity, the courage to live by grace.”

— George Santayana

Courage

“Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors.”

— George Santayana

Design

“The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas.”

— George Santayana

Education