Quotes By George Santayana

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.

There is a kind of courtesy in skepticism. It would be an offense against polite conventions to press our doubts too far.

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Oaths are the fossils of piety.

Bid, then, the tender light of faith to shine By which alone the mortal heart is led Unto the thinking of the thought divine.

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

All thought is naught but a footnote to Plato.

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

The more rational an institution is the less it suffers by making concessions to others.

It is always pleasant to be urged to do something on the ground that one can do it well.

Music is essentially useless, as is life.

The primary use of conversation is to satisfy the impulse to talk.

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

Tyrants are seldom free; the cares and the instruments of their tyranny enslave them.

The wisest mind has something yet to learn.

Never build your emotional life on the weaknesses of others.

Nothing so much enhances a good as to make sacrifices for it.

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

To be brief is almost a condition of being inspired.

Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself.

A soul is but the last bubble of a long fermentation in the world.

To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.

Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.

Experience seems to most of us to lead to conclusions, but empiricism has sworn never to draw them.

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

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

By nature's kindly disposition most questions which it is beyond a man's power to answer do not occur to him at all.

Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.

Philosophers are very severe towards other philosophers because they expect too much.

Do not have evil-doers for friends, do not have low people for friends: have virtuous people for friends, have for friends the best of men.