Quotes By George Santayana

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.

The existence of any evil anywhere at any time absolutely ruins a total optimism.

All thought is naught but a footnote to Plato.

To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by geography.

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.

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.

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

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.

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

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

Music is essentially useless, as is life.

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.

Nonsense is so good only because common sense is so limited.