Eloquence is a republican art, as conversation is an aristocratic one. George Santayana More Quotes by George Santayana More Quotes From George Santayana Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness. George Santayana educationsuccesshappiness An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world. George Santayana designdreamart To be an American is of itself almost a moral condition, an education, and a career. George Santayana moralcareerseducation Perhaps the universe is nothing but an equilibrium of idiocies. George Santayana equilibriumidiocyuniverse Skepticism is a discipline fit to purify the mind of prejudice and render it all the more apt, when the time comes, to believe and to act wisely. George Santayana disciplinemindbelieve Whoever it was who searched the heavens with a telescope and found no God would not have found the human mind if he had searched the brain with a microscope. George Santayana spacegodheaven If artists and poets are unhappy, it is after all because happiness does not interest them. George Santayana artistunhappydoe There are books in which the footnotes, or the comments scrawled by some reader's hand in the margin, are more interesting than the text. The world is one of those books. George Santayana bookhandsinteresting Our dignity is not in what we do, but what we understand. George Santayana dignityunderstandingwisdom Beauty is a pledge of the possible conformity between the soul and nature, and consequently a ground of faith in the supremacy of the good. George Santayana conformitynaturesoul There must ... be in our very nature a very radical and widespread tendency to observe beauty, and to value it. No account of the principles of the mind can be at all adequate that passes over so conspicuous a faculty. George Santayana adequateprinciplesmind Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are. George Santayana aweintelligencevision Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine George Santayana lightfaithknowledge love make us poets, and the approach of death should make us philosophers. George Santayana philosopherlovedeath My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests. George Santayana insightfulatheistmen Truth is a jewel which should not be painted over; but it may be set to advantage and shown in a good light. George Santayana lightjewelsmay The working of great institutions is mainly the result of a vast mass of routine, petty malice, self interest, carelessness and sheer mistake. Only a residual fraction is thought. George Santayana cynicalselfmistake We should have to abandon our vested illusions, our irrational religions and patriotisms. George Santayana irrationalillusionshould-have The tendency to gather and to breed philosophers in universities does not belong to ages of free and humane reflection: it is scholastic and proper to the Middle Ages and to Germany. George Santayana reflectionagedoe For a man who has done his natural duty, death is as natural as sleep. George Santayana hairsleepmen
