Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness. George Santayana More Quotes by George Santayana More Quotes From George Santayana The sophisticated concern about art sinks before a spontaneous love of reality, and I thank the photograph for being so transparent a vehicle for things. George Santayana spontaneousrealityart A grateful environment is a substitute for happiness. It can quicken us from without as a fixed hope and affection, or as the consciousness of a right life, can quicken us from within. George Santayana gratefulnaturehappiness America is the greatest of opportunities and the worst of influences. George Santayana influenceopportunityamerica There is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal, as if it were not a benefit and a joy to a man, being what he is, to know that many are, have been, and will be better than he. George Santayana stupidityjoymen In endowing us with memory, nature has revealed to us a truth utterly unimaginable to the unreflective creation, the truth of immortality....The most ideal human passion is love, which is also the most absolute and animal and one of the most ephemeral. George Santayana passionlovememories 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. George Santayana realsuccessfulmen The soul, too has her virginity and must bleed a little before bearing fruit. George Santayana fruitsoullittles The love of all-inclusiveness is as dangerous in philosophy as in art. George Santayana dangerousphilosophyart 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 inspirationalpeacelife 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. George Santayana beautifulmenmean Unmitigated seriousness is always out of place in human affairs. George Santayana seriousnessaffairhumans The quality of wit inspires more admiration than confidence George Santayana confidencequalityinspire People who feel themselves to be exiles in this world are mightily inclined to believe themselves citizens of another. George Santayana believepeopleworld We crave support in vanity, as we do in religion, and never forgive contradictions in that sphere. George Santayana vanityforgivingsupport Life is judged with all the blindness of life itself. George Santayana blindnessatheismlife-is Philosophy is a more intense sort of experience than common life is, just as pure and subtle music, heard in retirement, is something keener and more intense than the howling of storms or the rumble of cities. George Santayana citiesretirementphilosophy Sometimes we have to change the truth in order to remember it. George Santayana remembersometimesorder It is pathetic to observe how lowly the motives are that religion, even the highest, attributes to the deity... To be given the best morsel, to be remembered, to be praised, to be obeyed blindly and punctiliously - these have been thought points of honor with the gods. George Santayana deitiesatheismhonor There is no dunce like a mature dunce. George Santayana duncesstupiditymature Knowledge is not eating, and we cannot expect to devour and possess what we mean. Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace. George Santayana recognitionnastymean
