Music is essentially useless, as is life. George Santayana More Quotes by George Santayana More Quotes From George Santayana Friendship is almost always the union of a part of one mind with the part of another; people are friends in spots. George Santayana mindfriendshippeople To condemn spontaneous and delightful occupations because they are useless for self-preservation shows an uncritical prizing of life irrespective of its content. George Santayana occupationuselessself There are three traps that strangle philosophy: The church, the marriage bed, and the professor's chair. George Santayana bedchurchphilosophy Incapacity to appreciate certain types of beauty may be the condition sine qua non for the appreciation of another kind; the greatest capacity both for enjoyment and creation is highly specialized and exclusive, and hence the greatest ages of art have often been strangely intolerant. The invectives of one school against another, perverse as they are philosophically, are artistically often signs of health, because they indicate a vital appreciation of certain kinds of beauty, a love of them that has grown into a jealous passion. George Santayana passionappreciationart Man has an inexhuastible faculty for lying, especially to himself. George Santayana wisdommenlying Eloquence is a republican art, as conversation is an aristocratic one. George Santayana republicanconversationart Man is as full of potential as he is of importance. George Santayana importancemen Ideal society is a drama enacted exclusively in the imagination. George Santayana imaginationdramaideas It is not society's fault that most men seem to miss their vocation. Most men have no vocation. George Santayana faultsmissingmen The aim of education is the condition of suspended judgment on everything. George Santayana aimjudgmenteducation In any close society it is more urgent to restrain others than to be free oneself. Hence the tendency for the central authority to absorb and supersede such as are local or delegated. George Santayana tendenciesoneselfauthority Nothing is inherently and invincibly young except spirit. And spirit can enter a human being perhaps better in the quiet of old age and dwell there more undisturbed than in the turmoil of adventure. George Santayana spiritageadventure The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it. George Santayana libertyfreedomtruth Professional philosophers are usually only apologists: that is, they are absorbed in defending some vested illusion or some eloquent idea. Like lawyers or detectives, they study the case for which they are retained. George Santayana detectivesphilosophyideas People never believe in volcanoes until the lava actually overtakes them. George Santayana volcanoesbelievepeople Music is a means of giving form to our inner feelings, without attaching them to events or objects in the world. George Santayana musicgivingmean Never have I enjoyed youth so thoroughly as I have in my old age. In writing Dialogues in Limbo, The Last Puritan, and now all these descriptions of the friends of my youth and the young friends of my middle age, I have drunk the pleasure of life more pure, more joyful than it ever was when mingled with all the hidden anxieties and little annoyances of actual living. Nothing is inherently and invincibly young except spirit. And spirit can enter a human being perhaps better in the quiet of old age and dwell there more undisturbed than in the turmoil of adventure. George Santayana young-friendswritingadventure As widowers proverbially marry again, so a man with the habit of friendship always finds new friends. George Santayana lost-friendshipwidowsmen In the contemplation of beauty we are raised above ourselves, the passions are silenced and we are happy in the recognition of a good that we do not seek to possess. George Santayana contemplationrecognitionpassion Profound skepticism is favorable to conventions, because it doubts that the criticism of conventions is any truer than they are. George Santayana criticismdoubtprofound
