We are not compelled in naturalism, or even in materialism, to ignore immaterial things; the point is that any immaterial things which are recognized shall be regarded as names, aspects, functions, or concomitant products of those physical things among which action goes on.

George Santayana

Categorized in : Action Goes On Names

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana

infancy-is history past

The Difficult is that which can be done immediately; the Impossible that which takes a little longer.

George Santayana

perseverance courage motivational

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual.

George Santayana

savages infancy-is progress

The wisest mind has something yet to learn.

George Santayana

diversity wisdom graduation

We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was once all that was humanly possible.

George Santayana

welcome future past

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted; it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience.

George Santayana

persistence change children

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

George Santayana

spectacles predicaments life

A country without a memory is a country of madmen.

George Santayana

motivational inspirational country

Sanity is madness put to good use.

George Santayana

madness use history

Christianity persecuted, tortured, and burned. Like a hound it tracked the very scent of heresy. It kindled wars, and nursed furious hatreds and ambitions. It sanctified, quite like Mohammedism, extermination and tyranny. All this would have been impossible if, like Buddhism, it had looked only for peace and the liberation of souls. It looked beyond; it dreamt of infinite blisses and crowns it should be crowned with before an electrified universe and an applauding God... Buddhism had tried to quiet a sick world with anesthetics; Christianity sought to purge it with fire.

George Santayana

buddhism ambition war

Advertising is the modern substitute for argument, its function is to make the worse appear the better article. A confused competition of all propagandas -- those insults to human nature -- is carried on by the most expert psychological methods -- for instance, by always repeating a lie.

George Santayana

confused competition lying

To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.

George Santayana

passion taken world

Wisdom lies in taking everything with good humor and a grain of salt.

George Santayana

good-humor grain-of-salt lying

There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar: it keeps the mind nimble, it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor.

George Santayana

growth humor mind

To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.

George Santayana

philosophical inspirational life

It is war that wastes a nations wealth, chokes its industries, kills its flower, narrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adventurers, and leaves the puny, deformed, and unmanly to breed the next generation.

George Santayana

generations flower war

The mass of mankind is divided into two classes, the Sancho Panza's who have a sense for reality, but no ideals, and the Don Quixote's with a sense for ideals, but mad.

George Santayana

class two reality

If you prefer illusions to realities, it is only because all decent realities have eluded you and left you in the lurch; or else your contempt for the world is mere hypocrisy and funk.

George Santayana

hypocrisy reality world

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

George Santayana

birthday inspirational life

Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.

George Santayana

fate nature summer