George Santayana
George Santayana
Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana, was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Originally from Spain, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States from the age of eight and identified himself as an American, although he always kept a valid Spanish passport. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters. At the age of forty-eight, Santayana left his position at Harvard and returned to Europe...
NationalitySpanish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth16 December 1863
CityMadrid, Spain
CountrySpain
The loftiest edifices need the deepest foundations.
An ideal cannot wait for its realization to prove its validity.
There is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal.
Eternal vigilance is the price of knowledge.
In each person I catch the fleeting suggestion of something beautiful and swear eternal friendship with that.
Nothing is so irrevocable as mind.
There is no right government except good government.
The vital straining towards an ideal, definite but latent, when it dominates a whole life, may express that ideal more fully than could the best chosen words.
When all beliefs are challenged together, the just and necessary ones have a chance to step forward and re-establish themselves alone.
Saints cannot arise where there have been no warriors, nor philosophers where a prying beast does not remain hidden in the depths.
Nothing can be lower or more wholly instrumental than the substance and cause of all things.
Docility is the observable half of reason.
Philosophers are as jealous as woman; each wants a monopoly of praise.
Nature in denying us perennial youth has at least invited us to become unselfish and noble.