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
George Santayana quotes about
Fear first created the gods.
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.
Spirit itself is not human; it may spring up in any life... it may exist in all animals, and who know in how many undreamt-of beings, or in the midst of what worlds?
There is no right government except good government.
Boston is a moral and intellectual nursery always busy applying first principals to trifles.
The fact of having been born is a bad augury for immortality.
A way foolishness has of revenging itself is to excommunicate the world.
Facts are all accidents. They all might have been different. They all may become different. They may all collapse altogether.
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.