George Santayana 1863-1952

“To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by geography.”

“Wisdom comes by disillusionment.”

“Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.”

“The irrational in the human has something about it altogether repulsive and terrible, as we see in the maniac, the miser, the drunkard or the ape.”

“In proportion as a man's interests become humane and his efforts rational, he appropriates and expands a common life, which reappears in all individuals who reach the same impersonal level of ideas.”

“That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject.”

“Intolerance is a form of egotism.”

“To covet truth is a very distinguished passion.”

“The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it.”

“Language is like money, without which specific relative values may well exist and be felt, but cannot be reduced to a common denominator.”

“Habit is stronger than reason.”

“Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.”

“Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.”

“Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character.”

“My atheism...is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.”

“Tyrants are seldom free; the cares and the instruments of their tyranny enslave them.”

“Music is essentially useless, as is life.”

“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.”

“To be brief is almost a condition of being inspired.”