Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
There is nothing sacred about convention there is nothing sacred about primitive passions or whims but the fact that a convention exists indicates that a way of living has been devised capable of maintaining itself.
George Santayana
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
George Santayana
Age: 88 †
Born: 1863
Born: October 2
Died: 1952
Died: September 16
Essayist
Novelist
Philosopher
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
Madrid
Spain
Jorge Santayana
Jorge Augustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana
Jorge Augustin Nicolas Ruiz de Santayana
George Santayana
Facts
Passions
Devised
Nothing
Exists
Indicates
Way
Sacred
Whim
Tradition
Convention
Capable
Maintaining
Passion
Conventions
Fact
Customs
Living
Primitive
Whims
More quotes by George Santayana
Experience is a mere whiff or rumble, produced by enormously complex and ill-deciphered causes of experience and in the other direction, experience is a mere peephole through which glimpses come down to us of eternal things.
George Santayana
The traveller must be somebody and come from somewhere, so that his definite character and moral traditions may supply an organ and a point of comparison for his observations.
George Santayana
A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.
George Santayana
Civilization is perhaps approaching one of those long winters that overtake it from time to time. Romantic Christendom - picturesque, passionate, unhappy episode - may be coming to an end. Such a catastrophe would be no reason for despair.
George Santayana
The soul, too has her virginity and must bleed a little before bearing fruit.
George Santayana
Wisdom comes by disillusionment.
George Santayana
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
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
The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.
George Santayana
The more rational an institution is the less it suffers by making concessions to others.
George Santayana
Uselessness is a fatal accusation to bring against any act which is done for its presumed utility, but those which are done for their own sake are their own justification.
George Santayana
The hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy.
George Santayana
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer.
George Santayana
Reason and happiness are like other flowers they wither when plucked.
George Santayana
The degree in which a poet's imagination dominates reality is, in the end, the exact measure of his importance and dignity.
George Santayana
Beautiful things, when taste is formed, are obviously and unaccountably beautiful.
George Santayana
Lovely promise and quick ruin are seen nowhere better than in Gothic architecture.
George Santayana
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
Do not have evil-doers for friends, do not have low people for friends: have virtuous people for friends, have for friends the best of men.
George Santayana
Life is judged with all the blindness of life itself.
George Santayana