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Men almost universally have acknowledged providence, but that fact has had no force to destroy natural aversions and fears in the presence of events.

George Santayana

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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
Fact
Providence
Natural
Fears
Force
Presence
Facts
Destroy
Men
Intelligence
Aversions
Events
Universally
Wisdom
Acknowledged
Almost
Aversion

More quotes by George Santayana

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Fear first created the gods.
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Habit is stronger than reason.
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The idea of Christ is much older than Christianity.
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Not to believe in love is a great sign of dullness. There are some people so indirect and lumbering that they think all real affection rests on circumstantial evidence.
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A simple life is its own reward.
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The truth properly means the sum of all true propositions, what omniscience would assert, the whole ideal system of qualities andrelations which the world has exemplified or will exemplify. The truth is all things seen under the form of eternity.
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The degree in which a poet's imagination dominates reality is, in the end, the exact measure of his importance and dignity.
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A conception not reducible to the small change of daily experience is like a currency not exchangeable for articles of consumption it is not a symbol, but a fraud.
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My remembrance of the past is a novel I am constantly recomposing and it would not be a historical novel, but sheer fiction, if the material events which mark and ballast my career had not their public dates and characters scientifically discoverable.
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The God to whom depth in philosophy bring back men's minds is far from being the same from whom a little philosophy estranges them
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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.
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It is right to prefer our own country to all others, because we are children and citizens before we can be travellers or philosophers.
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Tolerated people are never conciliated. They live on, but the aroma of their life is lost.
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When a man's life is over, it remains true that he was one sort of man and not another. A man who understands himself under the form of eternity knows the quality that eternally belongs to him, and knows that he cannot wholly die, even if he would, for when the movement of his life is over, the truth of his life remains.
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Men have feverishly conceived a heaven only to find it insipid, and a hell to find it ridiculous.
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Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.
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The profoundest affinities are those most readily felt, and though a thousand later considerations may overlay and override them, they remain a background and standard for all happiness. If we trace them out we succeed.
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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.
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Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
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Photography at first was asked to do nothing but embalm our best smiles for the benefit of our friends and our best clothes for the amusement of posterity. Neither thing lasts, and photography came as a welcome salve to keep those precious, if slightly ridiculous, things a little longer in the world.
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