Quote

The universe, as far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine.... If we dramatize its life and conceive its spirit, we are filled with wonder, terror and amusement, so magnificent is the spirit.

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
Universe
Engines
Spirit
Observe
Life
Magnificent
World
Immense
Terror
Dramatize
Filled
Conceive
Wonder
Engine
Wonderful
Amusement

More quotes by George Santayana

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The Bible is a wonderful source of inspiration for those who don't understand it.
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It is always pleasant to be urged to do something on the ground that one can do it well.
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The muffled syllables that Nature speaks Fill us with deeper longing for her word She hides a meaning that the spirit seeks, She makes a sweeter music than is heard.
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Society itself is an accident to the spirit, and if society in any of its forms is to be justified morally it must be justified at the bar of the individual conscience.
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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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People never believe in volcanoes until the lava actually overtakes them.
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Boston was a moral and intellectual nursery, always busy applying first principles to trifles.
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It is rash to intrude upon the piety of others: both the depth and the grace of it elude the stranger.
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Nietzsche was personally more philosophical than his philosophy. His talk about power, harshness, and superb immorality was the hobby of a harmless young scholar and constitutional invalid.
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Proofs are the last thing looked for by a truly religious mind which feels the imaginary fitness of its faith.
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Popular poets are the parish priests of the Muse, retailing her ancient divinations to a long since converted public.
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The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas.
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The family is one of nature's masterpieces.
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Each religion, so dear to those whose life it sanctifies, and fulfilling so necessary a function in the society that has adopted it, necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself.
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Prayer is not a substitute for work it is an effort to work further and be efficient beyond the range of one's powers.
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It is in rare and scattered instants that beauty smiles even on her adorers, who are reduced for habitual comfort to remembering her past favours.
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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.
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He thinks he believes only what he sees, but he is much better at believing than at seeing.
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The mediocrity of everything in the great world of today is simply appalling. We live in intellectual slums.
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... even if Lucretius was wrong, and the soul is immortal, it is nevertheless steadily changing its interests and its possessions.Our lives are mortal if our soul is not and the sentiment which reconciled Lucretius to death is as much needed if we are to face many deaths, as if we are to face only one.
George Santayana