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There must ... be in our very nature a very radical and widespread tendency to observe beauty, and to value it. No account of the principles of the mind can be at all adequate that passes over so conspicuous a faculty.

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
Mind
Radical
Widespread
Accounts
Adequate
Value
Observe
Principles
Passes
Beauty
Tendency
Values
Faculty
Nature
Account
Must
Tendencies
Conspicuous

More quotes by George Santayana

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Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.
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What better comfort have we, or what other Profit in living Than to feed, sobered by the truth of Nature, Awhile upon her beauty, And hand her torch of gladness to the ages Following after?
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Nothing is really so poor and melancholy as art that is interested in itself and not in its subject.
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There is nothing to which men, while they have food and drink, cannot reconcile themselves.
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Eternal vigilance is the price of knowledge.
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Wisdom lies in taking everything with good humor and a grain of salt.
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What brings enlightenment is experience, in the sad sense of this word--the pressure of hard facts and unintelligible troubles, making a man rub his eyes in his waking dream, and put two and two together. Enlightenment is cold water.
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Trust the man who hesitates in his speech and is quick and steady in action, but beware of long arguments and long beards.
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Since barbarism has its pleasures it naturally has its apologists.
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Nothing can be meaner than the anxiety to live on, to live on anyhow and in any shape a spirit with any honor is not willing to live except in its own way, and a spirit with any wisdom is not over-eager to live at all.
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Never have I enjoyed youth so thoroughly as I have in my old age
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A sanctity hangs about the sources of our being, whether physical, social, or imaginary.
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It is veneer, rouge, aestheticism, art museums, new theaters, etc. that make America impotent. The good things are football, kindness, and jazz bands.
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Let a man once overcome his selfish terror at his own finitude, and his finitude itself is, in one sense, overcome.
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It is always pleasant to be urged to do something on the ground that one can do it well.
George Santayana
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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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The superiority of the distant over the present is only due to the mass and variety of the pleasures that can be suggested, compared with the poverty of those that can at any time be felt.
George Santayana
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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.
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To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.
George Santayana
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Saints cannot arise where there have been no warriors, nor philosophers where a prying beast does not remain hidden in the depths.
George Santayana