574 Quotes by George Santayana

Depression is rage spread thin.

That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.

The more pleasure a universe can yield, other things being equal, the more beneficent and generous is its general nature; the more pains its constitution involves, the darker and more malign its total temper. To deny this would seem impossible, yet it is done daily; for there is nothing people will not maintain when they are slaves to superstition; and candor and a sense of justice are, in such a case, the first things lost.

The man who is not permitted to own is owned.

Sanity is a madness put to good uses.

The best men in all ages keep classic traditions alive.

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

Life is an art not to be learned by observation.

Scepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.