George Santayana Quotes

Almost every wise saying has an opposite one no less wise to balance it.

The truth is cruel but it can be loved and it makes free those who have loved it.

Before he sets out the traveller must possess fixed interests and facilities to be served by travel. If he drifted aimlessly from country to country he would not travel but only wander ramble as a tramp. The traveller must be somebody and come from somewhere so his definite character and moral traditions may supply an organ and a point of comparison for his observations.

A man's memory may almost become the art of continually varying and misrepresenting his past according to his interest in the present.

If a man really knew himself he would utterly despise the ignorant notions others might form on a subject in which he had such matchless opportunities for observation.

Science is nothing but developed perception interpreted intent common sense rounded out and minutely articulated.

If all the arts aspire to the condition of music all the sciences aspire to the condition of mathematics.

My atheism like that of Spinoza is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image to be servants of their human interests.