George Santayana Quotes
It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.
Santayana, George. The Life of Reason: Or the Phases of Human Progress. Vol. 3: Reason in Religion. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905.
In August of 1572 Catholics in Paris led by the Marshall and his soldiers attacked the homes of all known Huguenots, murdering the inhabitants. Tavannes rode through the streets of Paris on his horse shouting the first quotation to his troops who would murder the helpless Protestants. The frenzy spread to the countryside. When it was over 50,000 innocent, unsuspecting Protestants had been murdered. When asked how he, a military marshal felt about such a one sided action against unarmed civilians he responded with the second quotation. The event came to be known as the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew as it commenced on that Saint’s day.
Fifty years later, the Taliban of Afghanistan make the fundamentalist prohibition against music the law. See {620308}. Where he got his ‘facts’ about music is unknown, but it does not even comport with Islamic history. The Muslim Ottoman Turks invented the military band and the playing of music to increase men’s courage. It was so effective that virtually every other military on earth adopted the use of a military band playing music. Yet this Ayatiollah claimed music stifled courage and valor.
Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana, was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Originally from Spain, Santayana was raised and educated in the US from the age of eight and identified himself as an American, although he always retained a valid Spanish passport. At the age of 48, Santayana left his position at Harvard and returned to Europe permanently.
