George Santayana Quotes


Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted; it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience.


Citations

Santayana, George. The Life of Reason: Or the Phases of Human Progress, Vol. 1, Reason in Common Sense. C. Scribner's Sons, 1905, p. 284.

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George Santayana
George Santayana
  • Born: December 16, 1863
  • Died: September 26, 1952
  • Nationality: Spanish
  • Profession: Philosopher

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.