George Santayana Quotes

Superstition sets the whole world in flames, but philosophy douses them.

To assert that it is possible to establish peace between men of different nations is simply to assert that man, whatever his ethnical background, his race, religious beliefs, or philosophy, is capable of reason.

The picture which the philosopher draws of the world is surely not one in which every stroke is necessitated by pure logic.

Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason. Events which excite those feelings will produce wonderful effects.

When a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.

Reason is the shepherd trying to corral life's vast flock of wild irrationalities.

The universal and lasting establishment of peace constitutes not merely a part, but the whole final purpose and end of the science of right as viewed within the limits of reason.

We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is to learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.

Philosophy, while it soothes the reason, damps the ambition.

You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp itsseat, and rule in its stead.

Reason is one thing and faith is another and reason can as little be made a substitute for faith, as faith can be made a substitute for reason.

Once man's connection to the divine is denied, you can reason yourself from here to anywhere.

When the heart craved something so forcefully, then reason became nothing but helpless observer.

The vast majority of human beings are not interested in reason or satisfied with what it teaches.

The voice of reason is inaudible to irrational people.

Underneath all reason lies delirium and drift.

When did reason ever direct our desires or our fears?

When reason ends, then anger begins. Therefore, anger is a sign of weakness.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends.

My philosophy is fundamentally sad, but I’m not a sad man, and I don’t believe I sadden anyone else. In other words, the fact that I don’t put my philosophy into practice saves me from its evil spell, or, rather, my faith in the human race is stronger then my intellectual analysis of it; there lies the fountain of youth in which my heart is continually bathing.

Born and nurtured when the human being first asked questions about the reason for things and their purpose, philosophy shows in different modes and forms that the desire for truth is part of human nature itself.

One of the main reasons for the existence of philosophy is not that it enables you to find truth (it can never do that) but that it does provide you a refuge for definitions.

Science can never grapple with the irrational. That is why it has no future before it, in this world.

Virtue is nothing else than right reason