It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Character and happiness are intrinsically linked; true happiness arises from one’s character.
This quote by George Santayana emphasizes the deep connection between character and happiness in a person’s life. It suggests that the foundation of a fulfilling and happy life is built upon one’s character, implying that virtuous qualities and integrity lead to genuine happiness, while happiness itself validates and reinforces one’s character traits.
Themes
CharacterHappinessVirtueIntegrity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about personal development, one might share this quote to emphasize the importance of building one’s character.
More from George Santayana
All quotes →The working of great institutions is mainly the result of a vast mass of routine, petty malice, self interest, carelessness and sheer mistake. Only a residual fraction is thought.
George SantayanaRead
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colours of life in all their purity.
George SantayanaRead
Not to believe in love is a great sign of dullness. There are some people so indirect and lumbering that they think all real affection rests on circumstantial evidence.
George SantayanaRead
To feel beauty is a better thing than to understand how we come to feel it. To have imagination and taste, to love the best, to be carried by the contemplation of nature to a vivid faith in the ideal, all this is more, a great deal more, than any science can hope to be.
George SantayanaRead
The vital straining towards an ideal, definite but latent, when it dominates a whole life, may express that ideal more fully than could the best chosen words.
George SantayanaRead
Similar quotes
More company increases happiness, but does not lighten or diminish misery.
Thomas TraherneRead
If you really want to receive joy and happiness, then serve others with all your heart. Lift their burden, and your own burden will be lighter.
Ezra Taft BensonRead
That's always the biggest surprise when people meet me: how buoyant I am and how fun and light I am.
Viola DavisRead
The happiest people I know are people who don't even think about being happy. They just think about being good neighbors, good people. And then happiness sort of sneaks in the back window while they are busy doing good.
Harold S. KushnerRead
What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has or how he is regarded by others.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
These firecrackers outside and these lights outside cannot make you rejoice. They are only for children; for you, they are just a nuisance. But in your inner world there can be a continuity of lights, songs, joys. Always remember that society compensates you when it feels that the repressed may explode into a dangerous situation if it is not compensated. Society finds some way of allowing you to let out the repressed. But this is not true celebration, and it cannot be true.
RajneeshRead