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
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.
In practice
In a speech about personal development, one might share this quote to emphasize the importance of building one’s character.
It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A joyful heart is like the sunshine of God's love, the hope of eternal happiness.
If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.
If you want to feel happy, do something for yourself. If you want to feel fulfilled, do something for someone else.
When you analyze happiness, it turns out that the way you spend your time is extremely important.
Happiness. It was the place where passion, with all its dazzle and drumbeat, met something softer: homecoming and safety and pure sunbeam comfort. It was all those things, intertwined with the heat and the thrill, and it was as bright within her as a swallowed star.
Sometimes when you're young, you have moments of such happiness, you think you're living on someplace magical, like Atlantis must have been. Then we grow up and our hearts break into two.
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