It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is complex and often challenging, rather than simply enjoyable or entertaining.
In this quote, George Santayana emphasizes that life should not be viewed merely as a series of entertainments or pleasurable events. Instead, he suggests that life is fraught with difficulties and dilemmas, highlighting the inherent struggles and complexities that come with human existence. This perspective encourages a deeper understanding of life beyond surface-level enjoyment.
Themes
LifePredicamentChallengesComplexityPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming adversity, this quote could illustrate the idea that challenges are part of life's journey.
More from George Santayana
All quotes βThe 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
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When even the dictators of today appeal to reason, they mean that they possess the most tanks. They were rational enough to build them; others should be rational enough to yield to them.
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I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling.
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