It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
It is a new road to happiness, if you have strength enough to castigate a little the various impulses that sway you in turn.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Controlling your impulses can lead to greater happiness.
In this quote, George Santayana suggests that finding a path to happiness requires the strength to manage and sometimes reprimand the various impulses that can distract or derail us. By advocating for self-control and reflection, he emphasizes the importance of making conscious choices in pursuit of lasting joy.
Themes
HappinessImpulsesStrengthSelf-ControlReflection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a motivational speech about emotional intelligence.
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.
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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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