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.
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.
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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.
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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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What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has or how he is regarded by others.
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