It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
Nothing can so pierce the soul as the uttermost sigh of the body.
Interpretation
The bodyβs physical expressions, like a sigh, can deeply touch the soul.
This quote by George Santayana suggests that the profound feelings and emotions we experience are often expressed through our physical states, such as sighs. It implies that the body and soul are interconnected, and sometimes it is the subtle expressions of our physical being that communicate the deepest sentiments.
In practice
During a discussion on the connection between physical and emotional health, this quote could illustrate the importance of acknowledging body language.
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.
It's a cruel season that makes you get ready for bed while it's light out.
My revenge is fraternity! No more frontiers! The Rhine for everyone! Let us be the same Republic, let us be the United States of Europe, let us be the continental federation, let us be European liberty, let us be universal peace!
The United Nations was not set up to be a reformatory. It was assumed that you would be good before you got in and not that being in would make you good
Surely no mere mortal who has at all gone down into himself will ever pretend that his slightest thought or act solely originates in his own defined identity.
The probability of apocalypse soon cannot be realistically estimated, but it is surely too high for any sane person to contemplate with equanimity.
To speak the truth is the most difficult of all arts, for in its "pure" form, not connected with the interests of individuals, groups, classes, or nations, truth is almost completely unsuitable for use by the Philistine and is unacceptable to him.
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