It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
Periods of tranquillity are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creativity often arises during turbulent times rather than in peaceful periods.
George Santayana suggests that true creative achievements are rarely born in times of calm and tranquillity. Rather, it is the challenges and upheavals in life that stimulate the human spirit to innovate and create, prompting individuals to push boundaries and think outside the box. This insight emphasizes the necessity of conflict and struggle as catalysts for growth and creativity.
Themes
CreativityTranquillityAchievementMankindStirred
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to emphasize the importance of embracing challenges for personal growth.
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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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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