It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
I believe in the possibility of happiness, if one cultivates intuition and outlives the grosser passions, including optimism.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Happiness is attainable through the cultivation of intuition and by surpassing base emotions.
In this quote, George Santayana emphasizes that happiness is not merely a fleeting feeling but a state that can be achieved through personal growth and self-awareness. By cultivating intuition and moving beyond intense passions, individuals can find a more sustained and genuine form of happiness, one that is not dependent on superficial optimism or transient emotions.
Themes
HappinessIntuitionPassionsOptimismSelf-Awareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about self-improvement, one might quote Santayana to emphasize the importance of inner 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.
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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