QuoteProject
I believe in the possibility of happiness, if one cultivates intuition and outlives the grosser passions, including optimism.
George Santayana
ShareWTF𝕏

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

It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
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.
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

Similar quotes

Don't drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.
Jack KerouacRead
As long as we think our lives are not good enough (materially), we will not have happiness. As soon as we realize our lives are good enough, happiness immediately appears. That is the practice of contentment.
Nhat HanhRead
The best thing about the bedroom was the bed. I liked to stay in bed for hours, even during the day with covers pulled up to my chin. It was good in there, nothing ever occurred in there, no people, nothing.
Charles BukowskiRead
Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
The value of a smile... It costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None are so rich they can get along without it, and none so poor but are richer for its benefits. It creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in a business, and is the countersign of friends.
Dale CarnegieRead
It is with happiness as with watches: the less complicated, the less easily deranged.
Nicolas ChamfortRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.