It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Progress is based on our ability to learn from the past, rather than merely changing for the sake of change.
This quote by George Santayana emphasizes that true progress is not just about making changes, but about retaining and learning from our past experiences. If we fail to remember and understand history, we risk repeating past mistakes, which can hinder our development and growth.
Themes
ProgressHistoryChangeLearningMemory
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of historical education in schools.
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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