It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
Proofs are the last thing looked for by a truly religious mind which feels the imaginary fitness of its faith.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True faith does not rely on evidence; it is felt deeply within.
George Santayana's quote suggests that for those with genuine religious belief, the need for proofs and evidence is secondary to the intuitive sense of their faith. A truly religious person finds satisfaction in the emotional and personal connection to their beliefs rather than seeking out empirical validation or rational justification.
Themes
FaithBeliefReligionPhilosophyTrust
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a philosophical discussion about faith and evidence.
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
Similar quotes
Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.
James A. BaldwinRead
In every good man a God doth dwell.
Seneca The YoungerRead
All is mine but nothing owned, nothing owned for memory, and mine only while I look.
Wislawa SzymborskaRead
While the political right may moralize sex, the political left is doing it with food. Food is becoming extremely moralized nowadays, and a lot of it is ideas about purity, about what you're willing to touch, or put into your body.
Jonathan HaidtRead
So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things.
Morrie SchwartzRead
I believed in a good home, in sane and sound living, in good food, good times, work, faith and hope. I have always believed in these things. It was with some amazement that I realized I was one of the few people in the world who really believed in these things without going around making a dull middle class philosophy out of it. I was suddenly left with nothing in my hands but a handful of crazy stars.
Jack KerouacRead