It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
The quality of wit inspires more admiration than confidence
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wit is often appreciated more than the confidence it might inspire in others.
This quote suggests that cleverness and wit, while highly admired, do not necessarily foster trust or confidence in a person. Instead, it emphasizes the distinction between being entertaining and being reliable, indicating that while humorous or witty remarks can captivate an audience, they do not guarantee that others will have faith in one's capabilities or intentions.
Themes
WitAdmirationConfidenceIntelligenceHumor
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech at a comedy club, I might quote this to highlight the value of humor.
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
Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life.
Walter Inglis AndersonRead
Never build a dungeon you wouldn't be happy to spend the night in yourself. The world would be a happier place if more people remembered that.
Terry PratchettRead
"Softly, softly, catchee monkey," is the West African rendering of a very valuable precept. An awful lot of men fail through lack of patient persistence.
Robert Baden-PowellRead
Spiritual growth increases our sense of what's possible. And as we sense new possibility, we can step into that possibility. With every word, every thought, every action, we choose what we wish to call forth in life.
Marianne WilliamsonRead
Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedies
Francois FenelonRead
It is only men who are free, who create the inventions and intellectual works which to us moderns make life worth while.
Albert EinsteinRead