It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The enjoyment from challenging arrogance or prideful attitudes can be deeply satisfying.
This quote by George Santayana suggests that there is a certain joy or satisfaction in dismantling ideas or positions that are presented with arrogance. It reflects a human tendency to take pleasure in confronting and undermining those who display cocky or haughty attitudes, as it feels just and empowering to bring down such inflated egos.
Themes
ArroganceDelightChallengeSatisfactionPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a discussion about humility vs. arrogance.
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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