To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
¶ (Attributed)
Quotations by ...
George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher
To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.
¶ (Attributed)
That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.
¶ (Attributed)
For an idea ever to be fashionable is ominous, since it must afterwards be always old-fashioned.
¶ (Attributed)
To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.
¶ (Attributed)
Matters of religion should never be matters of controversy. We neither argue with a lover about his taste, not condemn him, if we are just, for knowing so human a passion.
¶ (Attributed)
To condemn spontaneous and delightful occupations because they are useless for self-preservation shows an uncritical prizing of life regardless of its contents.
¶ (Attributed)
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.
¶ (Attributed)
My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the Universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image to be servants of their own human interests.
¶ Soliloquies in England, "On My Friendly Critics," (1922)
Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.
¶ The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress, vol. 1, Introduction (1905-06)
Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness…. When experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
¶ The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress, vol. 1, ch.12 (1905-06)
There is a kind of courtesy in skepticism. It would be an offense against polite conventions to press our doubts too far.
¶ The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress, vol. 1, ch. 4 (1905-06)
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WIST is my collection of quotations I find meaningful, moving, amusing (intended or not), well-phrased, and/or to which I just say I "Wish I'd Said That." But just because I quote it here doesn't mean I actually agree with it. If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to
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