It would repel me less to be a hangman than a soldier, because the one is obliged to put to death only criminals sentenced by the law, but the other kills honest men who like himself bathe in innocent blood at the bidding of some superior.
George Santayana Quotes
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.
To be brief is almost a condition of being inspired.
The degree in which a poet’s imagination dominates reality is, in the end, the exact measure of his importance and dignity.
It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true.
The God to whom depth in philosophy bring back men’s minds is far from being the same from whom a little philosophy estranges them.
Love makes us poets, and the approach of death should makes us philosophers.
To some people my whole philosophy seems to be but rhetoric or prose poetry.
Philosophers are as jealous as women; each wants a monopoly of praise.
And there is no regret, either, in the sense of wishing the past to return, or missing it: it is quite real enough as it is, there at its own date and place.
