Even the most inspired verse, which boasts not without a relative justification to be immortal, becomes in the course of ages a scarcely legible hieroglyphic; the language it was written in dies, a learned education and an imaginative effort are requisite to catch even a vestige of its original force. Nothing is so irrevocable as mind.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Language and context fade over time making ancient texts hard to understand without significant effort.
- In plain terms
- Old texts become hard to read as language dies.
- What can you take from it?
- Language dies but meaning persists.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What survives of old art?
- Does time destroy meaning?
Another view
Some works remain accessible without much effort.
More from George Santayana
Beauty is a pledge of the possible conformity between the soul and nature, and consequently a ground of faith in the supremacy of the good.
Permalink to quote #10 Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.
Permalink to quote #12 Beauty as we feel it is something indescribable: what it is or what it means can never be said.
Permalink to quote #9
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