6 George Santayana Quotes on Wisdom

George Santayana quotes on wisdom

1. O world, thou choosest not the better part! It is not wisdom to be only wise, And on the inward vision close the eyes, But it is wisdom to believe the heart. Columbus found a world, and had no chart, Save one that faith deciphered in the skies; To trust the soul's invincible surmise Was all his science and his only art.

15. Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

22. 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.

37. The living have never shown me how to live.

45. Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.

61. Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.