It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
I like to walk about among the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a preference for appreciating beauty in the world over material wealth, as possessions may restrict personal freedom.
George Santayana highlights the value of experiencing and enjoying the beauty of the world without being burdened by personal possessions. He suggests that private wealth can inhibit one's freedom, as it may lead to attachments and responsibilities that detract from the fundamental enjoyment of life and nature.
Themes
BeautyLibertyWealthPossessionsFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about minimalism and the importance of valuing experiences over material goods.
More from George Santayana
All quotes →The 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
Similar quotes
As much as I value an union of all the states, I would not admit the southern states into the union, unless they agreed to the discontinuance of this disgraceful trade, because it would bring weakness and not strength to the union.
George MasonRead
What does it mean to be born? After we die, will it be the same thing as it was before we were born? Or a different kind of nothingness? Because there might be knowledge then. Memory.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
Do you understand, sir, do you understand what it means when you have absolutely nowhere to turn?" Marmeladov's question came suddenly into his mind "for every man must have somewhere to turn.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
When you have increasing power of religious groups, oppression of women increases. Women are oppressed in all religions.
Nawal El SaadawiRead
There are plenty who regard a wall behind which something is happening as a very curious thing.
Victor HugoRead
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
Arthur C. ClarkeRead