It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
The Bible is literature, not dogma.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the Bible should be viewed as a piece of literature rather than a strict set of doctrines.
George Santayana's quote emphasizes the importance of understanding the Bible as a literary work that contains cultural and historical significance, rather than merely adhering to its teachings as dogma. This perspective invites readers to explore the narratives, poetry, and philosophical insights found within its texts, promoting a richer and more nuanced engagement with the material.
Themes
BibleLiteratureDogmaPhilosophyInterpretation
In practice
Example use cases
In a literary class discussing the narrative techniques in religious texts.
More from George Santayana
All quotes βThe 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
Justice is nothing more than the advantage of the stronger.
PlatoRead
Conservatives and liberals understand the Christian faith as a set of ideas because, so understood, Christianity seems to be a set of beliefs assessable to anyone upon reflection.
Stanley HauerwasRead
Surely the wake left behind by mankind's forward march reveals its movement just as clearly as the spray thrown up elsewhere by the prow.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
When you are self-conscious you are in trouble. When you are self-conscious you are really showing symptoms that you don't know who you are. Your very self-consciousness indicates that you have not come home yet.
RajneeshRead
To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.
Isaac AsimovRead
When we oppose the hidden conscience, it does us hurt. When we betray it, it judges us.
Khalil GibranRead