It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life holds intrinsic value that must be assumed for a meaningful experience.
George Santayana emphasizes that accepting the worth of life is fundamental to living meaningfully. If we do not operate under the assumption that life has value, it becomes challenging to find purpose or happiness in our experiences, ultimately leading to existential despair.
Themes
LifeValuePurposeMeaningExistence
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a motivational speech to inspire others to appreciate life's value.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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