That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject.
George SantayanaLanguage is like money, without which specific relative values may well exist and be felt, but cannot be reduced to a common denominator.
George SantayanaMiracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood.
George SantayanaWe need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment at no matter what.
George SantayanaMany possessions, if they do not make a man better, are at least expected to make his children happier; and this pathetic hope is behind many exertions.
George SantayanaWith you a part of me hath passed away; For in the peopled forest of my mind A tree made leafless by this wintry wind Shall never don again its green array. Chapel and fireside, country road and bay, Have something of their friendliness resigned; Another, if I would, I could not find, And I am grown much older in a day. But yet I treasure in my memory Your gift of charity, and young hearts ease, And the dear honour of your amity; For these once mine, my life is rich with these. And I scarce know which part may greater be,-- What I keep of you, or you rob from me.
George Santayana