By "essence" I understand a universal, of any degree of complexity and definition, which may be given immediately, whether to sense or to thought.... This object of pure sense or pure thought, with no belief superadded, an object inwardly complete and individual, but without external relations or physical status, is what I call an essence.
George SantayanaPhilosophy may describe unreasoning, as it may describe force; it cannot hope to refute them.
George SantayanaWhat religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.
George Santayana