George Santayana

Life of George Santayana

George Santayana (1863-1952) was a Spanish-born American philosopher, poet, and essayist. He is best known for his philosophical works, which include The Life of Reason (1905-1906), The Sense of Beauty (1896), and The Realms of Being (1927-1940). Santayana was born in Madrid, Spain, on December 16, His father, José, was a Spanish lawyer and his mother, Margarita, was a Spanish-born American. Santayana was raised in a Catholic household and was educated at the University of Madrid, where he studied philosophy and literature.
Santayana's early works focused on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno. He was also influenced by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer. In 1891, Santayana moved to the United States and began teaching at Harvard University. He taught philosophy and literature for the next thirty-five years.
Santayana's most famous work, The Life of Reason, was published in five volumes between 1905 and In this work, Santayana argued that reason is the only reliable guide to truth and that it should be used to guide our lives. He also argued that religion and superstition should be rejected in favor of a rational approach to life.
Santayana's other works include The Sense of Beauty (1896), which explored the nature of beauty and aesthetics, and The Realms of Being (1927-1940), which discussed the nature of reality and the relationship between the physical and the spiritual. Santayana also wrote several books of poetry, including The Last Puritan (1935) and The Poet's Quest (1941).
In addition to his philosophical works, Santayana wrote several books of essays, including Character and Opinion in the United States (1920) and Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies (1922). He also wrote a novel, The Last Puritan (1935).
Santayana was a prolific writer and his works were widely read and discussed. He was a popular lecturer and was invited to speak at universities around the world. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Philosophical Society.
Santayana retired from Harvard in 1926 and moved to Rome, Italy, where he lived until his death in He is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.
Santayana's works have had a lasting influence on philosophy and literature. His works have been translated into many languages and his ideas have been discussed and debated by philosophers and literary critics. He is remembered as one of the most important figures in twentieth-century philosophy.

Teachings of George Santayana

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
The world is a perpetual caricature of itself.
Sanity is a madness put to good uses.
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
The life of the spirit is a constant self-transcendence.
The measure of a life is its service.
The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only fault that is laughable is vanity.
The best life is a synthesis of the spiritual and the material.
The only joy in the world is to begin.
The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.
The essence of beauty is unity in variety.
The essence of religion is the feeling of an infinite debt to our fellow men.
The essence of philosophy is the search for truth.
The essence of wisdom is the ability to distinguish the essential from the non-essential.
The essence of morality is the ability to choose between good and evil.
The essence of life is the ability to enjoy it.