„Il mondo è una perpetua caricatura di se stesso: in ogni momento è la presa in giro e la contraddizione di ciò che finge di essere.“
— George Santayana
Source: Citato in Focus n. 73, pag. 166.
Frasi di George Santayana
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George Santayana
Data di nascita: 16. Dicembre 1863
Data di morte: 26. Settembre 1952
George Santayana, nato Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás , è stato un filosofo, scrittore, poeta e saggista spagnolo, rappresentante del cosiddetto realismo critico.
Lavori
Frasi George Santayana
„Quelli che non sanno ricordare il passato sono condannati a ripeterlo.“
— George Santayana
da La vita della ragione
„La musica è essenzialmente inutile, come la vita.“
— George Santayana, libro The Life of Reason
The Life of Reason, da The Life of Reason, 1905
„Solo i morti hanno visto la fine della guerra.“
— George Santayana
da Soliliquies in England, 1924
Source: Questa citazione è stata erroneamente attribuita a Platone nell'incipit del film Black Hawk Down. Cfr. Luigi Mascheroni, Mai dette, ma le ripetiamo sempre. Ecco le frasi fantasma della storia http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/mai-dette-ripetiamo-sempre-ecco-frasi-fantasma-storia.html, Il Giornale, 21 marzo 2009, p. 22.
„Le dottrine religiose farebbero bene a ritirare le loro pretese di intervento in questioni materiali. Questa pretesa non solo si pone all'origine dei conflitti fra religione e scienza e delle vane e aspre controversie fra sette; ma è anche la causa dell'impunità e dell'incoerenza della religione nell'anima, quando cerca sanzioni nella sfera del reale e dimentica che la funzione che le è propria è quella di esprimere l'ideale.“
— George Santayana
da Interpretazioni di poesia e religione; citato in MicroMega. Per una riscossa laica, 2007, p. 98
„La teoria ci aiuta a sorreggere la nostra ignoranza sui fatti.“
— George Santayana
Source: Citato in Focus, n. 117, pag. 183.
„I miracoli sono incidenti propizi, le cui cause naturali sono troppo complesse perché si possano facilmente capire.“
— George Santayana
da Introduzione all'Etica di Spinoza; citato in Elena Spagnol, Citazioni, Garzanti, 2003
„Un artista è un sognatore che acconsente di sognare il mondo reale.“
— George Santayana
Source: Da The Life of Reason; citato in Dizionario delle citazioni.
„La Bibbia è letteratura, non dogma.“
— George Santayana
da Introduzione all'Etica di Spinoza
„Il fanatismo consiste nel raddoppiare gli sforzi quando si è dimenticato l'obiettivo.“
— George Santayana, libro The Life of Reason
The Life of Reason, da The Life of Reason, 1905; citato in David Allen, Detto, Fatto!, Sperling & Kupfer, 2006, pag. 66. ISBN 9788820041090
„Sanity is a madness put to good uses.“
— George Santayana, The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings
„In Walt Whitman democracy is carried into psychology and morals.“
— George Santayana
The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy (1911), Context: In Walt Whitman democracy is carried into psychology and morals. The various sights, moods, and emotions are given each one vote; they are declared to be all free and equal, and the innumerable commonplace moments of life are suffered to speak like the others. Those moments formerly reputed great are not excluded, but they are made to march in the ranks with their companions—plain foot-soldiers and servants of the hour.
p. 53
„Professional philosophers are usually only apologists: that is, they are absorbed in defending some vested illusion or some eloquent idea.“
— George Santayana
The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy (1911), Context: Professional philosophers are usually only apologists: that is, they are absorbed in defending some vested illusion or some eloquent idea. Like lawyers or detectives, they study the case for which they are retained.
pp. 48-49
„History is nothing but assisted and recorded memory.“
— George Santayana
The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress (1905-1906), Vol. V, Reason in Science, Context: History is nothing but assisted and recorded memory. It might almost be said to be no science at all, if memory and faith in memory were not what science necessarily rest on. In order to sift evidence we must rely on some witness, and we must trust experience before we proceed to expand it. The line between what is known scientifically and what has to be assumed in order to support knowledge is impossible to draw. Memory itself is an internal rumour; and when to this hearsay within the mind we add the falsified echoes that reach us from others, we have but a shifting and unseizable basis to build upon. The picture we frame of the past changes continually and grows every day less similar to the original experience which it purports to describe.
Ch. 2 "History"
„By their mind, its scope, quality, and temper, we estimate men, for by the mind only do we exist as men, and are more than so many storage-batteries for material energy. Let us therefore be frankly human.“
— George Santayana
The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy (1911), Context: Because the peculiarity of man is that his machinery for reaction on external things has involved an imaginative transcript of these things, which is preserved and suspended in his fancy; and the interest and beauty of this inward landscape, rather than any fortunes that may await his body in the outer world, constitute his proper happiness. By their mind, its scope, quality, and temper, we estimate men, for by the mind only do we exist as men, and are more than so many storage-batteries for material energy. Let us therefore be frankly human. Let us be content to live in the mind.
p. 64
„The line between what is known scientifically and what has to be assumed in order to support knowledge is impossible to draw. Memory itself is an internal rumour“
— George Santayana
The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress (1905-1906), Vol. V, Reason in Science, Context: History is nothing but assisted and recorded memory. It might almost be said to be no science at all, if memory and faith in memory were not what science necessarily rest on. In order to sift evidence we must rely on some witness, and we must trust experience before we proceed to expand it. The line between what is known scientifically and what has to be assumed in order to support knowledge is impossible to draw. Memory itself is an internal rumour; and when to this hearsay within the mind we add the falsified echoes that reach us from others, we have but a shifting and unseizable basis to build upon. The picture we frame of the past changes continually and grows every day less similar to the original experience which it purports to describe.
Ch. 2 "History"
