Quotes Library

February 12, 2025

Why shouldn’t things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go well together.

George Santayana, 1863-1952, Spanish-born American philosopher, The Portable Curmudgeon, Jon Winokur, ed. (New York: 1987), p.171

What is the point? For you personally, not for the rest of the universe?

If Santayana believed all that, it surprises me that he managed so long a life—replete with the absurd, the futile, and the transitory. And that he is remembered.


More Quotes

April 4, 2025
To criticize one’s country is to do it a service…Criticism, in short, is more than a right
July 11, 2025
01:14
The character of every act depends on the circumstances in which it is done…
December 31, 2025
01:09
Civilization is nothing else but the attempt to reduce force to being the last resort.
Page 121 of 123