December 16, 2003
George Santayana
16 December 1863 ~ 26 September 1952
In these latter times, with the prodigious growth of material life in elaboration and of mental life in diffusions there has supervened upon this old dualism a new faith in man’s absolute power, a kind of return to the inexperience and self-assurance of youth. This new inspiration has made many minds indifferent to the two traditional disciplines; neither is seriously accepted by them, for the reason, excellent from their own point of view, that no discipline whatever is needed. The memory of ancient disillusions has faded with time. Ignorance of the past has bred contempt for the lessons which the past might teach. Men prefer to repeat the old experiment without knowing that they repeat it.(more)
The Poetry of Barbarism, Interpretations of Poetry and Religion, 1900
George
Santayana, The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2001, Bartleby
The Santayana
Edition
Overheard
in Seville: Bulletin of the Santayana Society
Image: The Books of Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archive: The George Santayana Collection