“The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.”

— George Santayana, Dialogues in Limbo (1926), Ch. 3, p. 57

About George Santayana

1863 – 1952

Spanish-American philosopher and poet, author of "The Life of Reason".

“It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness.”

“Theory helps us to bear our ignorance of fact.”

“That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions and, were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.”

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

“Reminiscences make one feel so deliciously aged and sad.”

“Old age deprives the intelligent man only of qualities useless to wisdom.”

“Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time to form.”

“All the best sands of my life are somehow getting into the wrong end of the hourglass.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”