George Santayana

Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

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

Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character.

To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.

The hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy.

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

To reform means to shatter one form and to create another; but the two sides of this act are not always equally intended nor equally successful.

Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself.

That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject.

Friends need not agree in everything or go always together, or have no comparable other friendships of the same intimacy.

Friendship is almost always the union of a part of one mind with the part of another; people are friends in spots.