Today is the birthday of George Santayana, according to the Writer's Almanac. Santayana was born in Spain but he spent almost his entire life in the United States, though without ever becoming a citizen. For many years he taught philosophy at Harvard, and his students included Conrad Aiken, Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens.
Santayana wrote a great deal about art and the importance of creative thinking. As he grew older, he became tired of teaching and what he called the 'thistles of trivial and narrow scholarship,' so he left Harvard and spent the rest of his life writing. His books include many philosophical works, as well as collections of poetry. He said --
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.
The Writer's Almanac continues --.
[Santayana] was the man who coined the famous warning, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." . . . Santayana wrote a great deal about art and the importance of creative thinking. . . . As he grew older, he became tired of teaching and what he called the "thistles of trivial and narrow scholarship," so he left Harvard and spent the rest of his life writing. His books include many philosophical works, as well as collections of poetry. He also spent about 20 years working on a novel, The Last Puritan (1935), about a young man's struggles in Boston high society just before World War I.
Comments