The humanitarian, like the missionary, is often an irreducible enemy of the people he seeks to befriend, because he has not imagination enough to sym… - George Santayana

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The humanitarian, like the missionary, is often an irreducible enemy of the people he seeks to befriend, because he has not imagination enough to sympathize with their proper needs nor humility enough to respect them as if they were his own. Arrogance, fanaticism, meddlesomeness, and imperialism may then masquerade as philanthropy.

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About George Santayana

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (16 December 1863 in Madrid, Spain – 26 September 1952 in Rome, Italy) was a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Jorge Santayana Jorge Augustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana Jorge Augustin Nicolas Ruiz de Santayana Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás
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Music is essentially useless, as life is.

The need of exercise is a modern superstition, invented by people who ate too much and had nothing to think about. Athletics don’t make anybody long-lived or useful.

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Un om este liber din punct de vedere moral când [...] judecă lumea şi îi judecă pe ceilalţi oameni cu o sinceritate care nu face compromisuri.

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