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Gore Vidal, in Palimpsest, A Memoir (1995)
“

"In America literary reputations come and go so swiftly," I complained, fatuously. [Santayana's] answer was swift. "It would be insufferable if they did not."

— George Santayana

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets ""In America literary reputations come and go so swiftly," I complained, fatuously. [Santayana's] answer was swift. "It would be insufferable if they did not."" in the context of "Gore Vidal, in Palimpsest, A Memoir (1995)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "George Santayana" (Misattributed) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
George Santayana

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.