Theory helps us to bear our ignorance of fact." - Meaning and context.">
Pt. III, Form; § 30: "The average modified in the direction of pleasure.", p. 125

On fact, the whole machinery of our intelligence, our general ideas and laws, fixed and external objects, principles, persons, and gods, are so many symbolic, algebraic expressions. They stand for experience; experience which we are incapable of retaining and surveying in its multitudinous immediacy. We should flounder hopelessly, like the animals, did we not keep ourselves afloat and direct our course by these intellectual devices. Theory helps us to bear our ignorance of fact.

— George Santayana

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "On fact, the whole machinery of our intelligence, our general ideas and laws, fixed and external objects, principles, persons, and gods, are so many symbolic, algebraic expressions. They stand for experience; experience which we are incapable of retaining and surveying in its multitudinous immediacy. We should flounder hopelessly, like the animals, did we not keep ourselves afloat and direct our course by these intellectual devices. Theory helps us to bear our ignorance of fact." in the context of "Pt. III, Form; § 30: "The average modified in the direction of pleasure.", p. 125" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "George Santayana" (Quotes, The Sense of Beauty (1896): Project Gutenberg; Archive.org; Hathi Trust) 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.