Quotation added by staff

Why not add this quote to your bookmarks?

  ...have flourished in the world about immortality have hardly affected men's natural sentiment in the face of death, a sentiment which those doctrines, if taken seriously, ought wholly to reverse. Men almost universally have acknowledged a Providence, but that fact has had no force to destroy natural aversions and fears in the presence of events; and yet, if Providence had ever been really trusted, those preferences would all have lapsed, being seen to be blind, rebellious, and blasphemous. Prayer, among sane people, has never superseded practical efforts to secure the desired end.   a proof that the sphere of expression was never really confused with that of reality. Indeed, such a confusion, if it had passed from theory to practice, would have changed mythology into madness. With rare exceptions this declension has not occurred and myths have been taken with a grain of salt which not only made them digestible, but heightened their savour.
It is always by its applicability to things known, not by its revelation of things unknown and irrelevant, that a myth at its...   Santayana, George

Excerpt from The Life of Reason · This quote is about prayer · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

• Biography
• 1 Fan
• This quote in blogs